A MAN'S SORROW CUTS DEEPER

Family matters...

When Sanem decided to call her mom, the last thing she expected to see was a family dinner at the Aydin household. She was truly surprised not only by the people she saw, but also because the face of her mother shone so much brighter than it usually did.

She always knew Mevkibe was beautiful, but she could barely recognize her own mother in the face looking back at her on the other side of the phone. As a matter of fact, Mevkibe looked stunning. She looked rested and full of pizzazz. And Sanem could sense that Mevkibe herself felt better about herself. She seemed happy, and above all relaxed.

Sanem felt a small pang of sadness come to her, and them it was gone. She missed their dinners in the garden after a long day of work. Those days were gone, but her memory still carried that warm feeling whenever she chose to remember... She looked closer at the people gathered around Mevkibe's garden table. There was Emre and Leyla, her father Nihat, and there was Aziz and Hüma. But it wasn't the sight of Hüma that made her curious. It was the way Hüma spoke to her that caught her off guard. When Mevkibe turned the phone so that Sanem could see everyone, it was Hüma who spoke first to Sanem, and she said they made Mevkibe beautiful. And she not only referred to Sanem by her name, she said it sincerely, with no cold undertones of ill feelings at all. Sanem wondered if Hüma herself realized the way she spoke to her, because she had never spoke so kindly and mildly to her in the past...

Sanem smiled and thought that it may have been Aziz's presence that affected Hüma's spirit that night. Aziz seemed relaxed, even if he was sitting next to Hüma herself. Not only that, Aziz seemed happy, and thanked Nihat for his hospitality. And he meant it. Though the Divits and Aydins came from two different backgrounds, Aziz always felt just at home whenever he stepped accross the threshold of Sanem's parents' home. And he wondered if that was part of the charm that had drawn both of his sons to Sanem and Leyla. That unspoken kindness and sincerity was so clearly visible in both of the sisters.

Aziz's compliment touched Nihat deeply. He never expected to some day sit at the table with the likes of Aziz Divit himself. He was proud of his daughter, that was a true fact. But to him, Aziz Bey was a man of success and the former boss of his daughters. Nihat was a man of simple beginnings and simple means. He carried himself with great pride of who he was, and of his family, but he understood the way the world worked. So to be able to sit next to Aziz gave him great pleasure. And what's more, Aziz was now part of his family, forever linked to Aydins because of Leyla and Emre's marriage. And soon, he hoped, forever linked through blood of their grandchildren...

As Sanem spoke to her mother and others gathered at the Aydins, she undersood that family mattered. And she wished for a brief moment that her life with Can had turned out in a different way. She wished for a brief second that they too could have sat with them in the garden, surrounded by family. Would that have been too much to ask? Would it have been too much to ask to be accepted by Hüma? Would it have been too much to ask of the stars that shone up above her for that to happen? To wish for the hope? To wish for Can's love?

And that thought had passed as soon as it came. For now she had a new task to complete. One that involved taking the one thing Can still had of hers...