WONDERING WONDERLAND

gaharutree Romance

Nabi grew up in a poor village. She married young, then went to Singapore as a migrant domestic worker at fourteen, her age falsified on her documents. Her employer, Madam Isabel, allowed her to attend school, a door to a world she had never imagined. But Isabel's husband, Christopher, a man about twice her age, slowly turned small kindnesses into a snare. He groomed Nabi, exploiting her youth and dependence. She even became pregnant. A child treated as an adult, and no one named what was happening to her.When the affair was discovered, Christopher bore no consequences. Nabi was the one removed. After finishing high school at eighteen, she was sent to Batam under the pretext of attending university. On arrival, she learned she had been reported to the police for theft, as well as for being an illegal worker with falsified age documents. Christopher had carefully disposed of the only person who could testify against him.Alone and betrayed, Nabi fell into deep depression. Her mind became trapped in a memory loop: fragments of the past overlapping without order until names, faces, and whole years were lost. Still, she survived. She finished university and rose through a Japanese company, Steel Lamiere, working with painful discipline until, at twenty-eight, she became Vice President of the Batam branch. People whispered that she was a kept woman, an heiress, or involved in black magic, because the true story was too heavy to believe.At the peak of her career, Nabi lives with a secret she does not fully understand. She cannot assemble eyes, nose, and mouth into a face. She recognizes people by their accessories, perfume, voices, and hands. Her secretary, Juda, prepares data and photos so she never appears lost. She fills the gaps in her memory by rereading files, like a student studying for an exam that never ends.Into this world of weighing smiles comes Tanuja Eares Duff, CEO of Steel NZ and heir to a seven-generation New Zealand steel dynasty. To Nabi, and to the reader, he seems a kind business partner. In truth, he has known her for a long time, but Nabi, trapped in her loop, does not remember him, just as she does not remember Christopher. His small kindnesses, a cheap Kopiko candy, a band-aid for a blistered heel, a wine glass quietly swapped for soda, are his way of drawing close without demanding anything.Her mentor, Mrs. Saitako, urges her to move to the head office in Japan. Nabi nods, as she nods at everything life hands her, because refusing was always a luxury she could not afford.The turning point comes one Sunday morning, when Tanuja asks Nabi to help him repair his broken glasses. She already has an appointment at an eye center, and he comes along. There, for the first time, she says her secret aloud: her eyes are normal, but she cannot recognize faces. The referrals go from eye doctor to MRI to psychiatrist. The scan is normal, and the doctor points to prosopagnosia rooted in trauma. All day, Tanuja waits, carries her bag, shares vending-machine sandwiches, and never pushes. In the psychiatrist's office, Nabi asks to be recorded. She fears she may be a criminal and admits her memory seems to stop around 2016. She came not to learn whether she is the perpetrator, but who the victim is.Results in Indonesia are inconclusive, so Tanuja accompanies her to Malaysia for a second opinion. There, doctors conclude that her evidence and mental state point to a serious crime committed against her, and advise bringing Christopher before the High Court of Singapore. A third opinion in Japan confirms it: Nabi experienced something terrifying that remains locked in her mind, causing the memory loop and the loss of faces. What once felt like a personal defect is now recognized as a wound inflicted by someone else.Tanuja sends his company's lawyers to Singapore, and the authorities move faster than expected. Evidence and testimony are pieced back together. Christopher and Madam Isabel are tried and sentenced. Nabi's name is cleared. She is no longer a thief or an illegal worker in anyone's records, but a victim, legally recognized.Afterward, Tanuja and Nabi marry in Japan and move to New Zealand, where the Eares Duff family has forged steel for centuries. There, Nabi no longer needs to memorize faces from photographs. She lives with someone who chose to wait rather than press, and who knew her even when she could not know herself.

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