The Price of Pride

Chapter 29

Cavidan and Cemre walk towards Reyhan. Reyhan unfortunately doesn't see them until they get to her. But when she finally notices them, her heart sinks. They weren't supposed to be here. But nevertheless, here they are. And it's taking everything in her to not panic. She knows that showing these two women any signs of weakness will only make things worse for her. So gives her best effort at appearing fearless.

"Cavidan hanım. Cemre," she greets them with a forced smile. "This is a surprise. I didn't realize you'd be here."

"Who are you to decide if I'm here or not? I'm the one who should be asking what you are doing here," Cavidan snarls. "You can't just sneak into parties like this. What did you do? Use the Tarhun name to get in here? Shameless girl. You need to go. Now!"

"This isn't the place for you," Cemre says, pulling out her pilfered invitation. "Especially if you don't have one of these."

Reyhan narrows her eyes at the invitation. She knows for a fact that neither woman was on the guest list. So how did they get one? But it all makes sense when she focuses on the invitation and sees Suheyla hanım's name. Cemre apparently is using her mother's invitation.

"In fact, I bet security would toss you right out of here when they find out you don't have an invitation. Maybe I should call them over?" Cavidan challenges. "Or maybe you should just leave on your own before things get ugly. You've already embarrassed us enough as it is. What do you think Emir will think when he hears you've been kicked out of a party?"

Reyhan closes her eyes and sighs. She can't believe she has to deal with this. On today of all days. She's exhausted and her back is still aching. She was actually about to slip away for about an hour to rest. Her mother and Defne already agreed to handle the rest of the party. Dealing with these two was not what she was expecting. And frankly, she doesn't care what they do at this point. She just wants to go get off her feet for a bit.

"Do whatever you have to do, Cavidan hanım," Reyhan says wearily. "I don't have the energy to fight with you right now."

She tries to push past them, but Cavidan grabs her arm and pulls her to an alcove out of the public eye. Cemre goes off in the other direction and Reyhan is suddenly hoping she actually does bring security.

"Listen here, you little gold digger. You need to go. Or else," Cavidan threatens.

"Let go of me," Reyhan says, trying to pull her arm out of Cavidan's grip. But the older woman seems to be inhumanly strong and even tightens her hold. She gives Reyhan a little shove and has her backed up against the way with no escape. "Ow! You're hurting me!"

"I gave you a chance to get out of here. But I see you want to do this the hard way. Cemre will be back with security any minute. Then they'll toss you out of here. And when they do, I'll make sure everyone knows I have nothing to do with you."

"Stop this, Cavidan hanım. You're making a big mistake," Reyhan warns her. "Let me go before this gets out of hand."

"You're making me do this!" Cavidan explodes. "Why can't you just leave my son and this family alone? We don't want you here. When are you going to realize that?"

"Emir loves me," Reyhan says, tears in her eyes. "When are you going to realize?"

Cavidan gasps as if she had been slapped. Then she decides to reciprocate with an actual slap. She raises her hand to Reyhan and is about to let loose when her arm is suddenly stopped.

"What is going on out here?"

Emine stands between Cavidan and Reyhan, her hand still holding on to Cavidan.