A Necessary Journey

Life Without

The older woman frowned at the young man on her doorstep, looking him up and down, suspicious. Leaning her head back into the house, she hollered out.

"Turkan, there's a young man here for you."

After a few moments he could hear the grumbling of the Topal matriarch as she made her way to the door. "If that's Serdar, you can tell..." Her eyes widened and she stopped abruptly on seeing Omer standing on the stoop. With a quick nod at her sister, she indicated that she was fine. 

As Defne's aunt made her way inside the house, Turkan turned back to Omer who took her hand, pressing a kiss and his forehead against it. He could see from the lack of smile, that he was not being warmly received. 

"Aunt Turkan."

"Omer. Why are you here? Did Defne send you?"

"I'd like to talk, if that's possible? Defne doesn't know I'm here."

Sighing, Turkan nodded and stepped aside, allowing him to enter. "You've come all this way, the least I can do is listen."

Entering, Omer smiled. "Thank you." He could tell that he had a lot of ground to cover, but she wasn't sending him away. It was a start. 

They sat at the table in the garden sipping tea, Omer sat back with a sigh after telling Turkan his side of the story. "And that's why I left. Like you, I was hurt, that everyone had kept it from me... but I came to understand why. I came to understand Defne."

Turkan's eyes narrowed. "But you left, you left my Defne broken, with no will to live, you destroyed her."

"I know that, but I was destroyed too. Everyone I loved, had lied to me. I was angry, hurt. But no amount of distance or time can change how I feel about Defne... I need her. And I know that she feels the same."

Turkan sighed and sat back in her chair. "When her father left, she was devastated... and then her mother too, it destroyed Defne. She's never believed that she deserves to be loved because of her parents' abandonment." Her eyes fell on Omer. "Then you, you did the same thing, you reinforced that belief, Omer son."

"I know that. But aren't you doing the same thing?"

Turkan's eyes spit fire as she looked at him. "I'd never! Never abandon my children."

His smile was gentle, non judgemental. "Defne doesn't know that, if her mother and her father could walk away from her, why not her grandmother? Those are her own words."

Turkan's face crumbled as she realised that Omer was right. She was no better than he was, she knew she was coming home, but Serdar, Defne and Esra, they didn't know that. She'd walked out on them in anger, and it wasn't fair. 

Omer reached out and took her hand, squeezing gently. "I don't want to upset you, I will spend the rest of my life making it up to Defne, I promise you that. But right now, she's at home, broken and blaming herself. She thinks that you're disappointed in her, that you raised them wrong. But Aunt Turkan, nothing could be further from the truth. Don't you see? Defne put herself in a dangerous, potentially harmful position, to save Serdar's life... what choice did she have? If she did anything wrong, it was in not keeping her end of the deal with my aunt, and all because she fell in love. That's all she did, she fell in love... and I'm thankful every day that she did, because I can't imagine life without her."

Turkan contemplated his words, saw the earnestness in his eyes... believed him even. But he'd still hurt her daughter, and yes, she could understand why he left, but she wasnt ready to forgive him entirely. Not just yet.

"Omer, I can see that you got hurt, that your entire family betrayed you...  but despite all of that, when I look at you, I can still see the hurt, the pain, the devastation that Defne experienced. You can understand that, can't you?"