Honor Behind the Stain
Son-in-law Candidate

“Papa!”  The emperor entered the house with wide steps.  Face semringah.

Calvin, who was on the phone standing in the living room, stopped his phone.  He looked at his son's face that was beaming.  “What's up?”

“I bring good news.  I brought home a future wife.”

Calvin laughed a thunderous laugh.  “Good!  This is what you've been waiting for a long time.  You're finally thinking mature too.  Who her?  Does papa know him?”

Emperor berdehem.  It still felt happiness in his chest, making him very eager to share that happiness with his papa.

“Dia ..”

“Ear!”  Calvin cut off his son's talk.  Calvin, who used to be ambitious about the things of the world, is getting older, he seems wiser in everything.  “Papa is happy with this news.  In the end papa's desire to have a ghost materialized as well.  But remember one thing, you have to find a good woman, who comes from a good environment, a good family.  So that your children are born from good seed.  It's important for the future of your home.  Happy families are blessed families.”

Emperor stunned.  Khanza is far from what his father mentioned.  

“Bad women with bad environment, damaged morals and bad personality, will not be good to be a mother of your children. Look for a good woman of her religion, like Jihan."

Emperor swallows.

"Papa used to disagree, but now papa understands that the main thing that is sought to determine the wife is her religion. If only papa understood this long ago..." Calvin sighed, regret appearing on his face.

The emperor listened quietly.

"That's okay to fix, papa."

"Speaking about moral improvement? You mean, morals can be formed? If it can be formed, why does your prophet recommend that you choose a good religion? Just have her people look for women carelessly because morality can be formed. Departing to bring women whose religion is bad to the household to spend the rest of the age, this is not easy. Papa's experienced."

"Pa, humans are different. Not same. The human heart is different. Some are easy to accept, some are not."

"This means you'll bring a woman who doesn't fit the criteria you're suggesting? She's not a good woman?"

"She's a woman who wants to be good. It means to be hijrah."

"Papa don't worry, I'll show you his earnestness."

"I'm just reminding you that a bad woman won't be good to take home. As well as you form his character, the result is not as good as the parents who formed from the twenty years since his birth."

"Look at her parents too, Pa. Papa believes that a man named Emperor will be able to take his wife on good things?"

Calvin looked at his son's face, then smiled. He patted his son's arm twice. "Who is he?"

"Khanza's."

Calvin surprised. "The name is a foreigner's cravings."

"Yes. He was my secretary first."

"Oh... That was the staff in your office, wasn't it? Who ever married you?"

Emperor nodded.

"Geez, so you've been unwilling to marry because your heart is still attached to it? You waiting for him?"

The emperor rolled his eyes. Scratching non-itchy temples.

Calvin took a deep breath. "Your marriage failed in the beginning. Just like papa who failed to build a household, can your relationship still be continued? You obviously failed." Calvin was glazed over, a great fear emanating in his eyes. A failure has shattered his belief in a commitment.

"Pa, the failure of my marriage used to be my fault. I gave up on the situation. God has sent Khanza to me. Now I'll take responsibility for everything." 

Calvin took a breath and released it with a heavy-sounding puff. Then he walked away to the office.

***

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