Trigger Warning: scenes of domestic violence. They're not graphic, but they could be upsetting.
Feraye swallows thickly, looks down at her hands. She wonders if she can pretend she didn't hear him.
"Feraye?"
"Yes, Ateş?" she says, looking at him innocently.
His jaw tightens, and she thinks he's angry, but then he just shakes his head and lets out a small laugh. "Still running away from me, huh?"
Her blood boils in an instant. "The way I remember it, you sent me away," Feraye snaps at him.
He stops the car on the side of the road abruptly, and that split second between him moving the steering and the car stopping is possibly the longest of her life. She steps out of the car immediately, chest heaving as she struggles to take in a breath.
"Feraye?" Ateş calls out hesitantly, but she lifts up a hand, stopping him in his tracks. "I won't come any closer, but please just talk to me? Are you okay? What-"
"You didn't do anything."
"That's not what you implied."
She finally opens her eyes, looks into his. "I didn't mean it. I know why you did what you did all those years ago. I understand."
He shakes his head, leaning against the car. He doesn't say anything, simply looks at her, and it only takes three seconds for her to look away, because it feels like his eyes are boring into hers, like he's seconds away from finding out everything she's left unsaid.
"You did mean it, though."
Feraye closes her eyes, tips her head back. "Can we not do this?"
"Okay," he says, not angry, but simply neutral. His face doesn't give anything away, and she wonders if she's made a mistake not telling him, and if by doing so, she destroyed whatever progress they'd made.
The rest of the ride home is silent, her heart and her head are anything but.
🌕
Her father is in the garden when they get back. As always, he ignores her, but he does greet Ateş and Yağmur. Her daughter is tired, so when Feraye tries to take her from Ateş' arms, she whines and burrows closer to him.
Ateş smiles, drops a kiss to her head, "it's okay, I'll put her in her bed."
Feraye is only capable of a nod.
He leads the way. She chances a look back at her father, and is surprised to see he's looking right at her, eyes hard and angry, lips pursed. She doesn't think he's ever looked at her like that before. "Baba?"
He doesn't say anything, just turns around and ignores her.
Feraye doesn't let herself cry. Not when she enters the safety of her home, not when she goes to her room and finds Ateş crouched down beside Yağmur's bed and speaking to her quietly, smiling at her like she's the most precious thing in this world.
