Sudden decisions

38 -Between fiction and truth.

Can

The night before.

"Abi, brother, your father came to me."
I don't understand why my father decided to go straight to Metin as soon as he arrived in Istanbul. He greeted us at the agency saying that he had errands to run and that we would meet at home for dinner, I can't imagine why he went straight to Metin.
"Why?"
"He knows everything Can, in fact I've come to realise he actually knows more than we do." I squeeze the phone tighter against my ear as I leave my room looking around to head towards the garden. Emre should be at home and I don't want to be around him during a call like this.

I wait until I get past the pool and sit on a chair on the back porch before I ask Metin." What did he say?"
"Look Can, he began by saying that he is worried about the agency, that the acts of sabotage that have happened lately have only worsened an already very precarious economic situation for some time. He asked me what I thought was going on and I, I don't know why, but I sensed that he knew more than I thought and I couldn't keep quiet Can; you know that I am the lawyer of Fikri Harika and that I have to answer for my actions to each of you shareholders in the same way. Aziz knows me well, I practically grew up in your house and he is a second father to me, I could not lie to him about the situation. He was not surprised, in fact he told me that we only found out half the story. I tried to get him to tell me what he was talking about, but he said to wait and that in due course everything will come out. Of course I told him nothing about Sanem's role in this story, I only told him the essentials.

I am surprised, I didn't think my father had realised what was going on, apparently only I was completely unaware of Emre's manoeuvres, I wish he would have shared his suspicions with me at least I would have kept an eye on his moves and maybe not fallen into his trap.

"Ok Metin, thanks for the heads up, for now let's proceed as we decided, as soon as I can I will talk privately with my father to understand more. Thank you abi"

I hang up and let my head fall back, against the back of the armchair, heedless of the icy wind of this late March evening. The situation I am experiencing seems more and more absurd and now I am even more worried at the idea of the repercussions it may have on my father's health. I would rather he had stayed abroad, unaware of what his son is up to against him and his company.
I am tired, I have slept little and badly for days, after Sanem's confession I have not had a moment's respite. The next morning I sent a message to Metin asking him to meet me, I explained the situation and we spent two whole days locked in his office with an accountant and a computer expert, sifting through Fikri Harika's accounts to discover huge sums of money camouflaged very well between accounts and sub-accounts.
Amongst the various transactions carried out by my brother, a payment of 200,000 Turkish lira to Sanem Aydin with the reason: ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCE caught my attention. Ironic my brother, he knows well that neither I nor my father had ever been interested in the accounting part, which was entrusted to him with the utmost confidence, so he was sure that we would never find out that he had thought fit to pay with the agency's money the spy who had been instructed to act to bring it to bankruptcy. My question was only one: if he was stealing Fikri Harika's money without anyone noticing, why had he now decided to ruin it for good? Apparently he had been talking to Metin for some time about putting the agency up for sale if the financial situation did not improve. Why did he want to sell? What was in that damned folder that Sanem was instructed to retrieve at all costs? Our investigator was working night and day trying to find out what Emre's real intentions were, I didn't have to alarm him for now and to do that I didn't have to make it clear that Sanem had told me the truth.

I close my eyes clutching my nose between my fingers to relieve the terrible headache that has been haunting me for days.
Sanem.
I still can't believe that she managed to deceive me right from the start without me having the slightest suspicion. On the contrary, I was convinced that I had found a unique, pure, naive girl, a simple soul with big dreams, I liked her frankness and her strange way of doing things. I now know that everything was a sham for the purpose of hiding her true intentions, and all for the desire for vile money. I have instructed the private investigator to investigate her as well, at this point I have no idea who the woman I have attached myself to really is and I need to know more.

"Can! Where are you? Dinner is ready" My father's voice calls to me from the living room window. "Coming babam." I pull myself up to my seat resting my elbows on my knees, I have to prepare myself for hours of pretending not to let my brother know that I would like to grab him by the neck and shake him until he explains what the heck he's up to. I have to pretend nothing is going on, chatting about this and that, maybe making believe I am the happiest of lovers. I don't want my father to find out about Sanem and his involvement in Emre's dirty business. His health is very delicate right now, he is secretly dealing with his son's betrayal and he seems so happy about my upcoming marriage to Sanem. I don't want to give him a hard time by calling it off just when he has even returned to Istanbul specifically to attend. Not to mention the solemn commitment I made to her, I know her parents would be hurt by the cancellation of the engagement even though I would have all the reasons in the world to back out in light of what he did.

I sigh bringing my hands to crinkle my eyes, I have no idea what will become of us when the whole story comes out, I can't understand how I feel about her at the moment either. I'm angry and disappointed, that's for sure, but apparently for the time being there's nothing I can do but continue the happy couple charade and she'll have to humour me, that's the least I can do. I get up to go into the house as I think about how incredible it is to think that all things considered I had willingly agreed to ask her to marry me, in fact I can say that I didn't mind the idea of tying myself to her at all. I was ready to marry her, to start a life together, with the best intentions of making things work between us, me who knows nothing about romantic ties and has never had any in my life. How far am I willing to take this game? Or rather, am I ready to blow it by ruining her and breaking the commitment I made to her father?