Heartless

Epilogue

Three years later...

"S like baba." Four-and-a-half-year-old Kiraz held a big book and pointed at the letter, and two-year-old Peri repeated.

"E like anne." Kiraz continued.

Eda, who was lying on a big throw cushion on the upper deck of the catamaran, blinked a couple of times as she listened to this reading lesson. She moved to sit next to her daughters.

"Kiraz, I don't think it's S like baba. It's B like baba." She pointed at the letter in a book.

"No, S like baba." Kiraz smiled confidently in the same way Serkan used to do when he was convinced he was right.

"B like baba." Eda repeated, taking Peri on her lap to adjust her reddish blonde locks, which fell from the little girl's high ponytail. Their younger daughter looked like a mini Kiraz when she was her age but with Serkan's eyes and hair.

"It's S like baba because Baba's name is Serkan."

Eda giggled, hearing the reasoning of her daughter. She had to admit there was a logic there.

"So B is for what?" She asked.

"B like Bolat." The four-year-old answered with a smug smile, very pleased with her answer, exactly like Serkan.

"So A will be for what?"

"Daddy, what word starts with A?" Kiraz turned to Serkan, who just climbed with Sirius on the upper deck, carrying ice creams.

He chuckled under his breath. "You don't want to know my answer."

"Serkan." Eda hissed

"What have you thought off?" He teased, trying to distribute the ice creams evenly when the girls squealed with excitement and jumped at him to take their portions. He sat down, holding a cup with chocolate flavor for him and Eda to share.

"Something describing you." She made a face at him, taking a spoon from his hand.

"Yeah, right." Serkan snorted but next smiled and put his hand on Eda's stomach, stroking it gently. "How do you feel?"

"Better." She reciprocated his smile, covering his hand with hers. "You don't see me throwing up all over the deck, so that's a good sign."

"Daddy, are we going to see Grandma today?" Kiraz asked, holding her ice creams away from Peri's reach, who already smeared hers on her dress and wanted to take her sister's portion, too. Kiraz cautiously kept her cup away from her white blouse so as not to make it dirty and went to sit on Serkan's lap. "Why is Great-grandma calling you Kemal?"

"She's very old and sometimes mistakes me with my father."

"Why?" The little girl frowned.

"Because I'm very similar to my father." Serkan answered with a smile, but his jaw tensed a bit. Eda could see how he tried to control his voice to sound neutral. "I have the same eyes and hair and in general I look like him."

"Just like I look like Mommy?"

"Yes, like that." Eda joined the conversation, jumping to her feet to prevent Sirus from eating the melted ice creams from the floor. "If we're going to visit Grandma, we have to go home now, have lunch, and change."

She glanced at Serkan, who looked relieved and gave her a small sad smile when he was sure that Kiraz wasn't watching. Even if a couple of years passed, the topic of their past was still a hard one and it was getting more difficult with their first-born getting older and asking innocent questions they didn't always have an innocent answer to.