I Found My Solace In You

« 6| A Promise to Keep »

The evening sky stretched out in a wash of amber and lavender as Mirzan's car hummed steadily across the Bosphorus Bridge, the city below twinkling like a thousand scattered stars. But his mind wasn't on the breathtaking view of Istanbul-his thoughts were consumed by her. The blue-eyed girl who had quietly woven herself into his heart, who had stolen something he didn't even know he was capable of giving. It wasn't just her beauty, though that alone could captivate the most hardened of hearts. It was the way she cared for Özhan, with a tenderness and the way she behaves with everyone her care, kindness and politeness towards them made his chest tighten in a way he couldn't explain.

He hadn't expected to feel this way not about her, not about anyone. Life had taught him to be cautious to guard his heart with walls so high no one dared to scale them. Yet somehow she had slipped past them not with force but with a quiet unassuming grace that left him defenseless. Mirzan had spent days-weeks, even-trying to convince himself it was nothing. A passing infatuation born of her beauty and the brief moments they'd shared across crowded rooms. But those moments had taken root growing into something he could no longer ignore. It wasn't a fleeting attraction-it was something deeper, something that went beyond desire.

Everything made sense now-why his chest burned with irritation whenever he saw other men lingering too close to her, their gazes laced with intentions he couldn't tolerate. He had waved those feelings aside, telling himself it was irrational. After all who was he to her? They didn't even know each other, not really. She was a fleeting presence in his life, a stranger with eyes like a summer sky and he'd convinced himself that was all she'd ever be.

But then at his best friend's wedding everything changed she was the bride's best friend. when someone called her name everything inside him stilled. It was as if hearing it had unlocked a door he hadn't known was there, a door that led to the possibility of something more. That was when he first heard her name-the one that now echoed in his mind as if it had always been meant for him to know. She wasn't just a fleeting image in his life anymore; she was someone real, someone whose presence had somehow become a part of him.

He had never believed in love at first sight but in that moment he'd wondered. Perhaps it wasn't love at first sight exactly but there was something about the way her presence filled the spaces inside him he hadn't realized were empty.

The car slowed as they turned into the quiet street that led to his home the weight of the day settling on his shoulders. Yet, beneath the exhaustion there was a spark-a hope he hadn't dared to name. He didn't know what the future held or whether their paths would cross again but he knew one thing with absolute certainty: this wasn't over. She wasn't a fleeting chapter in his life, a character who would fade with time. No, she was the beginning of a story he was desperate to write one where every line, every word, was etched with her name.

The moment Mirzan stepped into the grand entrance of the Khan Mansion the warmth of home engulfed him. The faint scent of freshly brewed chai and spices lingered in the air mixing with the distant laughter of children and the chatter of adults. The marble floors gleamed under the chandelier's golden light as the house buzzed with life.

"Zani chachu!!" A sudden squeal rang through the hall before a small figure crashed into him.

Mirzan chuckled effortlessly catching his three-year-old nephew Ersan who clung to his neck like a koala "Mere sher! You missed me?"

"Yes so much!" Ersan pouted, squeezing his tiny arms around Mirzan's neck as if he hadn't meet his chachu in a while in fact he bid him to his office this morning. Mirzan just shook his head with a small smile "Where is my princess aira?" He questioned shifting Ersan slightly in his arms "And what about my little champ Ozhan?"