HONOR, DIGNITY, AND PRIDE

Honor, Dignity, and Pride 19

CHAPTER 15: ROOM 7 — THE GRAND FINALE (The Injection of Mercy)

Awakening by Serum, the Labyrinth of Mirrors, and Absolute Despair

Time, space, and the metallic, sour stench of congealed sacrificial blood clinging to her skin were momentarily wiped completely clean in the darkness of her mind. As Sevgül was pulled upward from the pitch-black, bottomless abyss behind her eyelids, the first thing that struck her face was a raw, blinding wave of pure white light.

She slowly parted her eyes. Her lips were parched; her throat burned as if shredded by sandpaper. She attempted to take a deep breath, but the air filling her lungs was entirely devoid of the ammonia stench of the fertilizer plant, bearing instead a clinical sterility and a sharp tang of alcohol.

She tried to sit up, feeling a sharp pain in her left wrist. Turning her head slowly in that direction, she saw a thick butterfly needle inserted beneath her skin, connected to a plastic tube. The tube extended upward to an IV bag hanging from a steel stand right beside her head—a yellowish, sinister fluid dripping inside with a slow, rhythmic pace. As the liquid dripped, she felt an icy, freezing coldness spreading upward through her veins.

“W-where am I... ?” whispered Sevgül. Her voice filtered through the internal microphone of the heavy, iron-bolted gas mask on her face and echoed off the steel panels of the room. Yet this time, her voice bore none of the former arrogance of the society queen; there was only the pure, primal desperation of a living creature that had barely brushed past the edge of death.

She raised her head and looked around. A terrifying moment of discovery paralyzed her mind. The room had neither ceiling nor floor; every single spot, without exception, was covered with massive, seamless mirrors of polished stainless steel. Wherever she looked, to whichever corner she turned her eyes, she saw only herself. Hundreds, thousands of reflections of that helpless woman—her hair completely disheveled, her silk sashes stained with shelter filth, her torn emerald dress resembling a pile of trash, painted head to toe in the crimson blood of her husband and Marut—stared back at her. She was in a labyrinth of mirrors. Standing alone, right in the center of her own sin and her own filth.

Internal Monologue (Sevgül):

There is no way out of here. It’s over. This is as far as it goes. İlkay dissolved in that vat of acid right before my eyes. Marut splattered his own brains across the mirrors. Now it’s my turn. This serum... this icy substance coursing through my veins is death itself. While I thought I was ruling the holding, while I claimed to be the queen of high society, it turns out I was merely a simple prey trapped in a cage set by a sewer rat. No matter how loudly I scream, no one behind these steel walls will ever hear my voice. My billions in wealth, my bank accounts, my glamorous glass mansion... None of it will save me from the death at the tip of this needle. This is my grave.

“Who are you? !” screamed Sevgül, spinning wildly toward the thousands of reflections in the mirrors. “Show yourself! You killed İlkay, you destroyed Erman, Gürkan, everyone! What do you want from me? Who are you? !”

From the speakers in the ceiling, that mechanical, deepened voice of the executioner thundered once more, vibrating the mirrors and echoing across the room:

“Who I am does not matter, Sevgül Hanım... What matters is who you are right now. Sitting up there amidst your billion-lira luxury, you never once looked into a mirror. Now, look closely at the thousands of faces surrounding you. See the crimson color of the dishonor and hypocrisy in your soul reflected upon your skin.”

Sevgül burst into sobbing tears. Her tears softened the dried bloodstains on her face, trickling down toward her neck. “If you wanted to, you could have dissolved me in that vat too...” she groaned, sinking to her knees. “Why am I here? Why is this serum in my arm? Are you going to kill me?”

“If I wanted to, I could have killed you a thousand times over, Sevgül...” said the mechanical voice with icy mockery. “While Erman’s arrogance broke his neck, while Gürkan dissolved in the acid tank, while her husband İlkay was buried in that vat bearing the sin of his own secret child, I could have destroyed you with a single move. But your death would be too light for these scales. You need to live. That is... if you still have enough willpower to survive. Now look behind you.”

