What Hurts the Most

Chapter 9

Zafer finds them like that several hours later, curled together on the bed until he can't tell where one ends and the next begins. They're sleeping so peacefully that he hates to wake Emir. But he has to.

He nudges his friend until one eye cracks open and squints angrily at him.

"Sorry, man. We need you out here. Your uncle is here with something he says you have to see."

Emir looks down at the sleeping woman in his arms and his heart fills with joy. It takes a lot to convince himself to let her go, but he finally nods at Zafer and carefully gets out of bed to avoid waking Reyhan.

"This better be really important," he says with a yawn as he follows Zafer down the hall and to the living room.

"I'd say it was a matter of life or death."

That stops Emir in his tracks. He sees the serious look on Kemal's face and begins to worry.

"Who's life? What's this about, Amca?"

"You better sit down," Kemal suggests, pointing to a seat on the sofa next to him. "This is going to be a lot to take in."

Emir furrows his brows in confusion, but he complies with his uncle's order. He looks over at Zafer while sitting down.

"Do you have any idea what this is about?" Emir asks his friend, looking back and forth between his uncle and Zafer and noting the looks of extreme distress on both their faces. "You two are starting to scare me. What's going on? Is it my father? Did something happen to Baba?"

Emir begins to panic when the other two men just look at each other again.

"Your father is fine for now," Kemal starts. "I've sent Oya over there and she's going to be staying for a few days and keeping a close eye on the situation. So you don't have anything to worry about currently."

"Okay, now I'm really scared."

"You should be. It turns out, Reyhan's intuition about your father's safety wasn't wrong. When you sent me a copy of the note she received, I decided I needed a constant look at what was happening around your father. Don't be mad, but I've had a nanny cam watching him since the day Masal and I visited."

"That was almost two weeks ago," Emir says.

Kemal just nods.

"And this video shows who's been hurting my father?"

Again, Kemal just nods.

Emir just sighs and looks at the other men again.

"Based on the looks on your faces, I have a bad feeling about what I'm about to see."

He steadies himself for what he knows is going to be a shock and directs Kemal to play the video.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The next time Reyhan wakes up, she has an initial moment of confusion, but her mind isn't nearly as cloudy as it has been the past couple of days. All the drugs must have finally left her system. She's feeling almost normal again, but with one exception.

She looks over to see Emir staring out the window, his body outlined by the moonlight shining into the room. She smiles, because the ache in her heart is gone. Being with him again has made everything better. Getting out of the bed, she walks quietly behind him and wraps her arms around his chest, laying her head on his back. Just because she can.

"I love you," she whispers. Again ... just because she can.

He turns and pulls her into his arms.