Healing Her Broken Heart

Aleyna Goes Missing

Mark couldn’t help thinking what was holding Aleyna back, why she ran so swiftly from his place, had he done something wrong, or maybe something had something happened in the past? There were so many questions yet no answers. He closed his eyes and instantly was captivated by her long beautiful hair which wreathed her oval face, her big gray eyes that had a hypnotic quality to them, her elegance and her genteel persona mesmerized him. The way she spoke animatedly about a new idea, one couldn’t help but gaze at her longingly. Her perfume still lingered in the bedroom.

All these months I haven’t allowed anything nor anyone to waiver my concentration from work but Aleyna leaves me no choice, Mark thinks out loud.

Suddenly his cell phone rang and he was surprised by the name flashing on the screen.

“Hi Mark, are you home? I wanted to come over your place to work on the project with you?”

It was Karen.

“Today? We’r off today Karen and I take my weekends very seriously.”

“Please, I really need some pointers after all its important for you too and I won’t take much of your time, PROMISE.” Karen said pleadingly

“Ok, come over.” Mark gave in.

Karen came over after fifteen minutes wearing heavy perfume, red lipstick and a low cut t-shirt. She seemed to be ready for a party rather than some serious work. She made herself comfortable on the sofa while Mark made coffee for her. Karen opened her laptop and when Mark came back with the coffee the two started discussing the project.

“I wanted to talk about the succession planning of your company, have you thought about that?”

“Yes, ofcourse we have and we plan to integrate our succession plan into our hiring strategy and for this and many more of such issues we have taken the help of your company.”

“Anything else you’d like to ask me?” Mark asked hurriedly.

“Yes, but first can I use your bathroom?”

As she made her way into his bedroom, she looked around it touching everything as if marking it as her own. Her eyes fell on the gleaming earrings neatly kept on the bedside table. She instantly knew who they belonged to and her mind went haywire. She picked them up and turned around to toss them away when she saw Mark standing behind her, she quickly hid them behind her back.

“Oh, I was just coming out. What do you say we go out I know of a great place we could eat together.”

“Karen, if there’s nothing else you need to ask then excuse me I have some work of my own.” Mark said impatiently.

“Well then I should be going don’t want to come between you and your work” Karen replied with a sweet smile while picking up her belongings. She stuffed the earrings inside her bag and left his place. She knew exactly what to do with these earrings, her plan would definitely put a damper between Aleyna and Mark’s relationship, Karen thought while smiling inwardly.

David

After dropping Aleyna at her house, David didn’t feel any better so he decided to go to his favourite club. Voyeur Nightclub was not too far away, some lively crowd, great music and liquor would definitely lift his mood. As he entered, the blaring music blasted through his entire body and the floor was jam packed with people swaying to the music. The whiskey hit him hard like the blood inside his veins and the sudden adrenaline rush blocked all memories of his father from his mind. He finally started enjoying himself. David was glad to find one of his ex-patients there looking beautiful and with the alcohol in his system, he couldn’t worry any less how his night would turn out to be.

Aleyna

It was a busy Monday Morning and Aleyna was already late for work as she had been tending to Duke with little sleep to herself. She felt crancky without having breakfast and Karen’s familiar voice held no comfort for her.

 “Being late doesn’t suit a manager Aleyna. There are some work ethics in this company.” She said raising an eyebrow with her arms folded infront of her.

“Thanks for reminding me Karen, you’re always so helpful. But unfortunately I’m not answerable to you.” Aleyna replied rolling her eyes.

“Yet! But soon you will be when I’ll bag the project.”

“Arent you too sure of yourself? I would never be making such tall claims too soon.” Aleyna retorted and was about to turn away from Karen when her eyes fell on the earrings she was wearing. They looked awfully familiar infact exactly like the ones she had put on for the party.

“Oh you like my earrings?” Karen asked with a gleam in her eyes.

“I love them too, Mark gave them to when I went to his house this Saturday.” She was literally swaying, “You know we had an ahhmazing time.” Her happiness obvious.

Aleyna couldn’t believe that Mark could present HER earrings to Karen, she was stunned into silence. She could feel hot tears stinging her eyes but she didn’t want to give Karen that satisfaction. She kept herself composed and came close to Karen while touching the earrings, “I’m happy for you Karen but you know how men are, today it’s you and tomorrow will be someone else. So keep those spirits high!”

With that said she marched away from Karen towards her office. Karen didn’t like Aleyna’s calm response she was expecting her to breakdown or atleast flare up. She clenched her fists and walk away in the opposite direction.

Once Aleyna was inside her office, she started sobbing, “You stupid stupid girl, how silly of you to trust a guy again.”

Defne walked in swinging open the door but stopped in mid stride when she saw Aleyna sobbing, “Oh my gosh Aleyna, whats wrong? Why are you crying?”

“I feel like a fool, I should never have trusted Mark. I thought he was different so I allowed myself to feel something for him” she paused while wiping the tears from her eyes, “I was so wrong.”

“Ley would you tell me what exactly happened?” Defne asked concerned for her friend.

