Edser OS and Short Stories

Lost in Montmartre Chapter 15

Early in the morning, a car stopped outside the bookstore in Montmartre. Selin looked grimly at the front of the store and asked the chauffeur to wait for her as she stepped outside. She knew Serkan had planned to get to the airport separately and wasn't expecting her, but so many times she ignored his wishes and just went through with her plans, invading his space, and he always let her, even if he was acting mad and rude afterward. So why should this time be any different? After all, he did let her get away with so many things through the years that Selin wasn't willing to change anything.

Selin approached the store's door with a determined grimace. The rejection she got yesterday from Serkan was hard to swallow, but she wasn't giving up. She didn't waste so many decades adjusting every little bit of her life to Serkan to please his whims only to now walk away with nothing just because he lost his memories and found himself that girl and a new life. So after a night of scheming, Selin was back outside his door, determined to keep inserting herself in every part of Serkan's return to Istanbul and his everyday life. He was going to see that she was present everywhere he could turn, in his company, in his family's holding, in his family house. He wouldn't be able to avoid her there, and it wasn't even a lie, she was an integral part of his entire life, whether he wanted it or not. 

There was the problem of Eda, who seemed to never want to leave Serkan alone, but when they were in Istanbul, there would be many places Eda wouldn't be able to get into with her limited knowledge of Turkish and lack of experience in a foreign society she wasn't a part of and never would be. It would be easy to separate Serkan from her, using a simple excuse of work, about which Eda knew nothing while Selin knew everything. And then she would be able to work on him when they were alone.

Eda already proved to be not-too-smart and easy to manipulate when she invited Selin to stay for the night, which meant she was too naive and inexperienced to measure herself against Selin when it came to scheming. She shouldn't even bother coming to Turkey with Serkan, just already sign the divorce papers.

There was also that baby, to whom Serkan was so attached that it was making Selin nauseous at the sheer thought of the way he was carrying, hugging, and kissing the baby, who clung to him, holding onto his shirt with her small fists and crying whenever he tried to put her down. A tiny part of Selin still hoped that it would somehow turn out that it wasn't Serkan's child, but even she knew it was impossible, that little girl had his face.

Selin glanced through the glass door into the bookstore before entering. The store was open, but to her relief, she didn't see Eda anywhere, only the back of one of her equally annoying friends she had briefly met the other day. The black-haired girl had just disappeared behind the bookshelves, helping one of the customers, so Selin used this occasion to tiptoe toward the door that led upstairs. To her satisfied smirk, the doorknob gave in, and she slipped inside unnoticed.

She pursed her lips briefly at the sight of the three packed suitcases waiting at the bottom of the stairs, along with a purse and briefcase tossed onto the stroller that stood just next to the bags. Selin took a big step to walk over a pile of tangled heeled sandals that lay next to Serkan's shoes, which stood in a perfectly even line and climbed the staircase, listening for any sounds coming from upstairs.

Some kind of alarm had just gone off, and Eda passed through the hall, dressed only in a short navy skirt and a white lace bra, brushing her teeth with one hand while using the other to wrap a half-apron around her hips. She didn't notice Selin as she was shouting something in French, which was unintelligible since her mouth was stuffed with a toothbrush, and she went straight to the kitchen, closing the door behind her.

Selin refrained from rolling her eyes at the sight she had just witnessed and shook her head slightly, but a small smirk danced on her lips. If Eda kept dressing and acting like this, Selin wouldn't even have to do much to turn Aydan against her, she would do it on her own with her cheap behavior and tacky, colorful nail polish. Selin already had the upper hand and she even gained a couple of more points in Aydan's favor after calling her and telling her she was bringing Serkan back to her. Maybe Serkan was right that she had to notify everybody in Istanbul about his return, now no one would be able to turn against her when she started implementing her plan to alienate Serkan from his little French anomaly. After all, she would be the one who brought him back.