Early Bird (Erkenci Kus)(Part 2)

36. Ayhan gets cornered

"Mevkhibe," Nihat looks worriedly at his still frozen wife. "I don't like it when you get this wilted my rose." He goes and sits beside her. "Come on, have some more soda, hm? Kickstart your sugar levels."

Mevkhibe lifts the bottle of lime soda and takes a sip.

"More. Drink, drink."

She keeps drinking, her eyes closed and he smiles happily, rubbing her back. When she's finished the entire bottle she stares ahead as she swallows the liquid down. "Nihat?"

"Yes Mevkhibe?"

"Mr Khalil said Sanem paid the entire amount, did I hear him correctly?"

"I wish I could say no but I'm afraid you did hear correctly."

She blinks slowly, sighing. "Ah. I thought so."

"Hm."

"Where did she find so much money?!" Mevkhibe all but yells as she turns to look at him and he recoils a bit at the volume. "I thought she was a tea girl! Where does a tea girl find so much money?!"

"I don't know Mevkhibe. Maybe she made a loan and didn't tell us...Yes, I'm pretty sure that has to be it...But the biggest problem here is not where she got it from. It's that she lied to us about it."

"I'm going crazy, Nihat." Mevkhibe puts her hand on his arm and he places his over hers in comfort. "This girl is going to make me end up in some institution."

"Oh, now don't do that, calm down. I will call Sanem right now and she is going to explain everything." He jumps up and hurries into the store, with Mevkhibe following him.

"For God's sake Nihat, if there was any kind of acceptable explanation, why would she lie to us?"

He dials Sanem's number as she talks, frowning while he waits for her to answer.

-

Sanem is busy placing the kettle back down after pouring water into Deren's cup when her phone rings under the files and she has to look for it. The store number? I wonder what's wrong? "He - "

"Sanem."

"Yes daddy?" She straightens and frowns at his clipped greeting.

"How are you my darling?" Nihat asks and she relaxes when she hears the smile in his voice.

"Good thank you daddy. How are you?"

"Well, let's not talk about that now. Er... I'm here with your mother - "

"Hello."

"Mom?"

"Sanem! You have 30 seconds to tell the truth."

"What a - "

"No, 30 is too much, you have 3."

Truth about what? "What truth? What's going on?" Did they find out that I was at Can's house?

"I should be asking that. How did you pay the entire 40 000 liras to Mr Khalil? And don't lie to me. Look into my eyes and tell me now."

Oh no! Oh no! Who told them?! Was it uncle Khalil? It must have been. Oh no! I'm dead...she's going to kill me...at least I'm not close... "Looking into your eyes might be hard from here."

"Three!"

"What did she say?"

Sanem glances around for anyone to help her out of this mess. Everyone was busy. She was going to have to improvise. She clears her throat quietly to the side and then holds her phone away, her voice now nasal and high when she speaks again pretending to be Dilara. "Sanem! The meeting's starting!"