Losing Control

Chapter 18

Serenay Bos had been under no illusion that Kemal Ozcan either liked her or wanted to marry her, but a contract was a contract. She knew that he was in love with Aydan Bolat. She had been competing with Aydan Bolat from a young age, not that Aydan was aware that Serenay was competing with her.

There had never been any love lost between the two women and even less once Serenay married Kemal. Serenay encouraged Aptekin Korpaz to enter into a contract with Aydan's father, she would destroy Kemal and Aydan's dreams forever, there would be no annulment of her marriage. Serenay knew that Aydan detested Aptekin Korpaz, he was everything that Kemal wasn't, rude, arrogant, a bully, and her personal favorite, mean. Yes, she got the much better bargain of the two. It didn't matter to Serenay that she had to win through deceit. It also didn't matter to her that she was dooming Aydan to a horrible marriage to a truly despicable man. What mattered to Serenay was that for once she would beat Aydan in her one-woman war.

After Kemal married Serenay they didn't consummate their marriage for over a year. It took Kemal that long to try to get over his disgust at the situation that he found himself in. Even after they finally had sex, it was never regular and only planned for the purpose of creating children. Not that he had a strong desire to have children with Serenay, but she wanted them. Kemal personally thought that she would be a terrible mother.

For two years she monitored her cycle, and they had sex during the time of peak fertility, but no pregnancy developed. When she didn't conceive it was Kemal that underwent testing, his sperm was healthy, the issue was her. No matter how hard she tried she was unable to conceive a child, they did fertility treatments and artificial insemination but nothing worked. Kemal suggested adoption or a gestational carrier, but she refused either of those options. If she could not bear a biological child of her own, then she was not meant to be a mother. That was her final word.

Once the idea of having a child was no longer an option, Kemal no longer came to her bed. Kemal wasn't a cheater, he was an honest man, a good man, a boring man, that was his choice. Serenay didn't restrict her activities though, just because Kemal wanted to be a saint didn't mean that she had to. Not having to worry about pregnancy was an added bonus, she realized.

As the years went on Serenay watched as her friends dealt with their children. There was foolish Aydan Bolat, everyone knew that Aptekin ran around on her, Aydan knew that he ran around on her, but even she had a child. Serenay had heard the rumors that Aydan was trying to leave Aptekin, a rather unheard-of thing with a young child. When Serenay heard that Aydan had gone to an exclusive resort to think, she laughed, until she found out that it was the very same resort that Kemal was having a conference.

She stayed in the shadows and watched as the two of them met by chance and proceeded to spend the next two days together. It was one thing for her to have an affair but for Kemal to have one with Aydan Bolat was unforgivable. Serenay made an anonymous call to Aptekin, letting him know where his wife was and what she was doing, Serenay didn't tell him who she was with, that was none of his business. She enjoyed watching Aydan's shame as Aptekin dragged her from the resort. It was one thing for him to cheat, but it was highly unacceptable for Aydan to stray from the marriage.

What Serenay didn't enjoy was seeing Aydan pregnant. Five months after that weekend, the woman was very obviously pregnant. Aptekin himself told her that they no longer had relations, maybe he changed his mind. The alternative was unthinkable, that Kemal had fathered a child by Aydan when she could never get pregnant. But the alternative was exactly what happened, the child that Aydan gave birth to was too similar to the childhood photos of Kemal to be fathered by anyone else.

Aptekin swore that the child was his, but Serenay knew better. She swabbed the brat's cheek and took a sample of Kemal's hair to have it confirmed. She would tell no one. Serenay enjoyed her place in society, without Kemal she had none. Not even Kemal was aware that the child was his and she had doubts as to whether Aydan did. This was her little secret.