Captive to the Storm

5

He laughed mockingly at me. He took off the trousers on his legs, and I could swear he did this just to spite me. He was doing it slowly, and right now, just to spite him, I didn't take my eyes off him for a single second. Psychologically, if you looked at someone intently, that person would inevitably grow tense, and I wondered if I was creating any impact on him.

Right now, he was standing in front of me wearing only a boxer brief, and his physique, shaped by the workouts he did, looked extraordinary.

He threw a sideways glance at me and walked into the bathroom.

"Psychopath, bipolar," I muttered, and got up while grumbling. As I walked toward the wardrobe, I purposely delivered a kick to the trousers he had tossed on the floor and knocked them out of my path.

Knowing that he was in the bathroom and wouldn't be coming out for a long time, I grabbed a shirt and trousers for myself and slipped them on. Wearing white trousers beneath a black shirt, I quickly applied my makeup as well. After doing everything necessary, I left the room.

When I stepped out of the room that felt like I would never leave it and headed toward the stairs, the sight I encountered made me pause.

Hülya, Asilkan's sister, was holding her high heels in one hand and climbing the stairs while taking care not to make a sound on her tiptoes, when her eyes met mine, which were looking at her in bewilderment.

Her steps stopped too, and she looked at me.

"Sister-in-law," she said, with a slight morning sleepiness. She was wearing a nightgown, and her makeup-free face looked quite pale and hungover from yesterday.

She probably hadn't been able to come home last night and had been somewhere else until this hour.

"Yes?" My voice was normal, but her facial expression was forcing me to smile.

"Umm," she mumbled, while rummaging through the short hair at the nape of her neck with one hand. "Good morning."

"Good morning, though it doesn't look like morning has quite broken for you. Where were you that you weren't home last night?" This wasn't pessimistic like a question from an overbearing father; we were on good terms with her, and I always acted like an older sister to her, even though she was two years older than me. I loved her; she was a good girl both inside and out.

Hülya said, "I stayed over at Begüm's." "Things have been bad between us lately, I thought this would be good. Staying apart isn't a way."

I smiled at her understandingly. There was a relationship between Hülya and Begüm, and the only person who knew about it was me. The Karadağ family was one of the prominent families of Adana; even though they lived in Istanbul, they still held weight there. Gülsüm Karadağ, the mother of Asilkan and Hülya, was a somewhat old-fashioned woman, and because of this, Hülya had to keep this relationship a secret. She was afraid of the reactions she would get, and I understood her.

"Did it patch things up at least?"

Hülya said, "I don't know about the morning, but by night it had patched things up," with amusement.

"You'd better go to your room, if your brother or mother sees you like this, things won't go very well for you."

Hülya, who came closer to me, smiled meaningfully and pinched my cheek playfully. "My brother's no problem, you'll absorb his anger," she said, with a voice as full of insinuations as her face.

As she passed by me, I glared at her with narrowed eyes; she was well aware of the tension between her and her brother, but she still didn't refrain from making such insinuations to me. She was still acting like a little girl.

Following the brief and concise dialogue I had with Hülya, I walked down the magnificent stairs of the big house, and every time the melody of my high heels hit my ears, my body straightened up even more.

Since it was morning, I entered the kitchen, but Gülsüm Karadağ, who was barking orders at the workers in the kitchen, caught my focus. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and from the corner where she stood, she was explaining something to the few women present in the kitchen with a harsh voice.

Saying "Good morning," to make my presence at the front of the door known, her black eyes—which were just like her son's—found me.

"Dear daughter-in-law, so you were able to wake up," she said, with an ironical tone of voice. "You're aware of what time it is, aren't you?"

I looked at her with my expressionless eyes, devoid of the eyes she had for me; unlike her, there was no emotion inside me.

There were three workers, and all of their eyes touched us and then withdrew.

"Yes," I said calmly. "It must be nine o'clock."

"Look here, daughter-in-law," said my so-called mother-in-law. "This house has rules, and you will follow them just like everyone else. You are the daughter-in-law of this house, you need to wake up before everyone else, not late."

Still looking at her, I asked, "Would you leave us alone?"

The women left their work and walked out of the kitchen.

"Mrs. Gülsüm, we already talked about certain things with you in time, please don't make me repeat it."

Gülsüm Karadağ said, "Then we need to talk about how you should speak to me."

"Please, realize by now that this marriage is a marriage that will end and that it is not real," I said in a dead voice. "Asilkan and I talked about this and agreed."

Gülsüm Karadağ laughed at me. And mockingly at that.

"Those things don't progress the way you know, young lady. If you came to this house as a bride, you will also leave this house draped in white. You can't just up and leave after doing all kinds of sneakiness to become a bride to the Karadağs. This surname and my lion of a son will be yours forever. Asilkan Karadağ is your unchangeable destiny."