Aleyna gave her the details from her conversation with Karen, “Karen could easily be lying, I am sure Mark would never do such a thing.” Defne tried reasoning with her friend.

“I’m not so sure now.” Aleyna said with resentment

“I came here cause Mr.Harris wants to see our presentation but if you don’t want to go I understand. I’ll tell him you’re not feeling too well.”

“No no Defne, I have to go I can’t let my work suffer.” Aleyna replied shaking her head.

She quickly fixed herself, drank some water and off the two girls went with a mission. Mark was also present in the room smiling as he saw Aleyna. Her heart thumping in her chest, she ignored him completely focusing on the task at hand.

Aleyna gave a great presentation with Defne also chipping in. She gave the credits to her entire team and Mr.Harris plus Mark were highly impressed. She explained that there were some questions she still had in mind so Mr. Harris immediately set her up with Mark so as not to lose any time.

“Mr. Mark might be busy today sir, I can ask him tomorrow.” The last thing she needed was to stay alone with Mark and Mr.Harris was not giving her an opportunity to escape this situation.

“Not at all sir, nothing is more important to me than the project and Ms. Morris’s questions.” Mark quickly chipped in.

So the two were left alone in the conference room, Aleyna didn’t once look at Mark in fear that he might guess that shes upset with him. But Mark could not take her ignorance any longer, “Whats wrong Aleyna?”

“Nothings wrong and lets keep the civilities between us Mr. Mark?” Aleyna said with an emotionless voice

“Fine Ms. Morris, care to tell how I may have offended you anyway?”

“What makes you think you have?”

“Well your behavior for one speaks volumes of it, you choosing not to look into my eyes forget even glancing at me, you leaving my house abruptly, you not even bothering to take my calls and now you don’t even want to be alone in a room with me.” Mark finished in one breath his voice slightly agitated.

“Now you don’t believe that I even have the right to feel offended when as soon as I leave you invite other guests to your house and then shower them with gifts that belong to me?” Aleyna had no intention of confronting Mark but couldn’t hold back herself and blurted out everything that bothered her.

“What are you even talking about?” What guests what gifts?” Mark couldn’t understand what she meant.

“I’m talking about Karen, Mark and how you gave her MY earrings which I had forgotten at your house.”

“Yes, she came to my house because she had a few questions related to the project and as for the earrings I never gave her anything.” Mark seemed flushed he couldn’t believe what Aleyna was accusing her of. “ I can’t believe you would think so low of me Aleyna, I can’t even rebuke Karen because she did what she does best but you easily fell for her deviousness” with this he walked out of the room leaving Aleyna alone.

Aleyna felt miserable, clenching her fists she hit the table, chiding herself for being so gullible, knowing how much she must’ve hurt Mark, she didn’t even find the courage to face him let alone apologise. He had helped her several times and she in turn doubted him.

There was a separate meeting where Karen and her team were to present the project and Aleyna heard that it didn’t go too well as Mark was continuously picking on Karen and questioning her every slide, even Mr. Harris was surprised. This had angered Karen a lot and she knew the reason of Mark’s behaviour.

Aleyna needed to be alone, she had made a mess of the situation between Mark and herself. She was pacing her office premises and finally when she calmed a bit she continued to work on her project. Defne came to get her for lunch break but she refused to budge. The only way to take her mind off this whole mess was if she continued to work. How time passed Aleyna didn’t have the slightest idea. Only when Defne came to get her at off time did she realise what time it was.

“Aleyna don’t be so hard on yourself everything will be ok.” Defne tried comforting her friend.

“I know Defne, I just need to finish this thing. Has Mark left?”

“Yes Ley, he left right after the presentations were over.”

“You go I’ll go home on my own.”

“Do you want some coffee?” “No thanks Defne, please go”

Defne knew Aleyna wanted to be alone so she left her.

It was past nine when Aleyna finally took her eyes off from her laptop’s screen. She hadn’t eaten all day and was surviving the day on caffeine. Her fingers were sore from typing and her mind was numb. She badly wanted to go home, take a hot bath and was craving some of her mom’s delicious meals. Her floor was empty and so were the other floors in the building.

She didn’t have to wait for the elevator and quickly stepped in pressing the Ground Floor. Unexpectedly, the elevator ground to a halt between floors and the lights flickered and went out. Aleyna wasn’t sure what had just happened. She quickly took out her cell phone and switched on its torch light, trying to press different buttons but to no avail. She was claustrophobic and starting to panic. She tried banging on the door but to no avail. There were no mobile signals inside the elevator and the power cut made the cold seep inside her body. In her panic she tried to open the door with her bare hands and shouted at the top of her lungs.

She felt her anxiety growing inside her and her brain was losing its strength to think rationally. She was cold, hungry, tired and now trapped and for how long she had no idea. She heard some movement outside but was not sure if her mind was playing tricks on her. The ominous darkness of the lift was immensely distressing for her and she was starting to feel breathless. One last time she banged on the doors with full might and suddenly collapsed on the floor.