The Price of Pride

Chapter 13

"Oh, Baby," he sighs. "I was so stupid. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Why would they do this?" she asks tearfully. "Why do they hate me?"

"They hate you because I ... because I love you," he manages to say.

Her little gasp of surprise brings a small smile to his lips.

"Emir?"

"Shhh! I'm just putting it out there. I just want you to know. Just take it in for now. We'll figure it all out later," he reassures her. "Just say that you're willing to stay in this with me. Just say that you'll be patient with me. That you'll forgive me when I mess up."

She lets out a heavy sigh before looking up at him.

"It wasn't your fault. Your mother and Cemre started all this."

"But how I acted, how I treated you ... that's on me. But you have my word," he swears. "You have my vow that I will never do that again. When we have problems, they will stay between us. And we'll work them out. My mother wants to hurt me. Cemre wants to hurt me. But you, I trust with my heart. I know now that you won't do anything to hurt me on purpose."

"Not if I can help it," she promises in return. "That's my vow to you too, Emir."

He smiles at her and hugs her.

"As long as we keep these promises then nothing can come between us."

"Your mother terrifies me," Reyhan whispers. "If she wants me gone, I'm afraid that she won't stop until I'm gone."

His mother scares him too. But Emir isn't going to let anything happen to Reyhan. His mother will lose him before he'd ever let Reyhan go. He just hopes it won't come down to that.

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

Defne thanks Zafer for the ride and gets out of the car. She waves him off, but he insists on waiting until she gets inside. Just as she's about to put her key into the lock, a man steps out of the darkness and startles her. He had been waiting for her.

"Fatih!" she says, putting a hand to her chest. "You scared me. What are you doing here? And why? You walked out on me months ago and I haven't heard one word from you since."

Looking at him now, Defne doesn't know what she ever saw in him. Sure he's good looking and has a good job and nice car. And at first he treated her well. Or so she thought. Unfortunately 'faithful' doesn't turn out to be one of his character traits.

"Babe, let's talk," he says, making her skin crawl even more. She can't believe she ever let this guy touch her. She can't believe she thought she would marry him.

"About what? About how you left me for Burcu? Or about how she left you for someone else?" Defne asks, folding her arms defensively across her chest. "I don't care about anything you have to say. And I don't have anything to say to you. So just go."

"She didn't leave me. I'm the one who sent her packing," Fatih claims. "She lied about the baby."

She just shakes her head and turns her back on him. She's done talking. She was done talking months ago when he left.

But apparently he's not done with her. He grabs her arm and tries to pull her back to him which makes her begin to struggle with him. Too tired to fight with him, she begins to fear that her struggles are in vain.

"Is there a problem here?"

Zafer comes up behind them and surprises them both. He walks to Defne's side and stands between her and Fatih. Fatih is forced to let go of Defne's arm.