On behalf of Adnan and his family, I want to thank the many who have made the telling of his story possible, who supported him with letters, prayers, donations, and love.
I want to thank those who came to our side to help with every challenge we faced in the past two years: Amanda, Shahed, Laila, Alicia, Samantha, Patrick, Ramiro, Ballookey, Christie, Evanem, Jia, Josie, Beau, Dez, Chris, Rebecca, Amar, Ben, Amelia, Matt, Beverly, Brendan, Jim, Laura, Michael, Mital, Pete, Shaun T., Scott, Jon Cryer, the folks at Launchgood, The Magnet Program, and many, many more.
To Adnan’s lawyers who have stood by his side over all these years, our deepest gratitude to Justin Brown, Chris Nieto, Chris Flohr, and Doug Colbert.
There are no words to thank Sarah Koenig and her team at This American Life for what they have done for Adnan. And there will never be a way to repay the diligence, time, effort, and exhaustive hours spent by Susan Simpson, Colin Miller, and Bob Ruff in investigating this case and creating podcasts to tell the world about it. Your integrity, generosity, and dedication are the rare gifts that make you incredible human beings. Thank you Dennis for steering me through all this, and continuing to show me the path ahead.
Thank you to my agent, Lauren Abramo, and editor, Elisabeth Dyssegaard, for talking me off of the many ledges, being patient during my stress-induced meltdowns, and making this book possible along with the entire team at St. Martin’s Press.
I thank my loving husband, Irfan Aziz, and two beautiful daughters for their support and understanding as I’ve spent hundreds of hours away from them, writing, researching, traveling, speaking on Adnan’s behalf. They are my foundation, my rock, my everything.
I thank my parents for raising me, my brother, Saad, and sister, Siddrah, to stand by what is right and speak up for the truth, for never forgetting Adnan, and never letting us forget him either.
Lastly I thank Saad, Aunty, Uncle, Yusuf, Tanveer, and mostly Adnan for trusting me to tell his story and to be his voice. My only fear is failing you, and my prayer is that I’ve honored your trust and done justice to Adnan’s struggle.