What Hurts the Most

Chapter 6

"I'm going to talk to her," Emir tells them. "Let her tell her side of the story. Maybe there's a misunderstanding. Reyhan loves my father and my father loves her. I can't see her doing something like this."

"Son, she's lost her mind," Cavidan explains. "There's no excuse she can give."

"Still," he sighs, looking down at his watch. "It's been a long day for everyone. Especially you, Anne. How about you let Cemre help you get settled and I'll handle Reyhan tonight."

Cemre's eyes go wide open in shock, but Cavidan remains cool. She doesn't even flinch. Right at that moment, his mother is starting to really scare him.

"Save the interview for tomorrow," Cavidan suggests "Reyhan was so out of control we had to sedate her. She'll be asleep well into the morning. How about you question her after you get home from work tomorrow?"

"Okay," he agrees, wondering what his mother is up to now. "I'll talk to her tomorrow."

He says this knowing he has no intention of waiting. It's clear they're trying to keep him from talking to Reyhan. He's more determined than ever to find out why.

"Good night."

Cemre watches him walk down the hall towards his bedroom and manages to wait until the door closes before she lets out the breath she was holding.

"Cavidan teyze," she whispers, afraid Emir will hear. "What are we going to do now? He's going to talk to her. We can't let him. Not until we're sure of what she'll say."

"I'm not taking that risk," Cavidan says. "Just like I made sure Nigar and Sefer couldn't talk to Emir today, that girl will be gone long before Emir gets home tomorrow. I'll make sure of it."

And once Reyhan is gone, Hikmet can follow soon after. Then Cavidan will finally be in the position to get everything she's always wanted.

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Emir waits until long after the house falls silent to sneak into Reyhan's room. He has to see her condition for himself. Perhaps his mother and Cemre are right and Reyhan just snapped suddenly. It's possible. But not likely. He'd bet everything he owns that nothing his mother told him was true.

He's had a couple of hours to think about what that means. She's come up with such an elaborate lie about this incident, but why? And how is she telling it so convincingly? What is her purpose? What is she really trying to prove? Could she be the reason why Reyhan so suddenly and desperately wanted to divorce him? If these are the kinds of lies and schemes she had to put up with, then again, he can hardly blame her for leaving. Something tells him this isn't the first time his mother has done something like this to Reyhan. And that whatever his mother has done, Cemre has been right there with her.

Come to think of it, whenever things have happened in the past, his mother has been so easily able to talk her way out of it. Even when he asks specifically about it.

"Anne, I'm listening to you. How did things end up like this?" he had asked her.

"Oğlum, I already told you. That maniac Vural got stuck on Suna."

"He stalked Suna, but kidnapped Reyhan?"

"Ah, Emir. Can we just end this unpleasant topic? I'm tense enough and I'm getting a migraine."

"Okay, fine. We'll talk later."

But later never came. Not that time or for any other time. And now he wonders what her answer would have been to explain how Reyhan got kidnapped and no one knew about it until he just so happened to hear Cavidan talking to the kidnapper. How had the kidnapper known to call her anyway? Did she have anything to do with the kidnapping? Or any other kidnapping for that matter? A sick feeling roils in his stomach as he thinks about Zeynep's kidnapping. The girl was taken right from the house when the security camera mysteriously went off line. Coincidence?