Chapter 19

Gül looks through the window and out to the street. She half expects to see the police surrounding the place, her guilt starting to get to her. But everything is still calm and quiet. Just a regular kind of day in a regular kind of neighborhood. She's just a regular kind of grandma spending time with her grandson. "Don't act suspicious. Don't act like you're doing anything wrong and no one will think that you're doing anything wrong," Yekta had counseled her. He had been right. People have seen exactly what they expect to see.

Surprisingly, the baby has been nothing but easy. He was a little cranky going to sleep the previous night. But she imagines he just misses his parents. She had to hold him for most of the night, rocking him whenever he cried. But she was always able to get him to settle down. She tried not to give it much thought. She tried not to think about how babies only do that with people that they trust. She never spent that much time with him, but Ceylin used to bring him by a lot in the beginning. So he must know and trust her. She must remind him enough of Ceylin to be comforted by her presence. And she can't help but think how she's about to destroy that trust. Because his new parents will be arriving soon.

She feeds him his morning bottle and then gets him all cleaned up and dressed in his cute outfit.

"Aren't you handsome?" she says, unable to resist the gummy, yet charming smile he gives her. She leans down to kiss his chubby cheek and to breathe in his baby scent. With a start, she realizes what she never realized before. He smells like baby is truly a part of her own baby. And she's about to give him away.

"I have to do this," she says, tears of regret filling her eyes. "I need peace in my home. I need my Ceylin back in my home. And that won't happen with you in her life. You'll be fine. I promise. You won't even remember any of this. Ceylin will eventually move on, too. Just like Aylin has moved on from her lost one. My daughters will grow close again with something to bond over. My family will be whole again."

And she'll finally have her justice against the Kaya family. They took away Inci and Zafer. She's taking away Ceylin and Asen. The scales will be balanced and she will be calm knowing that Zafer and Inci's souls will be calm.

"I can see now that you're not the enemy, Little One. But you were never meant to be here with us," she whispers. She had it all wrong before. This baby, this innocent baby, never did any wrong. She blamed him for things out of his control. But now, she can fix that. She can fix his destiny. "You'll have a good life with good people who were meant to love you. My daughter wasn't meant to love you. Your father doesn't deserve to love you."

For the baby, she repeats to herself. She's doing this for the baby. She's doing this to make everything right again. No matter how much it's going to hurt her to hand him over. A part of her thinks she never should have agreed to this. The part that never thought she would look into his eyes and see her daughter. That part that never imagined she would care.

The knock at the door lets her know it's too late to change her mind. For a brief moment, she wonders if she can just not answer it. Just let the new parents walk away empty handed. But no. Yekta had warned her. Once the plan started, there was no stopping it. No matter how much guilt she feels now that she's about to give her grandson away.

"You're not my grandson," she says, more to convince herself than anyone else. She pretends it works.

The knock is louder this time. She doesn't want to risk bringing unnecessary attention to them. She opens the door to a very nice looking couple. Very clean. Very pleasant. Yekta said they had been waiting and praying for a baby for so long. That Asen is the answer to their prayers. She can at least console herself with that fact.

"Gül Hanım?" the man asks. "Are you okay? We were worried when you didn't answer."

"Is that the baby? Oh he looks too sweet. Can I please hold him?" the woman with him asks.

Gül pastes on a smile and gives the baby to the woman. The woman who will now be his mother. Asen immediately rebels and lets out a sharp cry. He squirms, trying to get out of the woman's arms. Gül nearly reaches for him, but the man holds out a bag and places that in her hands instead.

"The agreed upon price," he says. And at once, she begins to feel sick. Is that what she's really doing? Is she really selling her grandson? She's about to say something, take him back, object. Anything. No matter what Yekta warned. She can't do this.

But she knows she can't turn back now. So she just nods, and with a trembling hand, she gives him the envelope containing the important documents the new family will need to register their child. Because Asen is theirs now. The deal has been done. The money will buy her family a new home. A home far away from the pain they've endured in their old home. A home far away from the Kayas. Only then will Ceylin and the rest of the family begin to heal.

She shuts the door as they leave, leaning her head against it as more unbidden tears come. One day Ceylin will understand. She has to believe that.

Just as she pushes herself away from the door to gather her things to leave, another knock comes. She doesn't stop and examine the small hope that lights inside of her at the idea of the family changing their mind and bringing him back.

