"Sorry." He whispered, feeling guilty for his outburst. She leaned her forehead against his, breathing with him until they both calmed down.
The tentative peace only lasted a few days. On Tuesday, Can was summoned to a meeting in Bursa, leaving Sanem alone at lunchtime to take Arslan out. She led him to the park, hoping for a moment of quiet but instead she bumped into her again.
"Sanem," Huma stood from the bench she had been sitting on, causing Sanem to immediately tense up. What was she doing here?
"Can we talk? Please?"
Sanem suddenly wanted to be anywhere else but here, she wanted to run back to the office, but she also didn't want to be rude. The confidence Huma had worn when she appeared at their doorstep a few days ago seemed to have vanished, perhaps she had not expected such a hostile welcome. Sanem nodded cautiously.
They found an outdoor café, sitting at a small table as Huma ordered them both tea. The silence was cold and awkward. In an attempt to ease the atmosphere, Arslan shuffled towards Huma who immediately moved to the edge of her seat away from him. Sanem tugged on his lead, nudging him back to her feet. His weight leaned against her leg, the reassurance giving her courage.
"Why are you here?" Sanem asked.
"I... I wanted to see you." Huma's eyes flickered down to Sanem's stomach, making her nervously pull her coat tighter around her. "But unfortunately that's not the only reason I came. I have been talking with Aziz. He is unwell Sanem, he's gotten worse, he's worried he won't be around for much longer." Sanem frowned, since when had Huma been on speaking terms with Can's dad? "He didn't want to worry the boys. But I thought they deserved to know."
Sanem wasn't sure how to respond. Her heart ached, she hadn't spent much time with Can's father but he had been so warm to her, so welcoming. Unlike Huma. "So it was Aziz who told you our address?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have turned up uninvited but you wouldn't answer your phone and I'm pretty sure Can blocked me - "
Oh, the phone calls. They had been her?
"- and I thought, after what happened on the weekend, that I would have better luck getting through to you than to Can. Mother to mother."
Hot, anger rose in Sanem's chest. If Huma thought she could play the 'mother' card and expect some sort of sympathy she was bitterly mistaken. Mothers were supposed to be warm, kind and gentle. They were supposed to wrap band-aids over broken skin, chase away monsters lurking in the dark, go to school plays and mortify their children by applauding too loud when they walked on stage. They were not meant to heartlessly abandon their kid when they were only twelve years old and disappear off to another country for years on end. Sanem's son hadn't even been born yet and she already knew there wasn't a force on earth that would ever make her leave him. How dare Huma call herself that. She may have given birth to them but she was no mother. She was just a sociopathic bitch.
"Is that all you wanted then? Are we done?" Sanem asked bitterly. Huma turned white, sensing the shift in Sanem's mood.
"Sanem, I..." Huma took a breath.
"What?"
"I understand why you and Can didn't tell me about..." Huma faltered, her eyes falling again to Sanem's waistline. "But I was hoping you might give me a second chance. The last year has given me a lot of time to think. I love my sons, I miss them. I don't want to spend the rest of my life missing my grandchild too."
Sanem clenched her jaw. "How can you say that, how can you say you love them after everything you put them through? Do you not even realise the damage you did? Dragging them miles away from each other for years until they forgot how to be brothers. Leaving Can on his own in that giant, lonely house. Do you not even realise how much you broke him?" Sanem couldn't stop the words tumbling from her mouth. They fell out with a harshness she didn't even know she possessed.
Olive Branches and White Flags
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