What Hurts the Most

Chapter 11

The drive home from their mini honeymoon is made mostly in silence. Both realize their brief time in paradise is almost over. Time to get back to the real world where things won't be so easy for them just yet. Emir especially is quiet. Contemplating. His silence makes Reyhan curious.

"What's going on inside your head," Reyhan wonders aloud.

"I've been thinking about how this all can play out," he admits. "My mother. Cemre. What can we do about them aside from exposing their terrible deeds? We don't really have any proof of anything. And to make matters worse, even if we call Cemre's bluff about that so called video of me killing that guy, what if she calls our bluff right back? What if she gives that video to the police? It'll be my word against a video. I'll probably go to jail anyway."

"We need that video," Reyhan realizes.

"And we need time," Emir adds. "It may take only a few days to compile all the evidence Amca has from the nanny cam as well as the testimonies of the men Cemre paid to kidnap you. Or it could take weeks. And we'll need time to prove Cemre's video is a fake once we find it."

"We can't let her know we've reconciled until we get that proof," Reyhan says sadly, turning to look at him. "I don't want to be without you for that long. I just got you back. I don't think I can pretend I don't love you."

He takes her hand and brings it to his lips for a kiss.

"That's not going to happen," he promises. "Because I've come up with a solution to that particular problem. What do you say we give Cemre and my mother a taste of their own medicine? What do you say we teach those Tuzak Queens a thing or two about what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a game?"

Reyhan looks suspiciously at him. But she can't deny that she's intrigued.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" she asks. "What kind of game?"

He just smiles and turns to look back at the road. This, he thinks to himself, is going to be fun.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cemre stares into the mirror, putting some finishing touches on her make up. Emir should be home any minute and she wants to be ready for him. His estimated arrival time is a little earlier than she had hoped, her idea of meeting him in bed one that she'll have to put off for another day. But she can at least use this opportunity to make him start to see her as his future wife. She'll make sure of it. And if he continues to resist? She'll just have to get creative and make it so he has to marry her. Her biggest obstacle is gone. Now that Reyhan is out of the picture, Emir is hers for the taking.

"Emir? Reyhan?" she hears from the front of the house. It sucks all the breath from her lungs.

Reyhan? She must be hearing things. Cemre runs down the hallway to see a crowd gathering at the front door. That crowd clears and Cemre almost passes out when she sees Reyhan standing there next to Emir.

"Okay, let's give her some space," Emir says, his arm protectively around Reyhan.

It burns Cemre on the inside to see him touching her. Why is he touching her like this?

"What is she doing here?" Cemre finally asks, unable to hold it in any longer.

"Why is she asking that?" Reyhan asks, turning her curious gaze to Emir. "Why wouldn't I be here?"

"Don't worry about that now, Hayatım," he says to her before looking up at the others. "She needs to rest. I'm going to get her settled and then come back and explain everything to everyone."

Hayatım? Did he just call her Hayatım? Cemre is about to ask more questions, but she's stunned to silence again when Emir reaches down and swoops Reyhan up into his arms. Then he carries her down the hall, not to Reyhan's room, but to his own. Melike follows right behind them.