When she opens the door, she sees it's just the man. The woman must have taken the baby out already.

"I forgot one thing," he says, reaching into his pocket. She realizes too late what he pulls out: a badge. "Gül Hanım, you are under arrest."

Before she can even comprehend what's happening, the room fills with people that come out from seemingly nowhere. People in uniforms, she realizes. Police uniforms. And they have guns pointed at her. So she does what any normal person would do in such a situation. She faints.

Eren meets him outside the police station and takes him directly to the missing persons department. Ilgaz realizes with some dismay that muscle memory almost has him going in the direction of the murder department. But that's not where his son is thankfully.

He stops for a moment to let out a sigh of relief when he hears his son's cries from down the hall. It takes everything in him not to let out a cry of his own.

"He's okay," he says, trying to catch his breath. Trying to calm down so that he will be able to calm Asen. "He's really okay."

"He is," Eren assures him. "He's not happy. He clearly missed Mom and Dad. But he's fine. The paramedics on site checked him over. He was well taken care of."

"Come on, Asen, my boy. I thought we were friends," they hear from inside the room. Ilgaz gives Eren a questioning look.

"Pars Savcı," Eren laughs. "He's been trying to get the baby to take a bottle. But the little guy is tired and frustrated and is being as stubborn as his mother."

Ilgaz lets out one more breath and notes that his hands are still shaking. But he can't keep his son waiting any longer.

"Asen," he calls out, drawing the baby's attention as he walks into the room. He earns a big milky grin. Asen's eyes are still filled with tears, but he's obviously happy to see Ilgaz. "There's my son. How are you? Are you giving your Uncle Pars a hard time?"

He takes the baby into his arms and immediately hugs him to his chest. He's trying not to let Asen know that anything unusual has happened, but he finds it hard to control his emotions. He was truly terrified. More scared than he's ever been in his life.

"I love you so much, Asen," he whispers to the baby. It's only when he hears Eren and Pars clear the room of the rest of the officers that he notices his tears.

"Ilgaz, it's okay," Eren says gently. "Asen is back. He's fine."

Ilgaz can see that for himself. But that still doesn't calm him down. Asen starts gnawing on his shoulder and that is finally what makes him snap from his stupor. His son is hungry. He can deal with that. He walks over and grabs the bottle Pars abandoned and starts feeding his son. Then burps him and changes him. By the time Asen drifts off to sleep in his arms, Ilgaz is starting to feel his equilibrium return.

"Okay," he sighs, still rocking Asen even though he's asleep. "Tell me what happened. Who took my son? How did you find them?"

"This is all we know so far," Eren says, setting a file in front of Ilgaz. Ilgaz starts flipping through as Eren continues his explanation. "We got an anonymous call about a woman with a baby in an apartment that had been previously unoccupied. When the officers arrived on scene, they got another message about a suspicious vehicle with two people inside watching the building. They saw the vehicle in question and went to investigate. The people had just gotten out of the vehicle and froze when they saw the officers. I guess they panicked because they ran instead of getting back into the car and driving away. Even still, the officers couldn't catch them. But they did search the car and found a car seat, a bag of money, and instructions for who to meet and where. The officers called it in to missing persons. Missing Persons decided it would be safer for the baby, if it was indeed Asen, to go in pretending to be the people who by all appearances were about to buy a baby. Their plan was to go in undercover, get the baby to safety, hand over the cash, and then arrest whoever was selling the baby. The plan worked. We have the suspect in custody."

"Who?" Ilgaz asks, afraid he already knows the answer. But he needs to hear it for himself. Even then, he doesn't think he'll believe it. She couldn't do something like this. It makes no sense.

"They arrested your mother in law," Pars says. "She's in an interrogation room now. I didn't have them put her in a cell. Yet. But she was caught red handed, Ilgaz. She exchanged the baby for money. Even if you or Ceylin don't complain about her, she was caught in the act. Human trafficking is a serious charge. They have hard evidence against her. Including body cam footage."

Ilgaz just sighs and shakes his head. This is a mess. He can hardly wrap his mind around it. But he knows one thing: there's no way she did this on her own.

"Who put her up to this?" he asks his friends. "Because you know as well as I that she couldn't have done this alone. She doesn't have the resources, connections, or access to make this happen."

