Your Grace - Burak Çelik

CHAPTER 10

"It led to fights and arguments, as well as violence. She began to hit me, throw things at me. I never retaliated, I could never hurt her- but she did all in her power to hurt me, and eventually I divorced her. Not even my love for her was enough to go over all that had happened between us, we just could not get along anymore...and she did not love me."

"Oh, God," gasped Ayedah, tears threatening her eyes at the sad story. Burak continued;

"When the divorce happened in court, she charged me, and I was forced to give up almost everything except a somewhat small sum of the recent earnings I had from when I just started acting. If not, she threatened to make it a legal issue and accuse me of domestic violence."

Ayedah's sorrow and pity for Burak immediately turned into indignation and anger at that point of the tale, but she refrained from saying anything as she did not want to interrupt him.

"She also demanded for our marriage to be forgotten completely. All records of our union wiped out clear, from documents, social media, etcetera," continued Burak. "Of course, some pictures probably still exist in the depths of the internet, but if found they would be taken down immediately- as per the order of the jury after her request, even if it did take a long time to implement. Nearly all the interviews, videos and photos of us together were terminated, and she blocked me from all of her social media, as well as her phone number.

"It didn't end there, I found out from friends and fellow actors and models that she had been unfaithful all along, and had been dating around behind my back in the second and final year of our marriage. As if the divorce wasn't hard enough, that took a major hit that caused me to be extremely down and inactive for a long time, especially as I had no house of my own and was living with my family. Eventually, I decided to pick myself up and go for military service, which too had its own share of trauma, but I did get somewhat better."

He smiled sadly at Ayedah. "And just today, when I was getting ready to come here, I had gotten news from a friend that she had remarried, and claimed it to be her first," he said bitterly. "Despite the number of people who know it isn't, and her now husband had assisted her in pretending that me and her never happened, and well...they did it very well." He exhaled heavily, and leant against the trailer. "Wow, that was good to get off my chest," he chuckled, despite the tears that ran down his cheeks. Ayedah gave him a sad smile, and said, "I'm so sorry for all of that you had to go through, Burak...I really am. You didn't deserve any of it." Burak looked up at her and returned her smile warmly. "Thank you, Ayedah," he said softly, and she smiled at the way her name rolled off his tongue.

"Not that it's any of my business, but..." Ayedah flinched at the question she was about to ask.

"Do you still love her?"

Burak scrunched up his forehead in deep thought, looking up at the starry sky for a while as he dug through his mind for the answer. "No," he said finally. "Well, I believe part of me will always love her...but I no longer am in love with her." He smiled at Ayedah, and she smiled back. "That's good," she said encouragingly. "You've moved on...that's an achievement, Burak. I'm proud of you." Burak chuckled, blushing at her words, and they both laughed for a while before silence overtook them, though it was a comfortable silence, and not an awkward one.

"Have you ever been in love, Ayedah?" Burak asked her, his question taking her aback. "W-what?" she asked, and he repeated himself. "Have you ever been in love?" Ayedah shook her head a little too quickly, and said, "No. I have never been in love." She added a joke to lighten the mood a little; "Unless you can count the number of times I've taken time to lie down on my bed and admire Chris Evans." Burak burst out in laughter, and Ayedah watched him as he did; she couldn't help but notice the way his eyes always crinkled at the sides whenever he smiled or laughed, and the way his beard and mustache perfectly framed his soft-looking pink lips reminded her of a puppy. She couldn't help herself but to smile at the sight of his laughter, catching his attention.