Chapter 61
"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places."
— Ernest Hemingway
"zeynep! Zeynep!" came a call from behind me.
Even without turning around, I knew who it was. I would know that voice even in my sleep. It was the voice of the man I loved more than life itself, the man whose love I'd had to sacrifice…for his own good.
I quickened my steps, not even looking back, but so did he, and very soon, he caught up with me.
"zeynep, why are you doing this?" Jacobi exclaimed, holding my hand. "Why has your phone been switched off since yesterday morning? I've been dying with worry. I even got your maid's phone number from Helen, but she has been unyielding."
"Don't you love your life?" I snapped, grabbing my hand from his. "Don't you see that what happened to your hospital was because of me? Don't you know that you were the one they targeted and not Oliver? Don't you know you could have been killed?"
"Is that why you've stayed away? Because you're scared for my safety?" he asked, his voice gentle.
"My love, nothing is going to happen to me. I'm not afraid of the minister nor his brute of a son."
I shook my head. "A man lost his life because of me. Another will never be the same again. I can't take that gamble with you, Jacobi. I love you too much."
He grabbed my hand again. "Then don't give up on us. You need to trust me, zeynep. I already had everything planned. I'd already arranged for the car to take us to atlanta that night, and we would have left for the UK the very next day. I've started speaking with a few people at the embassy there, and we will have your travel documents in no time. I'm going to take you far, far away from here."
"So, you'll just leave everything you came back to Boston for? Your father's legacy and everything? Just for me?"
He laughed sadly. "They've already destroyed the hospital. Even before that, I'd already planned to take you with me back to the UK. I'd planned to put Oliver in charge, with myself and my other partners coming back in rotation. But all that is destroyed now. I had to even call sam and Val to cancel their trip. They were meant to arrive next week, remember? To run the one-month oncology clinic?"
I nodded. Those were the first of his partners scheduled to come to Boston. But now, that would never be…and it was all because of me.
"Just turn on your phone, zeynep. Please," he said, and my heart melted.
In the seventy-two hours it had been since I'd last seen him, he had lost a considerable amount of weight. His eyes were red and hooded, and I could tell he hadn't gotten much sleep. He was clearly distressed, and not just because of his hospital.
"I destroyed it," I answered.
"Then take mine," he said, pressing his phone into my hand. "I'll get another one. We desperately need to talk. I'll find a way to call you tonight."
"I can't take your phone, my love," I protested, trying to return it to him. "What if one of your patient tries to…"
The words died on my lips. There were no more patients. The hospital was gone.
"It won't be for too long, I promise you," he said.
"Before the end of the week, I would have found a way to get you out of here."
"That's the same thing my brother said."
"Was he the one you were just talking to?" he asked.
I nodded. "He also has plans to rescue me," I said, putting the phone in his pocket. "Keep your phone, jacobi. If my brother succeeds, and I'm indeed out of here by the weekend, I'll call you from wherever I am. And then maybe we can talk. But for now, for your safety, please stay away."
"zeynep, please!" he called out as I walked away.
But this time, I didn't turn back. Tears rolled down my face, fast and furious, as I walked away, and I made no attempt to stop them.
Seeing him again, even for only a few minutes, had reminded my heart just how much it yearned for him.
If demian was truly able to help me leave town, then I would reach out to him. But if he wasn't, well then so be it.
Approaching the gate, the chief security looked the other way.
Even a blind man would have realised there was nothing platonic about the exchange between Jacobi and I.
For a moment, I was worried that we had made yet another careless mistake, and I feared even more for the consequences, but another look at the head of security showed I didn't have anything to worry about.
There was sympathy and a quiet understanding on his face. He wasn't going to rat me out. I was certain of it.
Walking quickly into the ranch, I made a quick stop in the kitchen, where I filled a large bowl with curry and meat. Yes, I had no intention to leave my room, but it didn't mean I had to starve to death.
Getting back upstairs, I had a shower, changed into my nightwear, and ate the food as ravenously as someone who had been starved for days.
Technically I had, as I hadn't eaten a proper meal since the day of our planned escape.
After the meal, I lay on the bed, stating that I didn't even hear my door open.
"I knocked, but you didn't answer," came Yusuf's voice, as he stood at the doorway.
I sat up, bolt straight, all my defences up.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he apologised, and from his voice, I could tell he was sincere.
"If you want me to leave, I'll leave."
I looked at him, no amount of fight left in me.
