What Hurts the Most

Chapter 5

Nearly a week passes, and Emir and Reyhan are no closer to figuring out who's trying to hurt Hikmet than they were when they started this secret operation. Nearly a week, and aside from the necessary check-ins with each other, Reyhan hasn't spoken to him, still upset about the fork incident. It shouldn't bother him. They're divorced. And he promised her that he would have nothing to do with her when she came back this last time for his father. He just never imagined that promise would be so hard to keep.

That all changes later that afternoon. He's walking down the hall headed towards the kitchen when he hears his name whispered from behind him.

"Emir!" the whispered voice repeats when he doesn't stop at first. He turns to try to see through the darkness.

"Reyhan?" he says when he realizes who it is.

"Shh!" she tries to silence him, before pulling him into a dark storage room. Seconds later, he hears footsteps walk past and realizes how close they were to getting caught together.

When all is silent again, she relaxes a bit and a stream of light from a small flashlight she has in her hand turns on.

"I found something," she says quietly, but no longer in a whisper.

He follows her across the small space and squats next to her when she points to an object wrapped in newspaper and tucked into a back corner. He pulls it out and unwraps it, his brows furrowing in thought until he recognizes what it is.

"This used to be on my father's desk," he says. "What is it doing here? No one has redecorated that space since long before his accident."

"That's the thing," she starts. "I'm beginning to think it wasn't an accident. I don't think he just fell. I think he was hit. With this."

"No, my father collapsed. He fell and hit his head on the desk." But as Emir is saying it out loud, a new light of suspicion shining on it, that version of events is starting to make less sense to him.

"Think about it," she continues. "His wound is on the back of his head. As if someone came up behind him and hit him. That injury couldn't have come from him being alone in his office and simply collapsing."

"Someone did this to him," he realizes, believing what she's saying. It makes sense.

"We need to get this to the police," she says. "Unfortunately it could have anyone's fingerprints on it. So it won't help in figuring out who hit him. But it may have traces of his blood on it. Then we'll know for sure what happened."

Emir shakes his head.

"No police," he says. "Any possible answers to our questions won't be good. Involving the police right now will only make things worse."

He lets out a heavy, grief filled sigh.

"This is my fault," he says. "Too much has happened around here that I've never questioned. But if this is true, if someone in this household did this to my father, then what kind of people are we? How can that person live with themselves, seeing every day what they did to my father? He may never be the same again."

One of the biggest problems is that after eliminating himself and Reyhan, very few possible suspects remain. And the idea that any of them could be guilty of this is unfathomable. But he has to start considering the fact that someone did that. Someone still in this house.

She puts her hand in his to comfort him, and he finds himself not wanting to let it go. It feels good. It feels right. But their moment is interrupted when the door begins to open. Panicking, he shoves her into the dark corner and covers her body with his. They both go stone still, barely even breathing. Peeking around the corner, Emir notes that Melike has come into the storage room just to get a jar of tomatoes. She never sees them.