Priceless Love

New Beginnings and Endings

I did what I had to do for my family, Vera, Baris answered somberly.

Baris, this is too far. We can't sit by and watch Nehat die. It's too much! I don't want her with that man either but she says she's walking out of our lives. I didn't want to lose her in the process. Give them the money for the trial. But don't give her that ultimatum. He will fail her and she will end it herself soon enough, she begged.

NO! he roared. That's what you said when my daughter first told us about Nehat and we tried to separate them. And look what happened. They ran off in the middle of the night and eloped! I was the laughing stock of our friends, Vera. The man who couldn't control his daughter, who couldn't stop her from marrying a man who could hardly hold down a job! NO! I won't let it happen to Sanem, too. Stay out of my way, Vera. This time it will be done my way.

Cowering from his outburst, Vera went back to the bedroom to calm down. She would have to fix this somehow. She had lost her daughter but she wouldn't lose her granddaughter also.

Vera remembered the aftermath of that elopement. They were the talk of the country club for months. He was right. People snickered and whispered behind their backs. It was humiliating. So much so, that she willingly participated in how Baris treated Nehat from then on. She knew he would fail her daughter yet...somehow it hadn't happened. 

Thinking back on all the insults they gave him through the years, she realized he never once spoke back to them. Until the other night at the Ball, that is.

She had always counted it as cowardice on his part, weakness as she had been sure was a part of his character.

But Sanem had said something that night that stayed with her. Her father never treated her and Baris with the contempt anyone else would have because he didn't want his daughters to look at them in a negative light. Why did that bother her so much?

Rubbing her chest, she thought about the strength it must have taken for Nehat to stand by Mevkibe all those years especially after coming to work in the publishing house. What it must have taken for him to finally come to them and accept that offer all those years ago when he had lost his job. No doubt he did it for her. He sacrificed his pride for her. Why had she not seen that before? 

Shaking her head as she walked around her bedroom, she understood what she had been missing for decades. 

Nehat wasn't weak or cowardly. His actions showed strength, bravery, sacrifice and love. Love for her daughter and granddaughters. Courage to stand up and be beaten verbally for years by Baris and herself.

What have I done? she whispered, as the tears started to flow.

________________

Sanem cried for hours, barely making it home.

She somehow got into the shower and let the hot water ease her knotted muscles and mask her sobs. But nothing was going to ease the knot she felt in her heart.

Finally climbing into her bed, she collapsed from the weight of the pain that burrowed itself in her mind. She didn't remember falling asleep until Leyla came to wake her up early the next morning.

Abla, let's get ready to meet anne at the hospital. I talked to her just now and she said the doctor has news. She sounded hopeful somehow. They're waiting for us, she said and she rubbed Sanem's back.

When she turned around, Leyla could see her swollen eyes and red nose. Her sister was a strong woman but she was reminded that she was just out of college and still so young. She thought about them spending Saturday mornings in bed watching cartoons when they were little girls, as she looked at Sanem in her pajamas. As her big sister, she just wanted to hold her like a baby once again and promise her that it was all going to be alright.