A Necessary Journey

Another Lie

Over the first couple of days, he'd taken some time off to get his head around everything that had happened. Defne hadn't returned to work either, Sinan had kept him informed while he was out of the office.

He'd tried to call and message her on numerous occasions, but he was met with silence. He couldn't blame her, she was hurt and confused. It struck him that she was suffering, just as much as he had when he learned of her betrayal, of the lie she'd told for an entire year. And if she refused to take him back, to speak with him, he was going to suffer in much the same way that she had when he left for Rome for those three long months.

He had spoken with Sonia, had told her that while he would ensure that she and the child were provided for, while he would be a part of his child's life, that she could expect nothing more from him. She'd readily agreed, advising him that she wasn't looking for any kind of relationship, but that she was grateful that he would support his offspring, and that co parenting would be the best outcome for them both, after all, they were still strangers to one another. 

What they did agree on, was that Omer couldn't leave Turkey and return to Rome. He had a business here, responsibilities, employees... he had Defne. Sonia however had been waitressing when he met her, and was in a better position to move, at least temporarily until after the child was born, to Turkey. She knew little to no Turkish, with English being her second language, and so he had advised her to look up Turkish classes, which he would pay for. Again, she accepted his suggestion, with no resistance. 

Sonia would to Rome, to tie up any loose ends and put her affairs in order, before returning to Istanbul, by which point, Omer should have found a suitable apartment for her close by. As far as that side of his life was going, things were smooth. Sonia was amenable to all of his suggestions, which just made everything so much easier, he supposed that she might have struggled to raise a child on her own, and that was the reason behind her acceptance of all of his requests. 

With Sonia's needs met in the meantime, Omer needed to think about Defne's and how he could, if he could, meet hers. 

It had been one of the most trying times of her life so far, getting her head around both what Omer had done, and the consequences of those actions. This wasn't anything like the lie she'd told, there had always been the possibility of wiping the slate clean in that situation, of starting over with nothing between them. In this scenario, they couldn't make a child disappear, the child would be a living, breathing reminder of everything that went wrong between them before their wedding, and everything that went wrong after it. The child would be a reminder of Omer's betrayal. 

Whilst Omer had made it clear that they were no longer together when he had left her crying in the bathroom of their honeymoon suite, the fact that he'd taken a stranger to bed before the ink was dried on their annulment papers was a hard truth to swallow. He'd slept with that woman, while Defne was still his wife, even if only on paper. She could never have acted as he had, done what he had, and it made it impossible for her to understand him. Try as she might.

Even harder was the fact that she felt unable to share the latest details of her miserable saga with her family. She'd spent the past weeks, convincing them that Omer wouldn't hurt her again, that they were on solid ground. She couldn't explain this to them, couldn't see their pitiful looks and listen to their questions. This time, she had to deal with it on her own. She'd avoided his calls, taking to putting her phone on silent so that her family wouldn't question why she was avoiding calls, but she couldn't speak with him, she knew he'd try to convince her to change her mind and she knew that she would undoubtedly let him. 

There was one person that she thought might be able to help her, one person who might possibly understand her, and a year ago, they would have been the last person she would have turned to with a problem. But Defne had grown in the last year, and she was ready to stand on her own two feet, Omer was the catalyst for that. She needed a fresh start, some distance from Omer and from those around her who would question her decision.