"We've tried to trace the drug she used in the tea, but it's a dead end," Eren says. "It's a fairly common tranquilizer, although it is expensive. She couldn't have afforded it. Someone had to have given it to her as well as told her the proper dosage. Too much could have killed her target."

"Not to mention the two men to kidnap Asen. The clients they set up to meet Ceylin at her office. The couple set up to buy my son," Ilgaz says as he ticks off a count on his fingers. "That's another 6 people involved in this. She wouldn't know how to find kidnappers and baby traffickers. Or have the money to pay them or the apartment rent. It's clear she was just a pawn."

"She isn't talking, unfortunately," Eren tells him. "She says she won't say anything until she can speak with Ceylin. She says Ceylin is her lawyer."

Ilgaz finally allows his anger to bubble to the surface. A menacing scowl comes across his face as the impact of what she's done really starts to sink in. He almost lost his wife and child because of this woman and her hate. He deserves answers from her. And he's going to get them.

"Take me to her," he growls.

"Where's Ceylin?"

It's the only thing she said when he walked into the room. He tosses the file on the table between them and just looks at her. She looks tired. She looks angry. Confused even. He'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she even feels some guilt and remorse for all that she's done. But that might just be wishful thinking. Something tells him his suffering might be the only thing that's keeping her going right now. That and the confidence that Ceylin will choose her over Ilgaz. Little does she know Ceylin can't choose anything right now.

"I'm asking the questions," he says, cutting her off. "Why did you take Asen?"

She stubbornly crosses her arms and refuses to look at him.

"You seem to think this is a game, Gül Hanım. It's not. And right now, I'm the only thing standing between you and a jail cell," he warns her. "So you might want to start taking me seriously."

"Asen is my grandson," she says. "Isn't that what you and Ceylin keep saying? So why is it so strange that I would have my grandson for a little bonding time?"

"You had him taken from our home without either of us knowing. Or consenting. That's kidnapping."

"My daughter would never say that," Gül smugly says. "She will make everyone understand that this is all just a misunderstanding. That Aylin had an emergency come up and had to bring the baby to me to watch. Ceylin will understand."

"Who are you working with?" Ilgaz asks, surprising her slightly at the sudden change in topics. "Who gave you the drugs for Aylin's tea?"

That surprises her even more. She truly believed she was getting away with something.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she claims calmly. But lacking the confidence she boasted earlier.

"Still playing games, I see. Okay, then I'll tell you what I'm talking about. You just listen."

"You and whoever you're working with, let's just call him Yekta Bey, just to give him a name of course," Ilgaz says, glaring at her. "You and Yekta Bey manage to set up an appointment to get Ceylin out of the house. Then you set it up so that Aylin babysits Asen. A little suspicious, but I'll admit that it could have also been passed off as a coincidence. Then you made sure Aylin had some tea, with a little something extra added. You needed to make sure she was asleep so that when the kidnappers arrived, they wouldn't have to hurt her."

He looks her dead in the eyes before flipping over the first picture for her to see.

"But they hurt her anyway. Because she didn't drink the tea. She wasn't asleep. So this is what they did to her."

He lets her take the picture in her hands and watches as realization sinks in.

"What happened to Aylin? What's happened to my daughter?"

"Your kidnappers happened to her, Gül Hanım. You happened to her."

She just shakes her head, refusing to believe. Tears stream down her face.

"They stabbed her. They shoved her into the linen closet," Ilgaz continues. "They took my son and left your daughter for dead."

"You're lying!" she screams. "Where is she? Where is my daughter?"

He tilts his head and just stares at her for a moment. He doesn't doubt she's worried about Aylin. He doesn't doubt that she never intended on her daughter getting hurt. On either of her daughters getting hurt. But despite her intentions, her actions nearly killed Aylin and Ceylin. Nevertheless, he's not here to be cruel. Just to give her the hard truth. So he gives her an answer.

"Aylin is in the hospital," he tells her. "She needed surgery to repair the damage from the stab wound, but she's better now. But it's going to take some time before she fully recovers."

Something inside of her must tell her that he's telling the truth. Because a look of understanding and acceptance crosses her face.

"She was supposed to drink the tea," Gül whispers through her sobs. "Why didn't she drink the tea?"

