Losing Control

Chapter 12

Balca Kocak and her sister Mariela were two sides of the same coin. From their looks to the type of man that they preferred, which was usually someone else's husband. Balca only became interested in Aptekin when Mariela married him, not because he was the most handsome man, or the wealthiest, but because in Aptekin Korpaz she recognized a kindred spirit.

They started their affair within a month of meeting each other. Her sister found out about the affair when her youngest child was born. Balca swore to Mariela that it was a one-time thing and that she had no idea that Aptekin was her husband. It was a lie that her sister wanted to believe. She and Aptekin were more circumspect after that.

Neither of them were faithful to the other, that wasn't the point of the affair. Aptekin had a plan. He had a grand idea to fleece his sons from his first marriage, he had been working on this plan for years and then one of them died. Balca remembered that Aptekin was angry since the 'soft touch' died. He had always said that Alp was always good for a loan when he was short of cash but the other one, Serkan? He couldn't stand him. Balca was perfect for his plan to ruin that one.

When the older brother died Aptekin watched with glee as the younger brother went off the rails and began to drink. Aptekin was delighted when Serkan began living the lifestyle of a playboy and his father started to document everything. Blackmail was such a dirty word, but Aptekin thought that it would be lucrative.

When Aydan Bolat had divorced him, she made sure that every word of the prenuptial agreement was enforced down to ensuring that he was no longer allowed to use the Bolat name. Aptekin still used it. He claimed that he was known in the business community by that name and to change it would cause confusion. Aydan didn't care and had her attorney sent him a cease-and-desist letter. When Aptekin didn't cease or desist, she sued and won, driving him further into debt.

It was Mariela who established the insurance for her children, not Aptekin. Not trusting Aptekin with money, she bought and paid for the insurance on her own, with money that she had gotten from him when he was still married to Aydan. She never expected anything to happen to her but if it did, she wanted them to be taken care of. It was Mariela who named Serkan Bolat as the guardian of her children. She had originally wanted Aydan Bolat to be their guardian but knew that would be rude. Mariela didn't despise Serkan Bolat, nor did she think that he was a wasteful playboy. She had known who he was for years and had kept a scrapbook for her children of both brothers so that Defne, Emir and Ebru would know them some day.

Mariela never wanted her sister to have anything to do with her children. Balca knew that and could have cared less, until she found out about the insurance being held in trust for them. Aptekin wanted even less to do with the children. They chuckled over the 'in case of emergency' letter that Aptekin had written to Serkan. He had spun a story of how he had tried harder with his second family, how he had tried to be the father to them that he never was with him. He had laughed as they wrote the 'confidential' letter, a sob story to be sure. He never expected to actually die. Faking his death and actually dying were two different things.

The brats tolerated Aptekin the same way that he tolerated them. They seemed to have some fondness for Mariela, but even that was tempered by the many arguments that she had with Aptekin over the affairs. When she was in a loving mood they received attention but when she was in a temper they stayed away.

The final argument had been the worst, Mariela wasn't supposed to be home, that was what Aptekin had told her when he invited her over that afternoon. When she walked in on them in the bedroom all three of them were rather surprised. Mariela dragged Balca out of the bed by her hair, "I told you Balca, I don't care who you screw just not my husband."

Balca pulled her dress over her head, seeing red as she looked at her older sister, how dare she try to humiliate her that way. Balca was younger than Mariela by four years and in better shape, they happened to be standing at the top of the stairway when Balca looked at her sister coldly and said, "I don't listen to you Mariela, I do what I want with who I want. Go to hell." She slapped her sister, hard, throwing her off balance.