Lost and Found - HIATUS

4

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He arrived!" Seyfi was at the window, announcing excitedly as a black SUV parked in front of his garage to deliver its passenger. Aydan, not being able to hold her excitement, ran to the front door to greet her beloved son. As he opens the door, she covers her mouth with both hands and starts crying again. "Allah brought you back to me, my son!" He has teary eyes, but he wasn't tearing up a minute ago. "Ah, anne..." he simply says, and goes to her embrace. "You're real, you're real!", she says in a high pitch, desperately touching his arms to confirm he was actually flesch and bones. "Tabiki I'm real anne!", he laughs. "I'm fine, I promise, Aydan hanim! I'm back and not going anywhere!" He hugs her again, this time taking more time to appreciate the comforting feeling of being back in the arms of someone you love. "You better never scare me again! Ever! Tamam?", the woman slaps his arm, jokingly, and says a quick "Hadi" pointing to the living room where everybody else was. The first one he sees is Engin, that comes to her with his arms open and gives him a tight bear hug. "Abi! Thank God you're alive!" Then Serkan went to hug Piril, who was tearing up seeing her friend back intact. "Don't ever do this to us again, tamam?", she wipes a tear and hugs him again, before saying "We missed you!". Next one he goes is Eda, who he perceived had her face swollen from crying. He hugs her. "Serkan!" She's hugging him tight, crying, caressing his hair. He stands there for a moment, holding her, but he doesn't know what to do. He knew it's been almost a month, but he didn't remember her being so fond of him to have this reaction. Odd. She breaks the hug to grab his face with both her hands and look at him. He sees a different spark in her eyes, a spark he's never seen before. "You came back." That's all she said, and dove inside his arms again. He felt the pain in her eyes, but he was so confused. Could she be faking it for Engin and Piril? He hugged her tighter and whispered in her ear, "Tamam, I'm back. I'm here, don't cry." He caressed her hair, and she loosened up her arms on him until she finally let him free for Seyfi to hug him. "I'm glad to see you again, Serkan bey!", he greets and hugs Seyfi, specially thanking him for taking care of his dear mother all this time. "You can thank Eda, she's done more than I did." He frowns. After everybody sat down on the couch, Serkan was bombarded with questions from every side, except Eda, who he realized was sitting next to him and tightly holding his arm as her chin was on his shoulder. Something about it sent a warm feeling to his chest, but he brushes it off. He decided to slightly move to the side, where his mom was sitting, but Eda didn't seem to want to let his arm go. "Anne, how are you?" He turns to his mom, and Eda finally let his arm go. "Me? I should be asking you how are you!" And the questions restart and he answers one by one until there's a brief silence again. The sun was peeking on the curtains of the room, which means it was probably around 4pm now. "We need to get to the company!", he abruptly gets up, freeing himself from Eda's touch. Engin quickly gets up and stops him, surprised. "Ne? Abi, where do you think you're going?" Serkan looks at him with a obvious face, "to the company, Engin! It's probably chaos without me!" He motions to move again but Engin quickly stops and pushes him to his seat again, smiling. "Abi, don't worry! Me and Eda has been taking care of everything!" Wait. Bir dakika. "Eda?" He's confused, and Engin answers him back with an obvious face: "Evet, abi! And you just got back from the woods, Tarzan, you need to rest!" Piril and Aydan loudly voice they agree with him, and Aydan completes: "And, I think you need some time alone with your fiancée, right?" She looks at Eda, with loving eyes. Loving eyes? And Eda was holding his arm again. He looks at his mother, then to Eda, and then to his mother again. "Ne?" Aydan perceives his son's lost eyes, but still doesn't understand what's happening with her son. "Me and Eda can have time later, right?" He looks at Eda, and he can feel her withering like a balloon. She looks at him with daring eyes. The daring eyes he knew quite well now. What'd he say wrong? "What are you saying, Serkan? Son, it's your fiancée. Work can wait!" He was confused, and his expression showed it very clearly. If his memory wasn't failing, he told his mother that Eda was not really his fiancée and that was all a stunt. Why is she acting weird now? He needed to talk to his mother, but he couldn't say anything to her because Engin and Piril were in the room and they didn't know about the contract. "Anne," he clenches his teeth and widen his eyes, "she is my fiancée amaaa...", he says, leaving it in the air hoping his mom would catch what he meant to say. But instead, she looks confused. Eda leans to look at him. "Serkan?" She nods her head in a silent "what are you saying?" and he simply nods back confused. "Son?" As he hears his mother calling him, he explodes. "This is all a contract, anne! You knew, Seyfi knew...", he stops to run his hand through his hair. "And now Engin and Piril knows..." The room is silent. They're staring at Serkan. Before he opens his mouth to say anything, Eda leans again to find his eyes. She had tears in her eyes.

"Are you joking, Serkan?"