Ece's Secret (Fazilet Hanim ve Kizlari Fanfiction)

Chapter 9: Yagiz to the Rescue

Fazilet had gone to the police to report Ece missing. They urged her to wait a bit longer for her daughter to return home. They advised they could not file a missing persons report until 48 hours from the last sighting. She knew the police weren't pushing the case because Ece was 17 and almost an adult. Cases of missing adults rarely caught any attention. And besides the police theorized she had likely run away with her reported lover.

Her neighbour Nehir dropped by the house to make sure Fazilet ate something. "Fazilet, don't worry. I'm sure Ece will come home soon."

"What if she doesn't Nehir? I know she's run off with that boy." Fazilet cried. Fazilet had never thought of the pain her parents must have felt when she ran away with Halil. She was young and in love. Halil was the only thing on her mind, her parents but an afterthought. Fazilet was worried Ece was following in her footsteps. Fazilet was only a few months older than Ece when she ran away with Halil. Halil was a lot like Yasin. A charming man full of promises. But Fazilet had seen this movie before. Knowing her luck Ece would end up pregnant and become a teen mom with no family to support her and a good-for-nothing husband who would never be able to provide her what she deserved in life. She couldn't let Ece make the same mistake. Fazilet couldn't help but think maybe god was punishing her for running away all those year ago. He did it to make her feel the same pain her parents felt. 

Fazilet had only seen here parents three time since she ran away from home. Once to let them meet Hazan, once to let them meet Ece when she was born, and a third time at her husband's funeral. Fazilet loosely kept in touch with her older brother and sister but her parents hadn't forgiven her for the betrayal even after all these years.   

At times she regretted marrying Halil. He gave her two beautiful daughters but the life he could afford her was miserable. Sometimes she wondered if she would have been better off to marry the suitor that sat in her parent's living room that evening she ran away. Fazilet recalled watching Selvi Boylum, Al Yazmalim when she was a child. She didn't quite grasp the themes of the film until she got older. In many ways it reminded her of her own life. It was the tale of a rural girl who married a truck driver she barely knew but fell madly in love with. She let this love justify his many shortfalls. "What was love?" That was the question Turkan Soray's character asked in the film. "Love was close friendship. Love was goodness. Love was hard work." Fazilet understood now. Love was not a blind infatuation. Now she had to watch her daughter blindly walk into the same trap she had. 

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Another night had past and Ece still hadn't come home. Fazilet was a wreck, sitting there on the couch crying.  Hazan's phone rang. She instantly answered it hoping it was Ece. 

"Abla, don't tell mom it's me calling." Hazan played along. 

"Is that Ece?" Her mother asked.

"No, it's Betul. Some problem at work." Hazan slinked off to the kitchen to take the call. "Ece, what's wrong?"

"Abla, it's Yasin. He's been injured. I need your help." Ece weeped through the phone. 

"What do you mean injured? Injured how?"

"There were some squatters here and they tried to rob Yasin thinking he had money and they hurt him. Abla, please help."

"Okay, okay. Try to calm down first Ece. Tell me where you are. I'll call the police and find a way to get to you."

"No! You can't call the cops. They'll make me go back to mom."

"Fine." Ece described the address to her sister. It wasn't too far from where they were but it would take a while to reach them.