"Because Ceylin took the tea," Ilgaz says, emotions filling his voice. "She got in her car and drank that tea, Gül Hanım. She was driving on the highway, in heavy traffic, when she drank that tea."

He turns over yet another picture and watches the color drain from her face.

"This is all that was left of her car when they got to her." He quickly wipes away the tear from his cheek. It hurts his very soul to see what she went through. He feels like he failed both her and Asen because he couldn't keep them safe. He just never imagined he would have to keep them safe from Gül Hanım. He's suddenly very, very tired.

"Look, Gül Hanım," he says with a sigh, both his patience and energy gone. "I honestly don't have the strength to go through all of this with you. Not right now. I have my son back and I can hardly bear to be apart from him, even knowing he is just in the other room with people that I trust. I was worried sick about him. Worried I'd never see him again. And worried that Ceylin would never forgive me for losing him. Do you know how hard it is going to be for me to tell her what's been happening? And your part in it?"

"I did this for her," Gül cries. "I did this to save Ceylin. From your family."

He just shakes his head.

"For someone who hates my father so much, you sound exactly like him, Gül Hanım."

"Don't compare me to your honorless father! I am nothing like him," she spits out.

Ilgaz shrugs.

"You did what you did for Ceylin. My father did what he did for Çınar. My father may have taken away your chance to say goodbye to your husband, but he didn't take away your husband. Not the way you took away my son. Not the way you planned to take Ceylin away from me. You stole my baby and sold him, Gül Hanım. You sent a drugged beverage into my home, Gül Hanım. And now my wife is lying unconscious in the hospital because of it. Because of you. You hurt the very person you were trying to save. And you have no one to blame but yourself."

"You did this. Your family did this." Gül covers her ears, squeezes her eyes shut and repeats that mantra over and over. You did this. You did this. You did this.

Ilgaz realizes there's no more getting through to her. There's nothing more he can say to her. But he didn't realize she wasn't through with him.

"I'm not going to let you take Ceylin the way you took Inci," she yells at him, jumping out of her seat and crossing the table to attack him. The move is so quick that he doesn't have time to do much more than take a defensive stance. The door almost immediately swings open and Eren runs inside. Two officers follow him. They manage to subdue the crazed woman, handcuffing her to the table. She continues to struggle and fight.

"Get the paramedics," Ilgaz orders. "Have her sedated and sent to the hospital. She needs a psychological evaluation."

The hospital is better than jail. Because the last thing he wants to have to do is tell Ceylin that he sent her mother to prison. And just maybe the doctors can give her the help she needs.

He leaves the room and leans tiredly against the wall, the sounds of Gül's anguish and confusion reaching him even outside the room. He's exhausted. Mentally and physically drained. Missing Ceylin. His hand goes to his chest and he's almost surprised to feel his heart beating, knowing that it's missing her. And he prays that she wakes up soon. Only then will he feel whole again.

After yet another sleepless night, Ilgaz had finally drifted off to sleep when a disturbance outside of Ceylin's room startles him awake. He peeks at Asen, tucked away on the make shift crib he improvised from two chairs pushed together and notes that he's sound asleep. Nearly every one of their friends offered to take him home for the night, but Ilgaz politely declined them all. He couldn't bear to be away from his son again. And since he wasn't leaving Ceylin either, all three stayed at the hospital. It's a bit later in the morning than Asen usually sleeps, but Ilgaz expected this would happen. Everyone was so happy and excited that Asen was found safely that he got hugs and snuggles from everyone. Even his own family had come to the hospital and this time he actually let them stay. His aunt had seemed genuinely concerned about Ceylin. So maybe things will be moving in a positive direction with their relationship one day.

Defne had wanted to stay at the hospital too, but Ilgaz was already bending the rules by keeping Asen there. He didn't want to push his luck. He promised Defne a weekend once Ceylin wakes up and gets better. The girl happily agreed and ran off to start planning what kinds of activities she'll be roping Ceylin into in the future. He loves that Defne and Ceylin love each other so much. Living in a house full of men, and also with someone as old fashioned as his aunt, Defne is going to need a younger feminine influence as she's growing up. And even if she turns out to be only half as fierce as Ceylin, the world is going to have to look out for his little sister.

