Summary

Chapter Forty-Two was titled “The bird.” Amanda told her mother that she was being tortured and Abduallah announced the treatment would continue daily until the ransom was paid. Amanda accepted that she would die and began to plan her suicide with the razor. Just when she felt that she could endure no more, she saw a bird on the floor of her room. It looked around, pecked at the floor, and then flew away. In that moment, Amanda became convinced the bird was a sign that she would survive the captivity to return home.

Chapter Forty-three was titled “A Notebook and a Promise.” The group moved to a country house Amanda called the Bush House. Amanda had not been tied up again and once they were at the new house, she was given two new dresses. Amanda called them an “acknowledgment that...