All Chapters of A Chance To Rise: Chapter 71
- Chapter 80
109 chapters
Chapter 71 The Night Ride
The engine of Khamis's new motorcycle was a low, angry growl that tore through the quiet of the campus night. Zaid clung to the back, the vibrations coursing through him, a physical sensation so intense it momentarily silenced the chaotic noise in his head. The wind whipped at his clothes and hair, forcing him to squint, and in that sensory overload, he made a conscious decision: he would not think. He would not think about the police, the 2,000 dinars, his father's face, or the lies he had told his mother. For these few minutes, he would just be a passenger on a fast machine in the dark.He remained silent for the entire first part of the ride, his body leaning with the bike's turns, his mind a blessed, empty blank. After about an hour, Khamis pulled over at a small juice kiosk by the sea. They took their glasses of sweet, cold mango juice and sat on plastic chairs facing the dark, rhythmic waves.Khamis took a long sip. "Look, if you don't want to talk, you don't have to. I just wan
Chapter 72 The Web of Lies
Zaid and Khamis returned to the school and each retreated to his own room to sleep after bidding each other a quiet goodnight. Yet Zaid found no rest. He lay in the dark, his mind churning until he heard the first call to the dawn prayer. He rose, performed his ablutions, and prayed, seeking forgiveness and guidance. As he finished, he remembered the police officer's instruction to come to the station for questioning. He realized it would be better to go voluntarily rather than have an officer show up at the school, creating a scene. The last thing he needed was for the administration to see him being questioned by police, tarnishing the school's reputation and his own, and risking everyone finding out his father was a con artist.As soon as his last class ended, he rushed to his room, dumped his books, changed his clothes, and ran back out to the street. A taxi he had ordered five minutes before the final bell was already waiting. He got in and directed the driver straight to the po
Chapter 73 The Decision
Zaid returned to his room and locked the door behind him, the click of the bolt a final, decisive sound. And then, suddenly, the full weight of the reality crashed down upon him. A dark, suffocating feeling seized control of his entire being.His father, to him, was now a monster. His marriage to his mother, Ahlam, had been a con from the start, and Zaid himself was nothing more than the unintended byproduct of that scheme. For his father, he and his mother were just tools he had used and then discarded with casual ease, leaving them behind without a second thought.His entire life, he had been waiting for his father. That ghostly figure he both longed to see and was terrified of confronting. And when the ghost finally appeared, it had only succeeded in destroying his life all over again.A new feeling, cold and sharp, began to eclipse the disgust and the despair: pure, unadulterated hatred. It was a venom that crystallized his resolve. He decided, right then and there, that he would
Chapter 74 The Ghost Hunt
The next day, Zaid and Khamis met in Khamis's room, the whiteboard now repurposed from content strategy to a desperate investigation. The heading at the top read: "Amjad Al-Khayyat." Below it, the space was devastatingly empty."Okay," Khamis began, marker in hand. "Let's start with the basics. Who was his best friend?"Zaid stared at the blank space, his mind scrambling. "I... I don't know," he admitted, the words feeling inadequate.Khamis frowned. "Okay. Does he have any brothers or sisters?""Probably not," Zaid said, grasping at a fragile memory. "My mom said a long time ago, when he proposed, he told her he was an orphan. On their wedding day, there was no one from his family there."Khamis wrote "ORPHAN? NO SIBLINGS?" on the board, the question mark looming large. "Alright. Where did he work? You said something about pharmacies.""He was a pharmacist. Or at least, he told my mom he was a pharmacist. He said he owned a pharmacy, but he sold it, lost the money, and then they got
Chapter 75 The Trail of a Ghost
The air in the taxi to the zoo was thick with a tense silence. Zaid stared out the window, his knee bouncing with a nervous energy that had nothing to do with excitement. He was chasing a ghost, a memory of a man who had called his father by another name. Khamis sat beside him, a steady, pragmatic presence, his phone already open to a maps app.When they arrived, the scent of popcorn and animals felt unnervingly familiar, a sensory echo from a fractured childhood memory. They asked several attendants about the tiger trainer, following vague directions until they finally found him near the big cat enclosures, a large man in a uniform hosing down a concrete area.Zaid approached him, his heart hammering against his ribs. "Excuse me?"The man turned, wiping his brow. "Yes?""My name is Zaid," he began, his voice tighter than he intended. "About ten years ago, I came here with my father. You saw him and called him 'Hussain.'"The man, who introduced himself as Abu Ibrahim, squinted, his g
