Come Back to Me II SCK

Chapter 26

Selin was lying curled on the bed, crying. She held her emotions until she came home and broke into tears the moment she locked the door. Eda wasn't right. Selin cared for Serkan. She loved him and never wanted anything to happen to him. She was horrified when she learned about his allergy attack and genuinely blamed Eda for causing him harm, and the news about him being shot shook her to the core.

Serkan was her first teenage love. She fell in love with him the moment she saw him when returned from boarding school after years of absence. He was sixteen, and he wasn't this cute boy with round cheeks, big eyes, and reddish hair anymore. He was blond, his face was mature, and his eyes were even more beautiful than she remembered. He looked older than his age, more serious, and withdrawn. When he looked at her Selin's heart beat faster, and she hugged him, telling him she missed him. He didn't say he missed her but said it was good to see her. From that moment, Selin knew her new life started. The life where she was supposed to be the wife of Serkan Bolat, as was told her by her parents since she could remember.

Serkan wasn't that eight years boy anymore who was building houses from sticks and stones in his garden, letting her watch and allowing later to turn them into homes for her dolls when he was done with his creations. He was cold and mysterious. He spent his whole summer break reading books and not wanting to go out to see their friends from ground school. Selin blamed his behavior on going through the coming of age phase.

When he returned permanently to Istanbul to start the first year of his studies, he was even more handsome and colder. He didn't come back alone but with Engin, who Selin never grew to like. They were too different, and Engin seemed too cheerful in comparison to Serkan, always taking him out to pubs, sports matches, boxing, and playing pool. He also came with Piryl, as they all started architecture together and planned to have their own architectural firm in the future. Selin was afraid of Piryl at the beginning, but when she learned that Piryl wasn't interested in Serkan at all, which was quite surprising for Selin, she befriended her to be as close to Serkan's circle as possible. Selin also made sure to insert herself into Serkan's business plans as his future PR manager, and he didn't seem to mind. Selin was in every part of Serkan's life. She was in Holding, in his future business, at his parents' house, and in his friends' circle. But she couldn't spend time with him.

His second degree was taking all of his remaining time, and he was getting too immersed in his research. Selin was getting more frustrated and irritated with every passing month. When she learned about his plans to leave for States, it was threatening not only the launching of his architectural business in Istanbul, to which Selin devoted all her energy, but also Holding. With the risk of Serkan being out of Holding, Alptekin threatened her father that he would withdraw from the business. Without Serkan's trust fund Holding would suffer great financial difficulties. Selin was pressured both by her father and Alptekin to keep Serkan in Istanbul no matter what and to fulfill her family's duty to get him to marry her. She also was desperate for Serkan to stay. 

So she did it. She stole his thesis and sold it to papers. It was easier than she thought, so she started planting information about Serkan in tabloids and tipping off paparazzi about where he would be. She did that again and again, and she was hooked. The news she read about herself brought her satisfaction, and she became addicted to it. After a while, she started believing in her own lies and justified her actions that she was doing that for Serkan too. After all, she was his future.

After the scandal, Serkan stayed in Istanbul, and his astrophysical degree became a distant memory he never mentioned again. He received shares in Holding and made the investment that saved the company. He never wanted to come to work there, but he kept an eye on the business and intervened when it needed a better direction, striking deals that made the company skyrocket.