Love Me, Istanbul

#10: Love Hurts

Sipping at the foam of his coffee, Demir rearranged the scatter of documents and photographs lying on his apartment floor and packed them into a case file. Vedat has agreed to meet up to talk about Levent over breakfast - and he wanted Demir to tell him about Operation Cheetah. He had been thinking about what Altinkaya had told him in the night before. His mind reeled back to that fateful incident that happened two years ago. 

After his romantic proposal to his long-time girlfriend Eylül, she had disappeared without a trace. Panicked, he ordered the help of the entire police force to track her whereabouts. Vedat managed to track down her location - at the Haydarpaşa cargo loading bay. When Demir arrived, his heart broke as he saw Eylül being held hostage by a mafia gang. Despite Vedat's warnings and director Fikret Bey's orders, Demir charged at the gang with full force - resulting in a violent gunfight. In a rage, Demir fired multiple shots at the captor who held Eylül at gunpoint and killed him instantly. 

When Demir had finally reported back at the station, he was not surprised that Fikret Bey had dismissed him from his post for causing unnecessary conflict and insubordination. What he did not expect was when Vedat revealed that Eylül had already registered her marriage to a rich businessman shortly after her return to Istanbul. Her kidnapping was part of a ploy to blackmail her husband for ransom. Demir couldn't fathom why would Eylül risk her life for something like that - why would she play with his feelings when she was already married to someone else. When Vedat couldn't identify the man that Eylül got married to - Demir suspected foul play. He dialled her number for countless of times - all his attempts to reach her were in vain. Two weeks later, he came home to a folded piece of paper on the table - with the engagement ring he gave her. Trembling, Demir unfolded the paper. It was barely a paragraph long.

I don't expect you to understand me...or forgive me. Just know that I had to do this. Üzgünüm canım...Hoşçakal.

Out of the blue, the doorbell rang - snapping Demir out of his depressing reverie. Thinking it might be Vedat, he made his way towards the door. His blood went cold when he recognised the face standing at his doorstep - it wasn't Vedat after all. 

"Merhaba Demir," Eylül said. "Are you going out?"

He had known Eylül longer than anyone else - yet her voice sounded all too foreign to him. Burak, Eylül and Demir knew each other since their boarding school years. Before she knew it, Eylül found herself developing a crush on Demir. However, having come from a working-class family - Eylül's parents forbade their daughter from getting involved in a relationship with Demir, an orphan. Together with Burak, she went to London to study Finance. When she returned to Istanbul, Eylül was happy to discover that Demir had gotten himself enlisted in the Istanbul Police Force. Their courtship was like fireworks - stolen dates whenever their schedules permitted, going to football matches and the movies. Eylül couldn't have been any happier when Demir confessed his love for her. However, her happiness was short-lived when she discovered that her parents had arranged her marriage to a rich, but much older businessman -  as an exchange for financial benefits. 

"I'm leaving," Demir said, his eyes cold. "It'll be good if you leave soon."

"Won't you listen to me, Demir?" Eylül said. Demir said nothing as he locked the door. "Demir, lütfen."

Demir walked past her and made his way towards the stairs. Eylül followed suit. "Ya bağır, çağır, " she said. "Ama susma! Please don't be silent like that!"

He could hear her calling after him as they made their way towards the exit. Demir wished he could seal his ears with cement so he would hear Eylül no more. As he reached the end of his patience, he turned around with a furious look on his face.