Chapter 76 Burnt Chicken and a New Name
The weekend arrived, and Zaid returned home with Sami. The apartment felt different, quieter and heavier without his grandmother's presence. His mother, Ahlam, tried her best to appear strong for them, but Zaid could see the exhaustion etched around her eyes, a deep weariness that sleep couldn't fix. She moved through the kitchen with a determined air, announcing she was making kabsa."I'm fine, habibi, really," she said, forcing a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "It will be just like how Teta used to make it."But her hands, usually so sure and steady, were clumsy with grief and fatigue. The familiar, comforting aroma of spices soon mingled with the acrid smell of something burning. She had been distracted, lost in thought, and the chicken at the bottom of the pot had scorched.She brought the pot to the table, her face falling as she saw the blackened pieces. "Oh, no. I'm so sorry. It's ruined."Zaid and Sami exchanged a quick glance. Without a word, they both reached for the ser
Chapter 77 The Cousin's Story
Khamis was given the address of Fahed Al Ghawali by a man who used to go to school with him. He posted on the group and talked to people who knew him. The address they found led them to a modest but tidy apartment building. Zaid's heart was a frantic drum against his ribs as he and Khamis stood outside the door. This was it. The first real connection to his father's bloodline. He knocked.The door was opened by a man in his late thirties, with kind, tired eyes behind glasses. He looked at the two teenagers on his doorstep. "You must be Zaid and Khamis? I am Fahad Al-Ghawali. Please, come in."He welcomed them warmly into his home, a space filled with books and the quiet hum of family life. Once they were seated in the living room, Fahad studied Zaid's face intently. A look of surprise, then soft recognition, crossed his features."You look very much like him," Fahad said quietly. "I can see it. You are definitely his son."Zaid was taken aback. It was the first time anyone had ever s
Chapter 78 Breaking The Cycle
The silence in Zaid’s room had ceased to be oppressive. The initial, white-hot fury that had propelled him to the cold, logical brink of revenge had finally burned itself out, leaving behind a fine, pervasive ash of exhaustion. He had stopped pacing, stopped rehearsing the damning monologue he would deliver to his father. Instead, he had succumbed to a deep, weary stillness. He slept for twelve hours straight on the second day, a coma-like slumber from which he awoke feeling hollowed out, but clean.On the third afternoon, he made a cup of tea and, for the first time, opened his laptop not to feed his anger, but to understand it. He typed in clumsy, earnest phrases into the search bar: “how to heal from family trauma" “moving on when you can’t get an apology,” “breaking cycles of pain.” The internet, that vast repository of both wisdom and noise, offered him a thousand different doors. He began to walk through them.He read articles by psychologists, their clinical language a balm
Chapter 79 The Call
The decision had settled into Zaid’s bones, not as a joyful resolution, but as a heavy, necessary truth. He felt the quiet exhaustion of a soldier who has just declared a ceasefire. For two days, he moved through his apartment with a deliberate calm, letting the new reality solidify. On the third morning, he picked up his phone. It was time to close the official loop.He dialed Khamees, he answered on the second ring, his voice as neutral as ever. “Khamees speaking.”“Khamees, it’s Zaid. I wanted to inform you of my decision.”“Go ahead, Zaid.”“I… I am withdrawing, let's not carry on with it, I've realized there's no point.” He spoke the words clearly, though his throat felt tight.There was a brief pause on the other end, the rustle of papers. “I see. This is, of course, your right. I believe it's better to stop too.”Zaid looked out his window at the sun-washed city. “ It’s not about innocence or guilt. It’s about… a different path.” He struggled to find the right words. “Thank you
Chapter 80 The Price Of Being Real
After the conversation with his father Zaid needed to talk to someone, he felt he desperately needed to voice it to someone who existed in the realm of his new reality, not the haunted landscape of his past. He found himself dialing Khamees again. “Khamees? Can we talk?”“Zaid, Is everything alright?” Khamees’s voice held a note of concern.“I… I spoke to my father.” The words felt heavy on his tongue. “He called. He tried to explain, to ask for things. I told him… I told him my decision. That I was done with that road.”Khamees listened in silence, offering no judgment, just the quiet hum of the line. “That must have been very difficult,” he finally said, his tone neutral but not unkind.“It was,” Zaid admitted, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly just from sharing the burden. “But it’s done. And it’s made something clear to me. I need to focus. Really focus. On the channel. On my work. On paying you back.” He said the last part with renewed determination. “I give you my wo