"What do you want?"
"I just wanted to apologise to you, zeynep," he said, still standing at the doorway. "The last time we saw each other, I said and did some very nasty things, things I have carried on my conscience ever since. I'm truly sorry and didn't mean any of it."
His earnestness brought tears to my eyes. "It's okay. I've never held it against you."
"Can I come in?" he asked.
I wiped my eyes and nodded.
"I was just so broken, you know?" he said, sitting beside me on the bed. "One minute, I was writing several letters a day to this beautiful girl I'd fallen in love with, and the next, she was married to my dad. It destroyed me. And then when I heard you were also fooling around with my brother, I simply couldn't take it."
I smiled sadly and nodded in understanding. "You don't have to explain, yusuf. Your reaction was normal."
"It took me a lot of years of thinking about it over and over and over again to realise that something drastic must have happened to make you do it," he continued. "I found out that your mother died and also heard your brother had died aswell. I realised that life must have been tough for you and your family, which is probably what led you to marry an old man like my dad."
I nodded, more tears pooling in my eyes, touched that he had cared enough to weigh all my circumstances and realise that there had been more to my marrying his father than simply a love for the finer things of life.
"But I couldn't figure out the part about my brother," he continued. "The girl I fell in love with would never have done that, sleepwith father and son. What happened? What made you do that?"
"ibrahim raped me," I answered, my voice quivering. "He raped me even before I had the chance to present myself to my husband. Even after your father found out, he didn't do anything about it. So, Ibrahim simply just continued, and he's been doing that to me for twenty years. The last time, he not only raped me, he beat me almost to the point of death."
Yusuf sucked his breath in, and I could tell it was hard for him to hear. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Zeynep. But at the same time, I'm relieved to hear that you weren't a willing participant. I've had several years of therapy just because of it. This whole thing messed me up completely. Why do you think I never did come home over the years? It was such a mindscrew for me, I knew there was no way I would survive seeing you with him." He looked at me. "As for my dad, he has never been able to stand up to Ibrahim. From as far back as I can remember, my brother has always gotten his way with the old man. It doesn't surprise me at all that he would have looked the other way, even knowing his own son was sleeping with his wife."
We sat in silence for a while, neither of us knowing what to say.
"So…what do you do?" I asked, trying to ease the tension.
"I work in finance," he answered. "After I found out about you and my dad, I had to drop out of law school. My mind was so messed up that it affected my grades. I just couldn't cope, so I had to take a few years off school. When I returned, I decided to change my major," he shrugged. "I'm doing okay now, thankfully. I just became a partner in my firm."
"Well done. I always knew you would excel," I said, smiling at him.
"And after pining for you for years, I finally was able to open my heart to someone else," he said, a smile on his face. I recognised that smile. It was the smile of a man in love, and it made me even happier for him. "In fact, that's the reason I came home, to meet her family. She couldn't come because of work, but the plan is for my family to meet hers over the weekend, so we can get the ball rolling."
"Congratulations, Yusuf," I said, truly meaning it. "I hope she's a nice girl."
"She's lovely," he gushed, bringing out his phone to show me the picture of a pretty woman. "Her name is aurora. My mom would have loved her. She's a beautiful, gentle soul, and she was patient enough to wait for me to get over myself and realise she was the one."
"Where is she from?"
"France," he answered, chuckling. "So, that's the destination this weekend. You better get yourself ready, my dear step-mother. I'm sure you'll be coming with us for the introduction."
I laughed, hoping deep down that demian would have taken me away before that time.
His laughter faded, and he looked at me. "I wonder what would have happened if you hadn't married my dad. We would have probably been together by now…maybe even with a couple of kids."
I shook my head and smiled. "What we had was mere infatuation, Yusuf . Eventually, you would have found someone else, and I would have been heartbroken. I would have eventually moved on and life would have continued as normal for us. Let's not over romanticise the past. There is a high likelihood that we would not have ended up together."
He contemplated my words for a while. "I disagree, but I'm not going to argue," he put his arm around me. "We've wasted so much time being enemies, zeynep. I look forward to being your friend. Now that I'm getting married, I'll very likely be coming back home often, and it would be great for there to be a friendly face. Ibrahim and I aren't particularly close, and you know kamsir can be a bit cuckoo!"
I laughed, placing my head on his shoulder and enjoying the friendly banter. "Don't let him hear you."
And speaking of the devil.