Amir asks Rahim Khan whether Hassan is still at the house, and in response, Rahim Khan shows Amir the Polaroid picture first mentioned in Chapter 7. The picture is of Hassan and Sohrab. With the picture is a letter from Hassan addressed to Amir. Hassan tells Amir that the Kabul that they knew and loved is gone. He complains about the Taliban and provides a specific example of when they attacked his wife for speaking a little too loudly to a potentially deaf vendor.
Hassan tells Amir that he takes Sohrab to sit under the pomegranate tree. Hassan reads to his son. Hassan ends his letter stating his dreams for his son and calls himself an "old faithful friend" to Amir. After Amir reads the letter twice, Rahim Khan tells him that the letter was written six months ago: A month after leaving Kabul to seek medical attention, Rahim Khan received a phone call with news of Hassan. Taliban officials arrived at the house, accused Hassan being a lying Hazara, and eventually killed him in the street. They kill Farzana also. Although the neighbors knew this was an injustice, no one was willing "to risk anything for a pair of Hazara servants."
Amir asks about Sohrab and finds that he was put in an orphanage. Rahim Khan asks Amir to go to Kabul and bring Sohrab to Pakistan. Rahim Khan mentions a Christian couple he knows who run an organization in Peshawar for children who have lost their parents. Amir initially balks at the suggestion. But Rahim Khan insists. Rahim Khan tells Amir that this is not about money and tells Amir of a conversation that he had had with Baba about Amir's not being willing or able to stand up for himself. Rahim Khan also tells Amir that Baba was Hassan's biological father.
Unable to process or endure this information, Amir storms out of Rahim Khan's apartment.
