She begins to stir just as the sun rises. Reluctantly, he decides to get out of the bed to avoid startling her. He doesn't want to push things with her until he can see she's on the same page as he is. For whatever reason, she has stubbornly decided they shouldn't be together. He's going to have to be a bit stealthy to get around her defenses. He smiles a little at the thought. He's going to go on full blown charm mode. She won't know what hit her.
As he's carefully untangling himself from her, she begins to fidget restlessly. He checks to see if she's awake, but notices she's still asleep with a deep frown spreading across her face.
"No," she mutters in her sleep, her head tossing back and forth on the pillow. "I'm not leaving him. Don't make me."
"Reyhan?" he says gently, shaking her shoulder to try to wake her. "Wake up now. It's just a dream."
Or is it, he wonders to himself. Who is she fighting with?
"No ... no ... Emir!"
She shoots up to a sitting position, shaking like a leaf. Her breathing is so hard, he's afraid she's going to make herself pass out. He grabs her face and turns her head until she's looking directly into his eyes.
"Hey, it's okay. You're okay. Calm down. Breathe with me."
She takes a few shaky breaths before she finally comes back to her senses.
"Emir?" She pulls away enough to look around to see where she is. "What are you doing here? You can't be here with me like this. No one can see us!"
She starts to panic, looking around the room with wild eyes that are still a bit unclear and unfocused.
"Hold on," he says gently, trying to calm her down. "Just relax. You're going to hurt yourself. You're still a bit unsteady from yesterday."
She continues to panic and is borderline about to hyperventilate.
"What's happening? Why am I here? Why are you here?"
"Shhh!" he says, cupping her face in his hands. "I'll explain everything. But you need to breathe, Canım. You're about to pass out."
"Emir," she whimpers. She closes her eyes and for a moment, allows herself to soak in his presence. To just feel him. Smell him. Hold him. His touch meant everything to her and she's had to live without it for too long. Right now, it's as necessary to her as her next breath. It calms and soothes her. Clears her head. So when she just barely stops herself from purring in delight, that's when she realizes what she's doing and tries to push him away. "We can't do this."
"Just a minute," he pleads. "Let me have just this one minute. We both need this."
Unable to deny what he's saying, or resist him, she gives in. She'll take this one minute with him. She closes her eyes when he rests his forehead against hers and just breathes him in.
"What are we doing?" she asks, knowing she shouldn't want this. But also understanding that she needs it.
"Minute's not over," he whispers, pulling her into a hug that she's helpless to resist. But he squeezes a bit too hard and the pain of her ribs brings her back to her senses. She gasps, and this time when she pushes him away, he sets her free.
"Are you okay? Melike abla said there was some bruising."
"It's fine," she says sharply, pulling the rest of the way away from him and getting out of the bed. She wraps her own arms around herself to stop the slight shivers, cold from his sudden absence. "You should leave now."
Emir just stares at her and frowns. But he eventually nods, not wanting to push her.
"I won't ask you anything now," he says. "But we need to have a long talk eventually, Reyhan. A very long talk. You being back here has shown me that we're not over yet. I don't know why you left, but I'm going to figure it out. And then I'm going to fix it. I'm going to fix us."
He takes her hand and holds it to his heart and she wants to believe. More than anything, she wants to believe that things can be right again between them. But at that moment, something just outside her room catches her attention. Cemre is staring in at them, the anger on her face enough to terrify Reyhan. This isn't good.
"You really have to go, Emir," she says, pushing him towards the door. She peeks back over her shoulder to where she had seen Cemre staring through the window, but the woman is gone now. But she probably saw enough to make trouble for Emir. Reyhan can't let that happen. She gave up too much for him to go to jail now.
Once Emir is out the room, Reyhan closes and locks the door behind him. She sits on the bed and drops her face into her hands, still shaking from being with him. How could she have let Emir get that close? She couldn't help it though. She thought it was a dream at first. To wake up in his arms again has been one of her most constant wishes since the divorce. And for one sweet moment, she was able to live that wish.
Unfortunately it has given Emir hope that things can get better. But Reyhan knows things will never get better. There's no fixing this situation. As long as Cemre has those recordings, she will always have the upper hand over Reyhan. As long as her uncle and Suna are sick, Reyhan can never risk Emir finding out what he's done. So she's stuck following Cemre's rules. She's stuck making that one perfect minute she shared with Emir last for the rest of her life.
She can only hope and pray that that minute of weakness doesn't lead to the downfall of them all.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Cavidan almost drops her coffee when Cemre comes storming into the living room, a look of death on her face.
"What's wrong with you now, Cemre? You should be happy today. Today is the day we get rid of that girl for good."
"Are you sure about that?"
Cemre paces angrily, kicking any and everything in her path.
"Why don't you just calm down and tell me what she's done now," Cavidan sighs. "I'm sure it's not that bad."
"How's this for bad? She seduced your son and lured him into her bed. I just found them all wrapped up together. In bed together, Cavidan teyze. Bed!"
Cavidan frowns, realizing Cemre may be right.
"That's not good," she agrees somberly. "But maybe you misunderstood."
