Yet, I’m now expected to welcome a world I know little about, wrenched from my mother’s embrace. / A mother who is already dead. Her heart no longer pumps what little blood remains in her body, lying splayed on the operating table.
-- Narrator (“Prelude”)

Importance: Ishraaq, Seema’s newborn baby, acts as the narrator of the novel. In the Prelude, he tells his reader that his mother has died as a result of his birth. He is unsure if he is willing to live in a world where she does not exist.

She’s always done what she wanted. Yet, it’s Seema you come to spend your last days with, while I, who’ve always done what you wanted, am treated like an afterthought, like I don’t matter.
-- Tahera (Part 1: Chapter 16)

Importance: Tahera voices her anger at her mother after she learns that Nafeesa told Seema first about her trip to the United States...