Stronger

Epilogue

He called Emre from a payphone.

E: ''brother?!'' Emre was at home with his dad, neither of them able to sleep. ''where are you?''

Can explained the exact location of the farm they had been sequestrated in and where they were at the moment. They were picked up shortly after and taken to the hospital where both their families were anxiously waiting.

They were seating in an emergency bay, being checked by a doctor, silent, clearly in shock. Sanem turned her head and shared a dark look with Can, they had not talked about it but he knew she was thinking of Fabri... and those scissors. Fabri or not, if she had killed someone, even he, wasn't sure he could save a pure soul like hers.

Mevkibe walked in and threw herself on Sanem, hugging and kissing her for long minutes. She turned to Can and embraced him as well; she was the only one allowed so far. About half an hour later, their cuts were cleaned and they were allowed to leave. They were welcomed with hugs, kisses and lots of tears again. Inspector Suvat was there too with the 2 men that were following them when they were kidnapped. They apologised and explained what had happened.

IS: ''we've arrested 2 men that were wandering on the highway and woods, clearly looking for you; a third one was in the farm with Fabri.''

Sanem stared at the policeman, unable to ask... Suvat somehow read her mind, he approached her: ''he's alive Sanem... he lost a lot of blood but he's alive, this is over, he will be tried and spend the rest of his life in jail.''

Sanem leaned against Can, her legs couldn't hold her any more.

C: ''let's go home and rest.'' Everyone escorted them out and to their house. The police did a finale patrol, Mevkibe filled up the fridge with food she had prepared out of anxiety and Nihat cleaned up the perfume workshop.

Can walked into the bedroom once everyone had gone and he had fed Bill and cleaned the few cups they had drank coffee with. Sanem was in the shower. He undressed and put on his usual sleep wear, singlet and sweat pants; he entered the bathroom to brush his teeth and saw her silhouette... crouched in the corner, her body shaking, out of breath at every sob. He rushed to the shower, turned the water off and picked her up.

C: ''Sanem, baby'' he carried her to the bed and wrapped her in a towel, ''Sanem, talk to me baby.''

S: ''am ok... am ok...'' she pulled herself onto him, squeezing her arms around his neck. ''am ok...''

He could feel her heartbeat slow down. ''it's all coming out, right?'' He asked, she nodded in agreement.

S: ''we're free'' she whispered, ''we're free...'' fresh tears spilled down her cheeks and onto his shirt; he kissed her forehead and just held her...

Almost half an hour had passed when Sanem stirred from his embrace, he pushed her hair back, ''you need some sleep'' he kissed her forehead and walked back to the en-suite to take her nightie. She put it on and rolled in a ball like position in bed. His adrenaline was still pumping so he laid with her until her breathing slowed down and changed into his gym gears before going downstairs. He was craving for a run but no way he was leaving her alone in the house tonight, so he just did some strength training to break a sweat for an hour in the backyard.

They both went back to work 2 days later. Sanem had decided not to tell her colleagues about the ordeal but she felt a sense of duty to advise her manager of what she had gone through; after all, she wasn't sure how she would feel in the coming weeks. She knew that eventually, everyone would find out when it would go on trial and in the newspapers but in the meantime, both Sanem and Can were eager to get back to their normal life. And they did... weeks passed and finally it was time to leave for Ecuador.