The Price of Pride

Chapter 5

"He's right," Emir admits. "I've tried to divorce Reyhan on more than one occasion."

Suna caught her before she could hear any more. But she's heard enough. She's thrilled her plans have worked. Not only is Emir divorcing that girl, he's also sending her halfway across the country. Cavidan couldn't be happier. But if she works fast enough, she can get rid of that peasant sooner than that.

"Cemre dear," Cavidan says into the phone after dialing her young accomplice's number. "I need you to get to the hospital as soon as you can. I need you to have a little conversation with Reyhan. There are things she should probably hear and they would be so much better coming from you."

Cavidan can't hold in her smug smile. She'll be finally getting that girl out of her life. Emir will thank her for freeing him from the prison of his father's making. Then he'll be able to marry someone far more suitable. By this time tomorrow, Reyhan should be gone forever and not even Hikmet will be able to do anything about it.

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Flowers or no flowers? It's the decision Cemre is currently going back and forth between. Flowers are a normal thing to take to someone in the hospital. But is she really in a "giving flowers" kind of relationship with Reyhan? No. That would make it seem like she's trying too hard. Besides, she doesn't feel like going through the extra trouble. She has her orders from Cavidan teyze ... do whatever it takes to convince Reyhan that Emir doesn't want her. Do whatever it takes to make the girl leave on her own. That's all Cemre cares about.

She never dreamed this girl would still be here. She tried to drive her away from the beginning, even before the wedding. She thought the story about being childhood sweethearts with Emir and the lie that he wanted to marry her would have made Reyhan leave. But Cemre underestimated her. Reyhan was determined to marry Emir for reasons Cemre could never understand. She tried humiliating Reyhan at her birthday party. But that only made Emir defend the girl and Cemre was the one who ended up being humiliated. At that point, Cemre decided she couldn't see Reyhan as anything less than an enemy.

Nothing up until now has seemed to work against Reyhan. Not lies. Not tricks. Even when they got lucky with that maniac Vural, who was only supposed to pretend to be Reyhan's lover, but he ended up kidnapping her. Cemre was sure she'd never see Reyhan after that. But unfortunately Emir found her and rescued her, getting shot in the process. And that was just one more thing on the already long list of things Cemre hated about Reyhan. Sending her running today will be just the satisfaction she's been craving. She can't wait.

"Knock knock!" she says cheerfully as she pushes open the door to the hospital room and steps inside.

"Cemre?" Reyhan asks, clearly surprised to see her. It gives Cemre a zing of pleasure knowing she's about to ruin this girl's life.

"How are you, Canım? I had to rush right over as soon as I heard what happened to you. What a terrible thing. A blood infection? Such bad luck! But look at you. You seem to be on the mend."

Cemre takes a seat in the chair and makes herself comfortable.

"I'm doing much better today," Reyhan explains. "Rest and peace are the most important things for me right now."

"Good for you. Rest and peace are important," Cemre starts, silently thanking Reyhan for the opening she needed. "But I guess you'll get plenty of that when Emir sends you to that clinic in Ankara for treatment. When are you leaving?"

"Clinic?"

"A top notch clinic, from what I hear," Cemre continues, pretending not to notice Reyhan's shock. Pretending she isn't thrilled to have been the one to deliver this news. "They'll get you back on your feet and then you can decide if you want to stay in Ankara or go back to your village. After the divorce, there won't be any point in you coming back here to Istanbul."

"Divorce?"

This time the word comes out in a gasp and Reyhan's face has gotten pale. Really pale. Cemre hates to admit it, but she's actually a little concerned. Maybe this wasn't the best time for this conversation. She doesn't want to kill the girl. She just wants her to leave town.

"What divorce, Cemre?" Reyhan asks, the look in her eyes showing how panicked she is. "What are you talking about?"

"Your divorce. From Emir," Cemre explains. "This shouldn't be a surprise to you. That little dinner on the beach didn't turn out exactly like you expected, did it?"

Reyhan just gasps again and Cemre knows she guessed right. She didn't know exactly where Emir had taken her for their date, or how it ended. But she knows about the plans Emir had Yonca make for him. And she knows from Cavidan that Emir and Reyhan returned separately from the dinner and didn't speak to each other for days afterwards. So putting together all the clues, she was able to take a chance and pretend she knows more than she actually does. Fortunately her gamble paid off.

"Emir is divorcing me? And sending me away to some clinic?"

"Emir's place is with his family. With his work. You don't expect him to leave his home and his job to take his ex-wife to a clinic halfway across the country, do you?"

She pauses for dramatic effect before putting on a shocked face.

"Oh, you actually did expect that! You had no idea about any of this. You poor dear."

"I don't believe any of this," Reyhan says, starting to struggle to breath. She reaches a shaky hand for the water on the table next to her bed, but it goes crashing to the floor, splashing water in Cemre's direction.

"Pay attention to what you're doing, you klutz!" she snaps at Reyhan. Her shoes are suede and shouldn't be getting wet. "You're about to ruin my boots."

But looking at Reyhan she can see that the spilled water is the least of her problems. She really seems to be in actual distress. The beeping on the heart monitor becomes impossible to ignore as the sounds come faster and faster. Reyhan's heart is racing now and Cemre can't imagine that's good for her. Before she knows what's happening, Reyhan goes rigid and falls back onto her pillow. Her body starts to shake and the violence of it all makes Cemre scream.

"Reyhan? Can you hear me?"

Cemre is as frozen as she was not too long ago when she pushed Reyhan into the pool not knowing the girl couldn't swim. Reyhan almost drowned that day and Cemre couldn't do anything. Cemre is ashamed to admit that she didn't want to do anything that day. She was just going to leave it up to fate. Can she do the same now? Would she get away with it?

A nurse runs into the room and Cemre has her answer. She comes to her senses enough to realize this could get bad for her really quickly unless she does something.

"I don't understand what happened to her," Cemre says, not even having to fake the shock and horror in her voice. Whatever is happening with Reyhan is terrifying. But even more terrifying is the thought that Emir would find out about all of this. "We were just talking like friends do when she went silent and started shaking."

Reyhan has gone still. Deathly still. And Cemre panics. She runs out of the room ... and right into Emir.

"What's going on?" he asks, the fear making his voice shake. "What were you doing in there, Cemre? What happened to Reyhan?"

"I don't know," Cemre cries, her emotions getting the better of her. I've never seen anyone die before, she says to herself. She's too in shock to realize she's said it out loud.

A pain filled catches her attention. She looks up with Zafer's shout catches her attention.

"Emir!" he calls to his troubled friend.

Cemre just manages to grab onto Emir's arm when his legs stop supporting him. Zafer is there a second later on his other side and they both guide the distraught man to a bank of chairs against the opposite wall.

"What did you say?" Emir asks shakily, looking up at Cemre. "Dead? Is she ... gone?"

"Don't borrow trouble," Zafer says, also looking at Cemre. Only the look in his eyes is a lot less friendly than she's used to seeing. "I'm sure she'll be fine. Let's just wait and see what the doctor says."

So they wait.