Darkness, the Curtain of Betrayal, and the Lost Daughter

Suddenly, the blinding, raw white light in the room went out as if cut by a blade. All the mirrors fell dark. Sevgül was left alone in a pitch-black, claustrophobic darkness, accompanied only by the dripping sound of the cold serum in her arm. Her heart slammed against her ribcage as if to burst open. She felt the absolute darkness of death right at the nape of her neck.

The massive mirror panel on the opposite wall suddenly turned transparent, and a giant cinema screen illuminated behind it. A video began to play on the screen. The footage belonged to a dim delivery room of a luxurious private hospital, exactly ten years ago. The cameras were recording from a hidden vantage point.

On screen stood Marut Bey—the marble-faced, quiet partner of the holding and Sevgül’s former secret lover. Marut was engaged in a covert bargain with a doctor in a white coat at the doorway of the delivery room. He was handing the doctor a thick, black bag stuffed with cash. Marut’s cold, calculating voice from the screen poured through the speakers:

“You will finish the job while my wife Sevgül is unconscious inside, doctor. The moment the baby is born, you will secretly hand her over to the woman I arranged. As for Sevgül... you will tell her that the baby was stillborn due to an umbilical cord complication. Prepare the official reports accordingly. I cannot allow a child of my blood in this holding to share the inheritance of Sevgül’s father. That child will remain dead on paper.”

Watching the footage on the screen, Sevgül let out such a scream from behind her mask that her voice tore in her throat. She struck her fingers against the iron bars and steel mirrors. “No... No! That’s a lie!” she shrieked, drowning in sobs. “Marut... You couldn't have done this to me! The doctors told me my daughter died! They didn’t even show me her body! Marut, you damned murderer! You stole my own flesh and blood from me!”

The video fast-forwarded rapidly. The scene shifted to the present day, to one of the holding’s covert safehouses in the slums. The camera focused on a dimly lit children’s room. Sitting on the bed in the room was a little girl, around 10 years old, with curly hair falling over her shoulders and innocent hazel eyes, playing with her doll. Her facial features were identical to Sevgül’s old, pure photographs from her twenties.

The mechanical voice pierced the darkness, striking straight into Sevgül’s soul:

“Marut Bey stole your biological daughter from you to swallow your father’s inheritance all by himself and to make you dependent on him, Sevgül. He paid off the doctors and forced them to tell you the lie that your baby died. That girl is alive. Her name is Gökçe... For ten whole years, she has grown up in a rented room beside a caretaker, living on one-thousandth of the millions you squandered at your lavish mansion parties. Marut hid her from you. But this underground court found that innocent girl while pulling the trigger on Marut and taking that monster’s life. Sevgül... If I wanted to, I could have destroyed Gökçe in those holding rooms as well. But this court gifts you your greatest punishment: the responsibility of surviving. Gökçe is your daughter. And right now, she is out there, waiting for you to be her mother.”

Internal Monologue (Sevgül):

Gökçe... My little girl. She is alive. That piece of my heart whom I believed dead for ten years, whom I wept for night after night without even a grave, is breathing somewhere right now. Marut didn’t just betray me in his bed; he struck me in the deepest part of my soul. They stole my own child from me. No, I cannot die here. This serum cannot finish me. That absolute despair, that surrender I felt in this dark room a moment ago is gone. Now, an entirely different fire burns within me. For my daughter, for Gökçe, I will get out of this hole alive. I will rip that holding and that money right out of those monsters’ hands and build a world for my daughter. I will live! I will live no matter the cost!

The sunken, tearful expressions in Sevgül’s eyes suddenly tightened with unshakeable ambition and hatred. She raised her fingers into the air and cried out: “I want to live! Do you hear me? I want to go to my daughter! Get me out of here!”