Tatlı Aşk (Sweet Love) (Can & Ozge)

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Wake

"Hande, dear, are you okay?"

Yasar Ercel, Hande's mother, said, snapping Hande back to reality. She was reading some documents but her mind was somewhere else, travelling to Serkan in Istanbul.

"I'm fine, mom," Hande said, but the crack in her voice made it all too obvious.

"You're not, honey," Yasar said. "What's wrong?"

Hande sighed, trying to fight back tears as she spoke. This was something she had been thinking about for days.

"Am I crazy, Mom? Am I crazy for thinking Serkan is in love with someone else?" Hande said as she got up and sat on the chair across her mother in front of her desk. "He hasn't been himself these days. He's not as... sweet as he used to be. I don't know, I feel like it's my fault. I left him-"

"Hande, it's not your fault!" Yasar said in a higher calm tone. "Look, I don't know what's going on between you and Serkan but communication is always key to relationships, honey. Talk to him about it. Ask him. When are you going to Istanbul?"

"In a few days," Hande exhaled. "I have some projects I need to finish here in Rome then I'll come to him. But I feel like I'm gonna go crazy just thinking about it. I wanna go to Istanbul as soon as possible."

***

"Timoteo, what are we doing here?"

Yaren asked as she got out of her car, taking in her surroundings.

They were now at a huge factory with hundreds of employees moving boxes and cargos to the trucks parked in front. Some of them greeted Timoteo with respect then went on to their work.

"This way, Yaren, come on," Timoteo said as he led her inside the establishment.

From the outside, it looked like some unpainted, sort of rundown factory, but inside looked fancier. The walls were in marble and the floor had marble tiles. The air conditioner was probably turned on really high cause it was so cold inside. It looked like a five-star hotel actually.

"Wow," Yaren mouthed.

"This is my business, Yaren," Timoteo said as they got on the elevator.

"Which is?"

Timoteo chuckled. "You must know, Yaren, I was born to the Allesi family. My father never loved me as his own but he did leave me with a gift."

The elevator dinged and as the doors opened, it revealed a fancy hallway, all marble. They got out of the elevator and walked towards the room that had two bodyguards guarding it. They opened the room and revealed a luxurious office. Yaren was no architect or a real estate agent, but she estimated the room was 5,000 square feet at most.

"What gift?" Yaren said as she sat down in front of Timoteo's desk.

"All of this, Yaren, is my father's gift to me," Timoteo said, his eyes full of... sorrow? "The syndicate. The Allesi family is one of the wealthiest and most respected family in the mafia world. We trade drugs and illegal weaponry. And this..."

Timoteo took out a rectangular wooden box, painted in gold and opened it in front of Yaren. Her eyes widened when Timoteo took out what was in the box.

"A gun?" Yaren asked, nervous.

"You're gonna point this at Efe and threaten him, Yaren," Timoteo grinned.

"What? No!" Yaren said. "Look, Timoteo, I'm mad at Can but threatening and using a gun against his best friend is going way too far!"

"Yaren, please," Timoteo stood up and she flinched. "You're just gonna threaten Efe a tiny bit, asking him to separate Can and Ozge, you don't even have to fire the gun. This doesn't even have bullets, see?"