Don't give up on me.

TWENTY SEVENTH

The family knew that something was wrong. It wasn't for Johum to cry like she had witnessed a murder and complain about everything in her life; how miserable she was and how life wasn't fair. Murat knew something happened. Samir knew there was something wrong.

Everyone knew that she was known to throw tantrums at tinniest of things. But Murat had never seen her cry like this. She had never hugged him for support and that worried him. Johum knew she shouldn't have done that, it was stupid act because it was like throwing her family towards danger. But she had no control on her emotions, she just let go.

The aftereffects were not good. After she had complained over and over again about how she never wanted to see Zayan ever again, and had eventually calmed down— Murat called Zayan over and met with him. Samir and Murat both talked to him, not very politely though. They wanted to know what was so horrible that she didn't even want to see his face.

Johum was unaware of the meeting going on in her father's study but she was glad to be back home. Nehir sat with her in her bedroom and tried to distract her from whatever happened and Johum found that helpful.

Both got engaged in a conversation pretty easily and Johum found herself forgetting about everything horrible that happened in the span of past two days. The hurt was still there in her heart but she could control her emotions now, she didn't cry anymore. She talked to her sister in law for hours, they watched movies and eventually both fell asleep in the same room.

In the study however, Zayan was being interrogated by Murat and Samir, mostly Murat. And at every given opportunity he defended himself. Of course he couldn't tell them what happened because it would put everything and everyone in danger. He just made up a story that they had a nasty fight and she took it to heart. Murat didn't believe him, for he knew that Johum would always fight back and wouldn't cry like she did.

He glared at Zayan all the time and asked him if he raised a hand on his sister or something similar. Upon which Zayan looked horrified and instantly denied, saying that he did make some mistakes but he wasn't the one to hit women. Zayan was aware that he had made a mistake by sending Johum with his step brother. But his intentions were good, he just wanted to get those papers and money from Recugglia and he was planning to rescue Johum, it wasn't supposed to end like this. But the moment his father stepped in to save Johum— a woman he pretty much disliked, Zayan knew that he had made a grave mistake.

Recugglia thought ten steps ahead of him and he had hurt Johum by giving her a shot of blue rocket. Deep down, he was regretting his actions and wanted to apologize to her but she wouldn't even look at him. He admitted that he was indeed, a bad person. He was a mafia man and everbody knew that mafia men were nowhere near saints, it was practically a universal fact. And he was the same. Drugs, money, blood, murder, he was accustomed to all that and he couldn't change what was tattooed in his blood.

But he was a human in the end, he had a heart and he did feel emotions even if it was rare. And he didn't want to hurt her. He didn't love her, but he didn't dislike her either. And the fact that he had hurt her, his judgment had gone wrong made him furious. He wanted to see her and tell her why he did what he did. But that thought had vanished when Murat told him that he wouldn't be seeing Johum anytime soon, not unless she wanted him to.

He, obviously got mad and spoke out of the line and threatened Murat— telling him that he had no fucking right to do that to him and he could do whatever he wanted, it was between him and his wife and he didn't want a third person jumping in. He was fairly aware that he shouldn't have spoken to Murat like that but his anger was getting the best of him.

Nobody ever told him what to do and he wasn't going to listen now either. But that was not what happened. Murat was dead set on his decision and stood nose to nose with Zayan, telling him that he wasn't afraid to involved authorities and drag him to court if he dared hurt his sister. Zayan wasn't scared— but he knew it was best to give time to Johum to calm down. She needed to think things through and he was pretty sure she would contact him if not in a week then two definitely. He nodded and paid his apologies to the men before leaving.