SerCem: Unrequited

SerCem: Pretend

7:30 am

Uncomfortable under his mother's gaze from across the small dining table, Cem shifted on his seat. It wasn't that long ago that glee had flashed across her face when she saw him walking up the driveway. But the emotion only lasted a brief moment before it was replaced with what looked like fear. When he told her he was leaving the day before, she was angry at first, but she soon came around to understand that it was for the best. These ten seconds were the longest she had been quiet since they entered his quarters relatively unnoticed by anyone else.

Glancing around the familiar room, he noticed that his suitcases were on the bed where he had left them upon the realization that the weight of the past would be too heavy to sustain. Everything else remained in place. He gathered that his absence had been still too raw for his mom to proceed with straightening anything in his house. After all, it hadn't yet been eighteen hours since he had first left.

Now that he'd considered it, perhaps his unavailability for the wedding reception hadn't even registered for the others. From what he'd seen on his walk up from the main entrance, the cleaning up was still ongoing, with staff retrieving the rented tables and chairs. He had been tired from the emotional roller coaster of the last day, but he walked so fast under the risen sun that he almost knocked over one of the workers. All because he did not want to risk running into Serap just yet. But from what he could tell, it seemed like the newlyweds were sleeping in. Cem banished that thought.

By the time he got to the door that hid all his secrets from the outside world for the last 10 years, there stood Hayriye Öztürk. And for the first time in his lifetime that he could recall, she glared at him with suspicious eyes. That did not prevent her from pulling him into a hug, of course. Before she began badgering him with questions, demanding to know why he returned, that is. She wasn't really giving him a chance to respond, though. Not at first, at least. Because she was giving him all the time in the world now that she finally got around to what was really on her mind.

His mom, in her silence, was waiting for an answer. When he didn't respond, she got to her point.

"She is Faruk bey's wife, Oğlum. Do you know what that means?"

"She has no one but me, Anne." Without missing a beat, he gently confirmed his mom's suspicions. He was indeed back for Serap.

"What?" She narrowed her eyes as if she really had not heard what he said.

"She has no one but me," he repeated simply.

The honesty in his response was driven by exhaustion. He was tired of hiding his feelings, of trying to hold all the pieces of his shattered heart together. Maybe if someone at least noticed his struggle, it would confirm that this—what he once shared with Serap—wasn't all in his head and keep him from going insane.

She stared at him as if he were a madman. "What she has is a husband, Cem."

Incredulous now, she sprang from where she sat, jerking the table with the movement. "I will say this one last time: She is Faruk's wife!"

"That's unfortunate, mother, really." Unperturbed, he remained seated.

It really was unfortunate. Because if he was going to shake Serap out of her delusion, and he swore he would, then he would inadvertently ruin Faruk bey's marriage. But if there was a choice between Serap and--he couldn't even finish the thought because there had never been any other choice. It had only ever been Serap Kutlu for him. Anyway, there was a debate he was yet to have with himself about just how much sympathy to dish out to a man who remarried two months after his wife's death.

His mother closed the small space between them to stand over him. While she leaned down to cradle his cheeks between her small cold hands, he waited for the imminent attack on Serap's character.