Moonlit Scars

Prologue

The tiny cafe nestled into a wall of sycamore trees, seemed like the perfect place to secure her daughter's fate.

Ayleen took another sip of her coffee and looked around. This was a different world than her own. Here people were laughing and chatting, their shoulders relaxed, their back exposed to windows and doors. Here people shared heaping plates of baklava and rice pudding and drank small cups of bitter coffee and sweet chai. Even though the place was too airy and open for her liking, it reminded Ayleen of those first few months of her courtship with Kerem- when he used to snatch her away from her bodyguards and sneak her into jazz clubs or hipster restaurants, to show her what it really meant to live.

Those months felt like they were a lifetime away.

The bell attached to the entrance chimed, pulling Ayleen away from her thoughts. She stared. The girl who entered the cafe in her pale green dress, didn't much resemble the girl whom she'd seen at Kerem's memorial service, two years earlier. She'd been a furious little thing back then, demanding to know why they held a memorial service for a person who was only missing. Ayleen still remembered the look she'd thrown at her- the anger and the accusation in her eyes. My brother could still be here if he didn't marry you, those eyes seemed to say. He'd still be with me, singing made-up songs and making up ridiculous tales if he never met you...

She wasn't entirely wrong.

Ayleen leaned back and took her in. She was still short and petite with tiny wrists and long dark hair tied back in a plait. Her peach tinted skin glowed against the green of her dress, setting her apart from the pale skinned people in the cafe. With a jolt, Ayleen realized that she'd matured fast, despite her young age, just like Ayleen herself had.

The death of a loved one could do that to you.

Only, the girl didn't believe that her brother was dead now, did she? She still thought he was out there somewhere and he'd come back someday. That he'd come back to them.

But she didn't know about the severed finger with Kerem's blood speckled wedding ring attached to it, sent to them in a box. She didn't know about the packet of pulled out toe nails with DNA that matched Kerem's, left at the front gate of the mansion. She didn't know about the threatening letters that kept her up at nights, shaking, terrified of her own shadow.

"It must have been the Grave Digger gang," her brother- Demir had said once. "They send you dismembered body parts in exchange of ransom. There's no request for ransom in any of these letters, though."

He'd been so calm when he said that.

Ayleen watched as the girl sat down across her at the table, the beads on her purse catching the sunlight. Her face was an open book- her posture was cautious but her lips held the hint of a smile.

"Hey," she said. "Good to see you again, Ayleen."

Ayleen looked at the wide dark eyes- so similar to Kerem's and attempted for a smile.

"Hello," she greeted back. "Seray."

The girl smiled then, her face relaxing like she was used to that expression. Ayleen swallowed hard. What must it feel like to be in this girl's head, so innocent and unassuming of the dangers around her... It made Ayleen's heart ache.

Seray was just like Lalam.

Ayleen took out the photograph tucked into her breast pocket and smoothed it out on the table. The face of a laughing child stared up at her. Bright dark eyes, wavy brown hair and dimples flashing in the face of an angel. She looked up to see Seray staring at the photograph with a fond expression.