The sound from the hall comes again, so he goes to investigate. He opens the door and looks up and down the hallway, only to see a janitor with an extra loud cart and probably carrying more things than he should. Ilgaz is just closing the door when the tentatively stacked pile of used dinner trays on the janitor's cart loses the battle with gravity and crashes to the floor. The noise wakes Asen up and the boy greets the day with his "I'm very unhappy to be awake right now" cry.

"Come here, little guy," Ilgaz says softly, trying to counteract the baby's screeching with a calm, soothing tone. "It's okay. I've got you."

The soft tone isn't working. So he starts walking with him and bouncing him, hoping the gentle motion will soothe him. He doesn't notice movement on the bed behind him.

"Baby's crying … your turn to get up with him, Ilgaz."

Ceylin's sleepy tone surprises him and he quickly turns around.

"Ceylin? Are you awake, honey?"

He runs to her bedside and gasps in shock when her green eyes blink sleepily at him.

"Is he okay?" she mumbles, not seeming to realize yet where she is or what has happened to her. But when she reaches out to take the baby, she pulls her arm to her chest with a painful groan.

"Take it slow," Ilgaz cautions. "Hold on a minute, let me put him down."

Ilgaz finds Asen's pacifier and shoves it in his mouth. The baby eagerly starts sucking and goes back into the chair "crib" easily enough.

"Ilgaz? What happened to me? Where am I?"

"We're in the hospital, My Love. You had a little accident, but you're fine," he explains, sitting next to her and taking her good hand. "Your arm got cut on the broken glass. And you banged her head. That's why you've been unconscious for a few days."

"Accident?" she asks, her eyes showing hints of panic and confusion. She groans again when she moves her hurt arm so that her hand can cover her belly. "Am I okay? Is … everything okay with me?"

Ilgaz just gives her a huge smile and then bends down to press a kiss to her belly.

"You're fine," he assures her. "And the baby is fine. The doctors have been keeping a close eye to make sure. But imagine my surprise when he told me. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't really know," she says with a wince as she tries to get more comfortable. "I had started to suspect. I was even going to get a test on my way home from work so that we could find out together."

"It was the one good thing that happened to me that day. It gave me the strength I needed to hold on. It gave me the faith to believe that you'd come back to me."

He kisses her hand and then holds her palm to his cheek.

"Don't ever leave me again, Ceylin. Promise me," he whispers.

"Ilgaz, what's wrong?"

Her concern makes it even harder for him to hold in his emotions. But he can't get into everything just yet. He needs to make sure she's really okay.

"Let's get the doctor in here so that he can check you out. There are things you need to hear, but not until I'm sure you're healthy. Things that happened while you were sleeping," he confesses.

He can't help but look over at Asen. Thankfully he was found before Ceylin woke up. That'll make telling her about his kidnapping a bit easier. But she's still going to take it hard. Especially the part about her mom. He can't keep it from her, unfortunately.

He places a tender kiss on her forehead before standing to go get the doctor. He reaches out for the door just as someone on the other side is pushing it open. Forcefully. He looks down at an angry Aylin glaring up at him from her wheelchair.

"Ilgaz, do you want to explain to me why you had my mother locked up in the psych ward?" she practically screeches.

The noise makes Asen start crying again. But even his son's sobs can't mask the sound of his wife's own shock and disbelief.

"You did what?"

Ilgaz cringes and turns to face Ceylin.

"'Forget the doctor," she says in a voice that's simultaneously calm and scary. "You start talking, and start talking now."

Asen continues to cry.

"And bring me my baby," she adds, giving Ilgaz a look that he can't quite decipher. But he's pretty sure he's in trouble. And he thinks it best to just comply. How she manages to be terrifying from even a hospital bed is beyond him. She calms down a little with Asen in her arms, but not much.

Clearly this will be a much harder conversation than he initially thought. He doesn't even know where to start. But he decides to take the opening Aylin gave him. He'll start at the end.

"Your mother is in the psych ward getting an evaluation," Ilgaz starts. "It was either that, or prison."

"Prison? You were going to put my mother in prison?" Aylin screams. "For what?"

Ilgaz bends to kiss the top of Asen's head, stroking his chubby cheek. The baby gives him a cute little smile. Ilgaz just sighs, thinking of the whole day of the baby smiles he missed when Asen was taken. And not wanting to say the next words even though he must. He looks into Ceylin's eyes and silently begs her to understand. To forgive him for the heartbreak he's about to lay on her.

"For kidnapping and selling our son."