“Gia, are you okay?” Kerem’s voice startled me from the screen. He touched my shoulder, and I jumped. “You’re as white as a sheet, seriously.”
“Yes… yes, I just got dizzy. It’s so hot in here,” I lied as best I could, my voice trembling as I looked away from the TV.
“Turn that off, please,” Mr. Malik said to Kerem in Turkish, glancing at me with that knowing look he wasn’t letting on. “The news only brings bad vibes. Go sit down, Gia. Drink some water.”
Kerem swung the screen off, and it went black, but Sebastian’s face was etched in my memory.
I went to the back, where we kept the boxes, and plopped down in a chair. I hugged my legs, trembling from head to toe, tears streaming down my face. Istanbul suddenly seemed tiny. The Bosphorus, which had previously looked like a giant shield,
