Losing Control

Chapter 6

It took Eda a full week of Ayfer working for Serkan Bolat before she had time to research the man and when she did she was appalled at the man that had been appointed guardian of children. What was his father thinking? Giving custody of three young children to a playboy? She and Ayfer were going to have a long discussion tonight as to whether or not the woman had lost her mind.

Every night Kiraz came home and talked about Ebbie this and Ebbie that. If she wasn't talking about the little girl she was telling her about the boy Emir and how funny he was or Defne teaching her how to swim. Eda didn't want her daughter to get too caught up in their family and have her heart broken.

If Eda was being honest with herself, Serkan Bolat wasn't all bad. As a matter of fact he hadn't been in the news at all until two years ago. Either something changed or he was worse at hiding his behavior. She would get to the bottom of his story. Right now though, she had a custody case that was taking all of her time. A wealthy family was separating and refused to do mediation, both the husband and wife were demanding custody of the children. Eda had done interviews with both parties and if she was being honest with herself, neither of them really seemed to want the children they only wanted to hurt each other.

This was the aspect of the job that she hated most, when there was no clear side in the case and the children became the loser. The only person that seemed to want the children was the maternal grandparents, the husband's parents had no interest in the children. Eda ended up consulting with her boss, who supported her decision. She suggested that the maternal grandparents receive temporary custody and the parents undergo counseling. Neither of the parents were happy but the children and grandparents were.

She looked at her watch, it was only eleven. Maybe she should take the money pit out. Eda didn't often go out on the big boat alone but this might give her an opportunity to meet Ayfer's charges and get more information on Serkan Bolat. She dialed her aunt, "What would you say to packing everyone up for an afternoon on the water?"

Ayfer looked at the children involved in various projects and decided to ask, "Does anyone here want to go for an outing?"

They all looked at her, "An outing? Where?" asked Emir. They were all getting to like Ayfer and her laid back manner. She was strict without being mean and had them all doing chores with her. Even Kiraz was not immune from doing chores in their house and they were rather surprised that she did them without a fuss.

"Kiraz's mama has a boat and she asked if we would like to go out on it today."

Defne looked at her siblings, "A boat? We've never been on one before."

Meanwhile Kiraz was jumping around clapping excitedly, "Yes please can we go on mama's boat?"

The other children were curious and agreed to the outing. They also wanted to see Kiraz's mother, they were rather disbelieving that she was a loving as Kiraz seemed to indicate but then they had no experience with this kind of a mother. Thirty minutes later they were packed into Ayfer's car armed with snacks and headed the short drive to the marina.

Eda was standing on the dock with the boat idling waiting for Ayfer and her charges. She broke out into a smile when she saw her baby girl, Eda knelt to wrap Kiraz in a hug as she ran to her. Defne stared at the woman waiting for them. This couldn't be Kiraz's mother she was too young. As she got closer she realized that her mother wasn't as young as she thought she just looked young and she was beautiful. Defne was in awe of the woman standing before her looking like she just stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine.

Ayfer came up to Eda and hugged her before introducing her charges, she had to nudge Emir who only had eyes for the boat. Eda smiled back at all of them, "Welcome to Star Chaser, let's get you all on board and the little ones into some life jackets," Eda felt two small hands sneak into hers. Kiraz on one side and little Ebru on the other. She helped both girls onto the boat and then turned to assist Emir, Defne and Ayfer. Eda found Kiraz showing Ebru where the life jackets were, picking out hers and another small one for her friend.