The Business Trip Part 2

A Long Night

The next morning, Hayat comes to the table, to be greeted by a note along with freshly made breakfast "Had some errands to run, will be back in a couple of hours." Hayat is relieved, as she did not want to face him after last night. The deep longing that he had left behind after that brief interlude, was something Hayat had not prepared herself for. She had not wanted him to stop, up until then she had not realised the physical yearning she had for him, oh how she wished that things would be right between them, how much she longed to be in his arms and be loved by him. As the days had gone by, she seemed to believe in Murat more and more and somewhere felt that he may be speaking the truth about Cagla, he genuinely seemed guilty about his behavior towards her and what he had put her through, could she overlook everything and give them a second chance? Was her reaction over the top? She did not want to look back and regret later, her daughter deserved the love of both the parents, and a happy family and she knew Murat would love their daughter more than anything else in this world, it seemed unfair to her, to sacrifice all that just to punish Murat, and wont she be punishing herself too, what would her life be without him in it? An empty shell? No one to love, no one to share her joys and sorrows with, she might as well be dead, because she would never be able to love another, the way she loved Murat. Just as quickly as these thoughts come to her, they disappear as well as she is reminded of the lonely nights by herself, the uncertainty, the desperate checking of the phone every five minutes to see if he had texted her or called. She gets a reality check, there was no guarantee that Murat would not repeat the same behavior the next time they had a disagreement. They were to leave the next morning for Paris, Hayat had made up her mind, she would tell Murat that she could not go on like this and that she wanted him to move out of the apartment when they got back, she would tell him that it was too much for her emotionally to deal with, and that he could do whatever he wished after the baby was born, no court would rule against the mother. She would fight him to her last breath to keep the baby with her.

As these thoughts cloud her mind, her phone beeps a new mail from Emre. Emre had sent her the details of her stay and tickets. She calls him back, "Emre, this is Hayat, thank you for the bookings, I just wanted to let you know that there has been a slight change, as you know Murat is also showcasing his line at the Paris Fashion Week, would it be Ok if I travelled with him, and we stayed together at the hotel? He is a little concerned about me travelling in my condition and wants me to be with him." she ends. "I don't see any problem, it's just that we will be awfully busy, and I hope you don't see this trip as a vacation with your husband, but as a work trip." says Emre. "But of course, Emre, I am very well aware of the importance of this show and won't compromise it in any way."

After the conversation with Hayat, Emre is deep in thought, if Hayat stays with Murat in the same room, she will have access to his designs, all fingers will point at her for sure. Meanwhile, his secretary walks in with a covered dress, "Levant just had this delivered, Mr. Emre, he said no one was to see it but you, I have not opened it either." Emre takes the dress from her and asks her to leave, he opens the cover and sees that the dress is perfect, exactly the way Murat designed it, one look at it and he knew he had a winner.

Something was bothering Murat, he always trusted his instincts and right now they were telling him that something was not right with the showstopper, his gut instinct told him that the dress he had created for Hayat should be the showstopper and not the one Emir had approved. He comes to a decision, and thinks to himself, "too bad Emir, but trust me on this one, you won't be disappointed." Something else was bothering him too - Cagla, she seemed to be keeping an exceptionally low profile, if there was any lesson he had learnt from the entire New York episode, then it was to not take Cagla lightly, she was not the type who would accept defeat so easily and let things pass, she was up to something, but what could it be? Another thing that was bothering him was that Hayat and Cagla would come face to face at the show, what if Cagla did or said something to upset Hayat, he would have to be very alert and make sure that Cagla did not hurt Hayat or his baby in any way. For some reason, Murat did not have a good feeling about this entire show.

That night four people in their beds lay tossing and turning and unable to fall asleep. Each one had a decision to make, each one had something to lose, each one had something to win, and each one knew Paris would be a game changer!