10 stories
Qurbaha Nights
Qurbaha means the diaspora in Somali. When he returns from America to visit Hargeisa, his father's thick second wife welcomes him home. His father is busy with business, but she's not busy at all. The diaspora boy learns what Somali hospitality really means.
Siri ya Pwani
His father rents a beach house for the family holiday. His stepmother brings her sister — both thick, both unsatisfied, both watching him. On the last night, after his father passes out, the sisters come to his room together.
Ukumbi wa Siri
His father takes a second wife — younger, thicker, hungry for attention the old man can't provide. The new wife is given rooms in the far wing. The room becomes their secret.
Shaah iyo Sheeko
The Somali phrase means 'tea and stories.' His father's new wife invites him for afternoon shaah, but the stories she tells are nothing like the ones from back home. The thick stepmother has needs that her elderly husband cannot satisfy.
Family Dinner
They've been sharing him for months—alternating nights, comparing notes, competing. Tonight, at the dinner table with his father, they decide the competition is over. After dessert, they take him together.
Baada ya Isha
His father remarries a devout Swahili widow. She's always in her buibui, always at the mosque. But after Isha prayer, when his father travels, she comes to his room with needs her piety cannot contain.
Owned
She made the rules clear the day she married his father: he belongs to her now. Not a request. Not a seduction. An ownership. His father travels for work; she uses every absence to remind him who controls this house—and him.
Power Outage
A storm knocks out power across the county. Trapped in the dark house with his father away on business, the tension that's been building with his petite, yoga-obsessed stepmother finally ignites.
Second Chances
After his father's sudden passing, he returns home to settle the estate. His young stepmother, barely older than him, needs help navigating grief and paperwork. Late nights sorting through memories blur the lines between comfort and something more.
Inheritance
His father's will left everything to her. Including him.