Together Again

Chapter 18

The air in the room felt thick, almost suffocating, as Serkan sat across from the woman. Her eyes were steady, watching him with an intensity that seemed to pierce right through to the depths of his soul. The fire crackled softly in the corner of the room, casting long shadows on the stone walls. Despite the warmth of the flames, Serkan felt a chill creeping down his spine.

The old man had stepped out, leaving Serkan alone with the woman. The moment the door closed behind him, the woman’s expression shifted—no longer the gentle kindness she had shown before. Now, there was something calculating, as though she were trying to see if Serkan was ready for what she was about to say.

“You’ve been searching for a long time,” she said, her voice low but sharp. “And yet, I sense you have been looking in the wrong places.”

Serkan’s heart pounded in his chest. He was already exhausted, his patience stretched thin by the year-long search, but now… now there was a flicker of something he couldn’t ignore. Something about her words, her tone, made him uneasy.

“What do you mean?” Serkan asked, trying to mask the fear creeping into his voice. “I’ve searched everywhere. Every lead, every place, no matter how small. All for Eda.”

The woman didn’t answer immediately. She simply studied him, as if weighing his words, deciding whether or not he was ready to hear the truth.

“She’s closer than you think,” the woman finally said. Her voice seemed to draw closer, almost as if it was in his mind. “Eda’s disappearance wasn’t a random act. It wasn’t a flight or a simple escape from her life. No, she chose this path. She chose it before you ever knew she would.”

Serkan felt a tight knot in his stomach. His hands trembled, the weight of her words settling heavily in the pit of his gut. “What do you mean, she chose it? Chose to disappear?”

The woman nodded slowly. “She made a decision to step into the unknown. She wanted to be free of the world she knew, free of the burdens she felt. She was not running from you, Serkan. She was running from herself. From the guilt, from the chains that held her.”

Serkan’s mind raced. He remembered the last words they had shared. The way she had pulled away, her eyes filled with doubt and sadness. But could it be true? Could she have wanted to disappear, to leave everything behind?

“Why? Why would she do that?” Serkan asked, his voice barely a whisper.

The woman’s eyes softened, and she leaned forward slightly. “Because, in her heart, she thought she was a burden to you. She thought you would be better off without her. But that is not the truth. She was never a burden. She simply didn’t see her own worth.”

The words hit Serkan like a blow. His chest tightened, and he swallowed hard, trying to keep his emotions in check. “I told her that. I tried to make her understand she wasn’t a burden. She… she never believed me.”

The woman sighed, her expression pitying. “She wanted to believe you, Serkan. But in her mind, she was lost. She could not see the love you offered her. So, she took the hardest step of all. She walked away.”

A silence filled the room, stretching long and uncomfortable between them. Serkan sat frozen, trying to process everything she had just said. His mind flickered to the journals he had kept, to the way he had poured his soul into those pages, always hoping she would come back to him. But now, it seemed he had been searching for the wrong thing. He had been looking for Eda, but perhaps he had been looking at the wrong version of her—the one that existed in his memories, not the woman she had become in the time she had been away.

The woman’s gaze softened as she studied Serkan. “But it is not too late. There is still time. The path you are on can lead you to her, if you are willing to see it. You have been searching for answers, but now you must also ask the right questions.”