A love reborn from the ashes.

47 - New beginnings

The night before

Mihriban

I couldn't believe the events of that day, Sanem's wedding to the love of his life, the bouquet of flowers flying directly into my hands and now the night in the cottage with little Nihat and Aziz. He had insisted on staying to help me, I had repeatedly told him there was no need, but there had been nothing to be done, when everyone had left we had taken the baby home and, once settled in for the night, we had found ourselves on the couch in an embarrassed silence, at least on my part.

At one point I heard him inhale deeply and turn to me and say:

- Mihriban do you have any idea what it means to me to be here tonight? After all the years in which... years in which I missed your smile, your brightness, your love terribly? After all these years I still don't know why you left me so suddenly, overnight, I could never explain it.
But the fault was mine, I was proud and I didn't find the courage to chase you, even at the end of the world I should have chased you.
I'm proud of my son, he did what I wasn't able to do, he was wrong but he had the strength to fight for his woman, for the love of his life.

I've been sick for the last two years, I was afraid I wouldn't make it and that allowed me to see clearly what the important things in life are and I realized that 32 years ago I let slip the thing that makes existence worth living: love.

I lost you and lived a half life.

I looked at him astonished, my heart was pounding, I would have never expected from him, the proud Aziz, such a sincere and dispassionate confession, I looked at my hands joined in my lap to collect my thoughts then I sighed, I couldn't not be as sincere.

- Aziz, I loved you with a sincere love, there was no one else after you, there was no place for anyone in my heart torn apart by the loss of my one and only.
I had to leave because I couldn't stay and see you marry Huma, I left Istanbul for several years in search of peace, at least apparent peace, I couldn't bear to meet you with her and maybe with your children too -
I cried for that desperate girl who had suffered enormously from the betrayal of the man she loved.

Aziz took my hand approaching, he brought it to his lips in a gentle kiss and with a finger he made me look up at him.

-Why did you leave? I was devastated, desperate, I couldn't believe I had lost you, I had been wondering for years. Why?

- I couldn't accept your betrayal, if it was Huma you wanted, I loved you too much not to back out -

- Betrayal? Huma? I don't understand.

- I found out a few months into our engagement. It was a Sunday morning, we hadn't seen each other the night before because you said you would be at a dinner with a client, I thought I would surprise you and came to your house bringing some simit to have breakfast together.
Huma opened the door for me in a thin silk robe, she humiliated me by saying that now she was in your life, that you didn't have the courage to tell me and cancel the engagement, but you had been seeing each other for some time.
What could I do? I loved you too much, it was useless waiting for you to find the courage to leave me, it would have been a painful moment for both of us, I preferred to leave and let you live your life with the person you had chosen -
I cried now without hesitation, after all those years it still hurt terribly.

Aziz

I remained silent for an interminable time, unable to believe what I had just heard, it couldn't be true. I stood up and brought my hands to my head and crossed the room until I stopped to look out the window towards the sea to try to calm down.

How could she have gone this far? How could she? Huma's perfidy managed to shock me every time. How had I not realized for years what kind of person she was? How could I have allowed her to ruin my life, the life of the woman I loved and then the lives of my children?
I was frightened by such evil, after years I still couldn't get used to it.
He had destroyed the family we had created by separating our very young children, depriving Can of a mother and Emre of a father and preventing his brothers from growing up together.
How much evil had that woman sown around her?

I recovered from those thoughts to come back to reality, to the truth of that moment, I went back to the sofa and I knelt down in front of the woman I had always loved, taking her hands in mine.

- Mihriban, we lived an unhappy life unnecessarily, or more precisely because of a heartless, selfish and perverse woman.

Huma showed up at my house in the middle of the night saying she had an argument with her father who wanted to force her to marry a man she hated, in tears she asked if she could stay that night so she could calm down and think about her future.

I set her up in the guest room, we had been friends since childhood I couldn't help but help her.

I didn't know you had come the next morning, what Huma told you was all lies, I only know that that day and for the next few days I looked everywhere for you, I contacted all our mutual friends, I couldn't understand why, what had happened, why you had left me.

I fell into the deepest despair, for months I was a shadow of my former self and I resigned myself to the fact that you would never come back.

Huma came forward after some time saying that if she didn't find someone else to marry, her father would impose that man she hated on her, she asked me to help her and I, who by now didn't expect or desire anything more from life, proposed to her that we get married -

We both remained silent in order to metabolize this disconcerting truth for both of us, we had always loved each other but Huma's perverse maneuvers had managed to separate us for a good part of our lives.

I realized at that moment that I no longer wanted to live a single day without her, that we had already wasted too much time, I wanted her close every moment for the rest of my life.

I was already on my knees at her feet, what better opportunity to seize?

- Mihriban I have loved you all this time, seni çok seviyorum, I love you and I know I will love you forever, we can't afford to waste any more time.

Will you make me the happiest man on this earth?

Will you marry me? -

Mihriban

I couldn't believe my ears, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that one day I would hear those words spoken by the man I had adored for a lifetime.

I looked at him uncertainly, I couldn't believe it, but I saw his gaze full of love and hope and the walls that I had cleverly built around my heart gave way under the overwhelming force of the love I felt for him.

Our hands were still clasped, I looked at them touched, intertwined my fingers with his and looked at him smiling with tears in my eyes.

-Aziz Divit do you know how many years I've been waiting for this proposal?

How can I not accept when you have always been the other half of my heaven?

Seni çok seviyorum, I love you so much too Aziz, more than I can explain in words -

My smile got even bigger:

- EVEEEEETTTT!!!! -

-Today, then, I also caught the bride's bouquet, I was meant to get married soon! -