"He was caressing her," Cemre adds. "He was whispering soft words to her. They were about to kiss, I just know it! And who knows what they were doing all night. She's evil. Immoral. And we have to get her out of the house. Now!"
She's right, Cavidan admits to herself. That little peasant has more nerve than Cavidan thought. She definitely needs to go. Because if she's getting close to Emir again, there's a chance she'll tell him what Cavidan has been doing. And there's an even greater chance Emir will believe her this time. She can't take that risk.
"Call your guys, Cemre. Once Emir leaves for work, we'll be getting rid of our problem. Permanently."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Earth to Emir!"
"Zafer?" Emir blinks and is shocked to see Zafer standing in front of his desk. He's had a weird feeling nagging him for the past hour and he can't stay focused on anything. He didn't even notice Zafer coming into his office.
Zafer just laughs.
"Finally you notice me. You were completely zoned out, buddy. What's going on with you? I mean, I can take a guess what's causing your distraction. Or who, I should say. About this tall?" he says, holding his arm up to his shoulder. "Long dark hair? Big doe eyes?"
He laughs again at Emir's scowl.
"I'm not going to ask what she's done, because it's usually nothing," Zafer says, rolling his eyes in exasperation at his friend. "But what do you think Reyhan has done now?"
Emir gives him an impatient glare.
"You say that like I always blame her for my problems."
"You do!" Zafer says, still laughing. "I'm sure this time isn't any different."
"That's where you'd be wrong, my friend," Emir corrects him. "Things have changed. I've changed. The situation has gotten so messed up. Or maybe it's always been messed up and I just could never see."
Emir lets out a deep sigh and causes Zafer to frown.
"This sounds serious. What's really going on with you?"
"I think you've been right this whole time," Emir admits. "Every time I would come to you, so angry at her about things I thought she did that she clearly wouldn't ever do. I can see that now ... now that I know her. I think she's been the victim of this terrible, sick game my mother is playing. Cemre too."
Emir briefly tells Zafer what happened at the house recently, starting with finding the stab wound on his father and ending with waking up with Reyhan that morning. Zafer is stunned to say the least.
"So you think your mother set Reyhan up to make you believe she's hurting your father?"
"It doesn't make a lot of sense," Emir shrugs. "But it makes more sense than believing Reyhan would hurt my dad. And it makes a lot of past events make more sense too. Like that time I thought Reyhan had married me for my money. Or that time when Zeynep got kidnapped, and I believed Reyhan was involved because of some anonymous pictures I received."
"That girl who tried to say she was your mistress," Zafer adds. "The one that made Reyhan leave. That all makes sense now."
At Emir's confused look, he explains.
"I never told you this, but I had someone look into that girl. Because it didn't really make sense for her to have targeted you out of the blue. I never found anything odd except one thing ... she had spent one night in lock up with Cemre. I thought it was just a coincidence. I thought she had gotten the idea to target you because she knew of your connection to Cemre. But maybe it was more than that. Maybe Cemre ..." he trails off, letting Emir fill in the blanks.
"Before, I would have said no way. But now, how can I ignore any of this?" Emir asks. "This is all so unbelievable, but at the same time, so much makes sense now. Maybe even the divorce."
"Emir, what are you saying?"
"Reyhan is terrified of something, Man. Something that scared her and forced her to leave me. To divorce me. I'm sure of it."
"Like what?"
"I wish I knew, Zafer. I wish I knew."
He sighs, then looks down at his watch. Too early to go home, but that weird feeling won't quit nagging him.
"Just go. Go find out," Zafer orders him. "I'll handle the meetings today."
Emir only hesitates for a moment before nodding and grabbing his stuff. Something is telling him to get to Reyhan as soon as possible. He just hopes he didn't wait too late.
Fortunately, all the traffic lights seem to be on his side, and he gets home in record time. Just as he's about to turn onto his street, he sees Cemre's car turn the opposite direction and continue down the street. He watches with curiosity as she parks behind a dark van.
"What is she up to now?" he wonders aloud, staying out of sight to observe. He's shocked to see Cemre pulling Reyhan out of the car. Reyhan appears to be stumbling and struggling to stay on her feet, as if she'd been drugged again. Three large men get out of the van and take her from Cemre. A fourth takes Reyhan's suitcase.
"No!" Emir shouts, putting the car in gear. But he stops a minute and thinks. There's no way he'll be able to fight off all the men, especially if they have weapons. If weapons are involved, there's the distinct possibility that both he and Reyhan will end up dead. He calls for help instead, keeping the police on the line while he follows the van.
"Please help her," he begs the police as he continues to follow the van. He can't let it get out of his sight. "I don't know who they are or why they're doing this. But they took her against her will."
He continues to give them details on the van: the color, the license plate, the direction they're travelling. And he's relieved after the longest twenty minutes of his life to see approaching cop cars with their lights flashing. They stop the van without too much trouble, but Emir doesn't breathe again until he sees Reyhan.
Çok şükür.
She's safe.
Now all that matters is keeping her that way. Even if that means he's going to have to go against his mother and Cemre to stop their games. Reyhan, and his marriage, has been their victim for the last time.