Tears of love

11 | 𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫

Nehir didn't know when she stopped crying. It must have been sometime before they stopped the car. She didn't know where they were. She didn't care.

She felt... empty. She had sobbed until they stopped the car. There had been so much sadness in her heart. But now there was nothing. No sadness. No anger. She couldn't even feel any kind of curiosity at where she had been taken. She was... empty.

"Nehir," the murderer said. His voice sounded as if he was so far away. She didn't care.

Nehir could tell she was no longer at the cottage. She was standing, and Bora was next to her. But she had no idea where she was. She didn't care.

"Nehir!"

Bora sounded more angry but still far. So far away.

Her cheek started burning, and the world came back to her. It took her a moment to realise what had happened and why she was suddenly leaning on the car.

Bora had slapped her.

"You idiot," Dursun said. "How are we supposed to take her inside now?"

Nehir rose her trembling hand to her lip and saw blood. Bora had slapped her.

"We'll say she fell."

Bora dragged her by the arm to a house she did not know. It took her a moment to realise whose house it had to be. The Uçars.

She might have cared before. But now she couldn't care any less. What were they going to do? Tell everyone she had tried to run away? And then what? They would kill her? Maybe then she would be with Oguz.

Dursun knocked on the door, and in a few seconds, a woman opened it. It wasn't Dilek, probably just a maid.

"This way," she said, leading them from the hallway to a living room.

It was a large room with two couches and four armchairs, a glass table in the middle of them. On the other side of the room was a large table and a staircase.

Everyone was there. Her parents, her brother, his wife, Davut, Dilek, and their son. Only Nehir's aunt and uncle were missing.

Davut was the first to notice them, moving his gaze from Dursun to Bora and then to Nehir. In a matter of seconds, his son rose from the armchair where he was sitting with the back to the door.

"What happened?" Yavuz asked with wide eyes, breaking the silence.

No one answered. Not Bora, nor Dursun.

Davut's son moved closer to them, looking at Dursun and then at Bora. He was still waiting for an explanation.

"Nehir, what happened?" Asked Dilek, coming in front of her. The woman wore a red shirt and a black skirt, her hair caught elegantly in a bun. Her brown eyes searched Nehir's face.

Nehir knew what she must be seeing. Her eyes were red and puffy, her lip still bleeding from Bora's slap. She supposed it was for the best Dursun hadn't let her anywhere near Oguz's body. At least there was no blood on her blue shirt.

"She fell," Bora said. "She tripped and fell."

"Nothing happened," Neslihan added. "She just fell."

Nehir threw a look at her mother. She knew. She knew what had just happened. And she didn't even care. Her mother probably had been the one to plan everything. Her own mother couldn't care less about her.

Nehir made a step towards Dilek and wrapped her arms around the woman, tears falling again on her cheeks. She started sobbing in the arms of the woman she had met once in her entire life, feeling her own mother's sharp gaze on her.

It took a few seconds, but Dilek wrapped her arms around Nehir, hugging her. She allowed herself to cry again. Her own family had done that to her. Her own parents hadn't cared enough about her to allow her to be free.

Nehir pulled herself away from Dilek, tears still streaming down her face like a river.

"Don't send me back to them," she said, her voice filled with panic.

She had thought that if they were caught, she would be killed. She hadn't even imagined the idea of what her mother would do to her. They hadn't killed her, though. But Nehir knew she would suffer because of what she had done. Because she had dared to seek a life outside her father's control.

Whatever Davut's family could do to her was nothing compared to what would await her in her own house.

"I'll become your hostage. I'll become your daughter. I'll become your daughter-in-law. Don't send me back to them, please."

"What did you do?" Neslihan asked suddenly. "Bora, did you hit your sister again?"

Nehir could feel all the eyes in the room moving on Bora, but he said nothing. He didn't deny the accusation. And silence was its own answer.

"Dursun, what happened?" Yavuz asked again.

"Nothing. I mean, I don't know. I met Bora and Nehir outside."

Nehir wondered if they believed Dursun's lies. It was no surprise, coming from her cousin. Dursun had always been a coward.

"Come, Nehir," Dilek said. "Let's go upstairs."

Neslihan rose too, but Dilek turned towards her. "You don't need to come, dear," she said. "We'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Dilek led her to the staircase, and Nehir had to lean on the woman. Suddenly, she felt exhausted.

Thinking of what had just happened made other tears appear in her eyes. Oguz was dead. Bora had killed him. He hadn't even cared.

Her own brother hadn't cared. No. Bora was not her brother. No brother would do something like that to his own sister.

And Oguz... Oguz paid the price of their love. Nehir knew her family, but she had allowed herself to hope. She hadn't discouraged Oguz. And he paid with his life. He was dead because of her. In a way, Nehir had been the one to kill him.

And she had loved him so much. She still loved him. He had been the light in the darkness of her family. She felt as if she could mourn a thousand years and still not recover.

"Don't cry," Dilek told her. "Everything will be fine. You'll see, daughter."

Dilek led her to a bathroom, helping her wipe her face. After a few moments of silence, Dilek turned again towards Nehir.

"Call me if Bora ever does something like this," the woman said. "I'll send Yavuz to have a conversation with him."