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Asad sat down in his favorite chair and closed his eyes. It was finally the end of the day. All his meetings were either done or postponed, and he very much looked forward to getting a good night's sleep.

But a few things were still bothering him, and he wanted to take some time to sit here and think.

Not to meditate. He should probably do a bit of that, too, before going to sleep, but no, this was a ritual that he learned from his father. It was an opportunity to stop and take stock of things. To reevaluate them.

With so much going on around him, it was easy to become overwhelmed. To let things slip by, unnoticed.

He tried to focus his mind. To concentrate on what was bothering him.

There were actually more than a few things, he soon realized.

There was his family. Specifically, his wife, Samira. She was being... rather difficult to please, again.

When they had first gotten married, she was always so happy. And her happiness was his happiness. In retrospect, it was perhaps naive to think that time would last the rest of their lives. Especially since they were both servants.

But still. The extent to which she had changed troubled him.

She was fearful of so many things, these days. That always seemed to be at the heart of whatever foul mood she might be in. Today, for instance, she had accused him--and not for the first time--of adultery.

She hadn't come right out and said so, of course. That wasn't her way. She had instead asked, "Who are you trying so hard to look good for?"

He had smiled at first, thinking it to be a surprisingly sweet compliment. But the look on her face quickly killed that notion. And when he had tried to have a conversation about it with her and explain, again, that he would never be unfaithful, she had refused to say anything more.

It was difficult not to hate her, sometimes.