Mind Games

Chapter - 7

Eda was numb. There were no other words for it. For Serkan to call her Eda hanim, that was cold. For him to refer to her and Aydan anne as 'these women', that was like a slap in the face. To him she was a stranger, no longer was she the love of his life, the air that he breathed. She had been keeping it together for so long. She had this meeting to get through and then she could go home and finally just be alone to fall apart. It was time to stop kidding herself, her Serkan was gone. Now that he was back maybe it was time for her to take a leave of absence. She couldn't do that though, she had projects stacked to the ceiling. She had overbooked herself wanting to make Serkan proud when he returned and the funny thing was he could care less.

The meeting was over. Eda smiled at all the right places and answered all the questions appropriately. To those who didn't know her they would think that she was fine. To Aydan she anything but fine, she was worried, her sweet girl was at the end of her tether. Serkan was the cause of it, he let Selin get in his head – again. That woman had so much to answer for and she never did. Aydan would drop a note to Sinan and Adina, they needed to be careful of that snake in the grass. She couldn't wait to have a word or ten thousand with her son she was so mad right now. He had nerve.

Eda had Ferit drop her off at the apartment, she would work at home the rest of the afternoon and maybe tomorrow. She didn't want to put herself through more abuse if she didn't have to. She put her phone on silent, turned out all the lights and went to the bedroom, she changed into socks and one of Serkan's dress shirts before washing her face. Eda didn't want to be in the bed that they shared, no it felt tainted for some reason. She knew that Serkan didn't have any feelings for Selin it was just the absence of feelings for her that kept her from the bed.

Eda went downstairs and put on her music. She sat on the sofa and stared at the pictures of what her life used to be. She had no tears left, she was empty, maybe she would be ready to fight tomorrow but not today. How did that song go? 'I Just Wanna Be Sad', yeah, that about covered it. She opened her laptop to immerse herself in design. Other than her friends and family it was the only thing feeding her soul right now.

Serkan left the conference room in search of Engin and Pyril, he finally ran them to ground in Pyril's office upstairs.

He knocked on the door, "May I come in?"

Engin could barely look at him, "Who's asking? Serkan Bolat or that jackass that was downstairs? Never mind, they're the same person."

Serkan shrugged, "Sadly I'm afraid that you're right. They are the same person. I'd like to apologize for my behavior. I never want you to think that I don't value you as partners. I do, I always have. Not only are you my partners but you've been my best friends for years. I was thoughtless, disrespectful, and ungrateful for all that you have done for the company and for me and for that I apologize."

Engin was shaking his head at him, "Every time Serkan, every time you excuse Selin. She pulls bullshit all the time and you excuse her, you have no idea the damage that she has done. You have two partners here at ArtLife. You could have called either of us, we would have come to be with you gladly, but no you call her and you believe her lies. You didn't call me or Pyril to check on anything did you? What did she even tell you?"

He looked at them sheepishly, "She told me that ArtLife was struggling, that you were barely hanging on."

"And so you called to find out how we were doing? I don't remember getting a call do you Pyril?"

Pyril shrugged, she wasn't giving Serkan any breaks.

"I screwed up okay?"

Engin looked at Pyril, "Aww honey, he screwed up. That makes everything better."