What Hurts the Most

Chapter 14

The next morning, Reyhan wakes up trying to catch her breath. Heart pounding, she rubs her eyes to try to wipe away the images she just saw in her dreams, but can't make sense of them. It felt like a dark presence was hovering over her. She feels like she barely escaped death.

"Nightmare," she says, trying to calm her racing heart. "Just a nightmare."

She looks over and sees that Emir isn't in the bed with her and her panic returns.

"Emir?" she calls, looking around the room for him. She doesn't see him. She scrambles out of bed and searches for him. "Emir!"

She lets out a scream when the door suddenly opens. But when she notices that it's Emir, she jumps into his arms and hugs him tightly. Only then does she start to calm down.

"Hey. What's going on? Are you okay?" he asks, holding her even tighter. "You're shaking. What happened?"

She takes a few moments to enjoy the feeling of his arms around her as her heartbeat begins to settle down again.

"I'm okay," she says when she's calmer. "Just had a dream. But it's fine. You're fine."

"I'm fine. We're both fine," he assures her.

His phone starts ringing and he glances at where it's sitting on the table, but ends up just ignoring it to keep holding her. But she figures he should probably get it.

"I'm okay now," she says, pulling away from him. "You can answer that."

It's then she notices he's fully dressed for work and her brows wrinkle in confusion.

"I need to go to the office," he explains when he sees her looking at him. "Just for a couple of hours. There's a big meeting that can no longer get delayed."

Her heart starts to race again in fear. She tries to hide it from him, but he notices anyway.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm fine. Just being silly," she shrugs, trying to laugh it off. "I'm going to miss you, that's all. This will be the first time being apart since we got back together."

He smiles and kisses her.

"You're making me want to stay home," he laughs.

But then his phone rings again and she realizes she has to let him go. They can't stay locked up in their bedroom for the rest of their lives.

"Go," she insists. "Go ahead and do what you have to do. And then hurry back to me."

She wants to walk him out, but she isn't dressed yet. So they say goodbye right there in the room. With one last kiss, he leaves her. She places her hand on her chest to try to physically calm her heart, but she can't help it. She'll be afraid until he returns. She still can't remember her dream, but she feels it was a warning of some kind.

"There's nothing to worry about," she tells herself. "Cemre is in prison. She can't hurt us anymore."

But for some reason, she can't make herself believe. Something bad is coming. She can feel it. And until Emir is back safe with her, she won't feel calm.

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

Cavidan is startled awake and is shocked to see Cemre sitting next to her bed staring at her. She has to blink a few times to be sure the vision is real and not just some delusion. Maybe she thought about the girl so much the night before that she's seeing things now. She reaches her hand out and pokes at Cemre to be sure she's real.

"You're actually here. How?" Cavidan asks. "You were on the way to prison."

"I had some unfinished business," is all Cemre says. She gets up and stands in a hidden corner just moments before Melike enters with Cavidan's morning medicine. After Melike leaves again, Cemre comes out of hiding.