The Price of Pride

Chapter 16

"But, you all deserve to know the truth of what's happening here." Zafer takes over the story again and explains everything to them.

"Defne's ex left her when he found out she was pregnant. Her father has been pressuring her to marry the guy anyway. He even went so far as to tell her boss about her situation and her job was on the line. She was given the choice today to either marry the ex or lose her job and end up having to marry the ex anyway."

"Zafer happened to be there at my office and overheard the whole situation. He gave me another option. He offered to marry me." Defne gives Zafer a shy smile before continuing. "But even still, my dad didn't make it easy. He still wanted the tradition. Zafer had to come with his elders to ask for my hand before he would agree to the marriage. Even though he was the one insisting. Stubborn man."

At Defne's grumbling words, Zafer reaches over and gives her hand a gentle squeeze, causing Emir to raise his eyebrows in surprise at the tender move.

"Emir, you know how my father is," Zafer says. "He's probably somewhere in South America with wife number four. Or is it five? I've lost count. So that's how Murat bey came into the game. I had actually called him to postpone our meeting until later and when I told him why, he graciously offered to do this for us."

"We were more than happy to do this, Oğlum," Emine hanım says. "Like I said, our children are so far from us. This has been a pleasure for us to take on a new son and his bride."

When Emine hanım gets up to hug the new couple, Reyhan gets up to clear away the coffee. She manages to keep her hands from shaking until she's safely in the kitchen and away from the others. But once she's alone, the sadness hits her. Such a weird situation, but everyone else seems to be happy enough, if the cheerful chatter that continues in the other room is any indication. Reyhan doesn't want to bring anyone down with her mood.

"Reyhan?"

She jumps when she hears Emir's voice behind her.

"Are you okay?"

She should have known she couldn't get anything past him.

"Can we go?" she asks in a shaky voice. "I'm getting pretty tired."

Her gently grabs her shoulder and turns her to face him, needing to see her eyes. He can hear that she's upset, not tired. And needs to know why.

"What happened to you out there?"

She just sighs and falls into his arms, letting her arms go around his waist.

"Tell me," he begs her. "You're starting to scare me."

"Emine hanım," is all Reyhan says.

Emir tenses, preparing to go defend Reyhan if the woman offended her in any way.

"What did she say?" he asks coldly, not willing to let anyone, even a client, get away with mistreating his wife.

It actually makes her feel better to realize what he's willing to give up for her. She rubs his back to calm him down, her own soul calmer now because of his care for her.

"It's not what you think," she says, pulling away from him so that she can see him. "Emine hanım is amazing. Ayla has really taken to her. What they did for Zafer and Defne today was amazing. That fact that she would do that ... that she could go to Defne and embrace this woman she's barely known a day and treat her like a beloved bride ..."

Reyhan lets out a deep, sad sigh.

"Emir, do you know what your mother said to me on our wedding day?"

And now he understands why she's so upset. He closes his eyes to hide the shame and anger she would see there.

"Reyhan, I ..."