Losing Control

Chapter 4

Her sole custody of her own child was solidified and any visitation by his parents was stripped. The people forgot who they were taking to court. Eda had kept records of every visit ever made to Kiraz and the time that they spent with her. It was easy to keep a record of their visits when they had only seen her once. The fact that they had the nerve to take her to court for custody of her own child never failed to anger her to this day, even almost five years later.

Walking in the front door Eda called out, "I'm home? Where is everyone?"

"In the kitchen, Kiraz is finger painting. How was today?" called Ayfer.

Eda changed her shoes for her slippers and brought them upstairs with her, "It was good. There are always more cases coming in. The deputy director asked me to take on a few extra cases so I'm going to look them over after dinner," she came around the table to place a kiss on Kiraz's head, "What are you making sweetheart?"

Kiraz turned her sweet face up to her mother, "I'm painting a picture for the little girl I'm meeting tomorrow."

"Little girl you're meeting tomorrow?" she looked questioningly at her aunt.

Ayfer sighed, "I was meaning to talk to you after dinner but someone let the cat out of the bag," she gave Kiraz a playful poke, "An old friend called and asked if I could do him a favor. It seems that his employer's son has landed himself with three wards and he is a bachelor with no experience with children." She knew Eda wouldn't be satisfied with that explanation so she added, "We can talk more after dinner."

'After dinner' was their code for they would talk about things after Kiraz went to bed, "Well I'm going to go up and change. I'll help with dinner in a few minutes."

Ayfer watched her niece head upstairs to her bedroom. For someone so young she had taken on a mountain of responsibility. She knew that Eda was punishing herself and every young man that she met for her disastrous marriage. Ayfer had no idea of how to shake Eda out of her current mindset. Every man was looked at with mistrust and even disdain by her niece. It was true that some of the men warranted it but others did not.

She thought back to the conversation that she had with Seyfi Cicek earlier in the day. Serkan Bolat was handed three children who had been through their own trauma. The siblings were his half-sisters and brother that he had only met that morning. The children were the result of his father's affair while married to Serkan Bolat's mother. Apparently the young man had no knowledge of the children and had no relationship with the late father. Ayfer wondered what possessed the father to make the children wards of his son.

Seyfi didn't sugarcoat Serkan Bolat either, he said that the young man had a very wild spell recently, a reaction to the grief over the loss of his brother. He said that Serkan Bolat had become something that he never had been before, a wastrel and a playboy. He had forsaken the business that he and his partners built from the ground up but he was trying to recover and had recently returned to work. He was trying to find himself again without his best friend and brother and now he had this responsibility. Ayfer felt for the young man, she was no stranger to grief and the stupid things that it made one do.

They both made every effort to not talk about serious topics in front of Kiraz, the little girl was so smart, very like Eda was at that age. Kiraz had picked up that her aunt would be watching three children, the little girl missed nothing. Ayfer would meet Serkan Bolat early tomorrow morning and take the children under her wing. She had a feeling that these children needed a lot of tender loving care as well as a firm hand. Seyfi had given her the bare bones one what the children had most likely been through, it seemed like their father was a serial cheater, the children probably already knew this. He also told her that the youngest child didn't talk, probably the result of trauma. She had her work cut out for her.