Chapter 2

My mother looked at us with her eyes full of tears. Before she opened her tear gates completely, I stepped out of my father's arms and started eating to fill my stomach. Everyone in this house knew that if my mother started crying, no one could stop her!

After the dinner we had as a family, I cleared the table and washed the dishes. My mother complained repeatedly saying she would do it, but thinking about how tired she got at work all day, I wanted to help her as much as I could in the evenings. In the meantime, my mother approached the corner where my father always sat, holding a teapot. After pouring the brewed tea into the thin-waisted glass as she always did, she threw in three teaspoons of sugar and stirred it. As my father took the tea from my mother's hands, he thanked her with his eyes. My work in the kitchen, which was connected to the living room, was done, but to leave them alone for a while longer, I first put my brother Murat to bed.

I, Murat, and Gülnur were blonde just like my mother. Rojda and Rojin, who had dark eyebrows and dark eyes, were copies of my father.

"Sister." Murat softly murmured my name from where he lay. His large blue eyes were shining with the red light of the lampshade.

"Yes, my lamb."

He slowly turned toward me. "There's a field trip at school, they're going to Çanakkale."

Sensing where the subject was heading, I swallowed hard. "Do you want to go?"

He nodded with a shy expression.

"How much is it?"

"Well... about as much as your weekly wage."

I did a quick calculation in my mind. I had a little bit in my wallet. Tomorrow was my workplace's weekly payment day, but I wanted to do grocery shopping.

"Is it too much, sister?" he asked, deriving a meaning of his own from my silence.

I smiled and stroked his short hair. "It's not, my brother, we'll handle it tomorrow, okay?"

I thought, we can get by with fewer groceries this week. Where it wasn't enough, I could request to stay for overtime.

I went to my room and got in next to the sleeping Gülnur. As I hugged her tightly, as much as I enjoyed doing this, I didn't want to see that strange dream again. After a few trials, I had convinced myself that the dream caught me when I was alone. On the nights when Gülnur wanted to sleep with my parents, I didn't sleep. Consequently, I couldn't explain my sleepless state in the morning to anyone. For this reason, I never wanted Gülnur to leave our bed.

I smiled when the tiny child buried her head in my neck cavity without knowing what kind of trouble she was protecting me from, but my mind thinking about the dream was very restless. The worst part was that I couldn't figure out how to deal with this situation. Maybe the right thing to do was to see a psychologist, just as Gupse suggested.

The next morning, when I opened my eyes, I found Gülnur touching my face with her tiny hands. As she sat in bed with her sleep-fogged eyes, since she couldn't speak, she had found the solution in waking me up this way again. I caught her thin body by the waist and sat her on top of my belly. She tried to catch my fingers tickling her belly to multiply her silent giggles.

She was so sweet that I was afraid I would hurt her while loving her.

While Gülnur and I stayed in the smallest room of the house, my other three siblings stayed in the room that was actually the living room. Murat, who was overwhelmed by Rojda and Rojin's fights, often slept with us. Even though we were squeezed in the narrow bed on those days, I was not complaining about my situation.

"Show me, little one." I opened the door of the cloth wardrobe that I shared with Gülnur and pointed to the dresses, most of which were pink. "Which one do you want to wear today?"

Gülnur put her index finger to her mouth, which was missing a few front teeth. At that moment, my mother called out from inside. "Rozelinnn! You're going to be late for school, stop messing around with Gülnur."

I looked through the door crack at my mother preparing breakfast. "My class is at ten o'clock, mom. I'll make it, don't worry, but I'll be a little late coming home today."

"Why, girl? Weren't you off today?"

I intended to tell her about the foundation Gupse mentioned, but I thought it wouldn't be right for them to know before I was sure; I didn't want them to be disappointed.

"I'm going to meet Gupse," I said, telling a partial truth.

My mother replied with a pleased voice. "Good, good. Go and see some human faces."

She threw me a meaningful look and continued to take care of the breakfast table. I knew exactly what she meant. By two human faces, she of course meant a handsome, well-off, auspicious suitor!

After dressing Gülnur in her laced pink skirt and starched white shirt, I combed her blonde hair, which was as thin as a feather. It was straight as silk.

"Ah, ah... What would it take to have gentle hair like this..." I let out a loud sigh. "Mine is as frizzy as the hair of the witch who imprisoned Hansel and Gretel."

As Gülnur giggled with her cute face, she gestured with her hand for me to braid her hair on both sides.

"At your service, little lady."

I braided her hair on both sides just as she wanted and tied the ends with pink rubber bands. When I fastened two stone hairpins in front, she looked at me with her innocent expression and thanking eyes.

Gülnur, my little one... She couldn't hear us, she couldn't speak to us. She was only trying to read our lips. When she succeeded, she would jump with joy. Sometimes there would be a bitterness in her eyes for being different from her friends. My heart would break whenever I saw it, but I would try not to show it to her. I loved all the members of my family very much, but in this life, I wanted to make Gülnur happy the most. I wanted her to always smile and be happy. Like all special children, my little sister deserved this.

She took my hand and pulled me toward herself. I understood what she wanted to do. When I knelt down and got to her level, she wrapped her small arms around my neck and kissed my cheeks, and I inhaled her pure scent.

When I pulled back, I pointed to my lips and spoke clearly word by word. "I love you very much, but I'm jealous of you because you are more beautiful than me."

After putting her hand to her mouth and smiling, she said in sign language that I was also very beautiful.

After seating Gülnur at the breakfast table, I started getting ready for school. I matched a black t-shirt over my wide-leg jeans that I frequently wore and put my hair in a ponytail. After throwing a few bites into my mouth, I kissed and loved Gülnur and Murat plenty. I was getting ready to do the same to Rojda and Rojin when they warned me with their eyes.

Since the twins had just entered puberty, they no longer liked to be loved like children!

I entered the faculty of architecture, which I reached by changing two vehicles. The classroom was crowded, but I felt the gaze of one person on me in particular.

Cihan. This was the name of the dark-haired and polite guy who had been interested in me since the beginning of the term. As far as I knew, he was a year older than me, but his large build widened this gap visually. As I left my bag on the table, I noticed him sitting next to me.

He had no intention of giving up, I knew this, but my answer was not going to change. I wished he knew that too...

"How are you?"

I gave him a side glance and smiled. "I'm fine Cihan, how are you?"

Skipping my question, he said, "I don't see you much at school anymore. You don't stop by the library or the cafeteria." It was clear that he didn't like this situation.

"I'm working. I need to catch up with work after school. Unfortunately, I don't have time to read books these days."

"Why?" he asked, with an attentive attitude as always. "I heard about your father's situation, but I didn't think it was this bad."

"He's recovering. He will be even better."

"I hope so. Where do you work?"

I would have preferred him not to ask this. "Blue Cafe," I said quietly. No one here liked that place.

His gaze changed all of a sudden. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Does it look like that?" I asked, perhaps in a warning tone. "I'm just working."

When he reached for my wrist resting on my notebook, I looked at him from under my furrowed brows. "Why don't you let me help you? This request of mine has nothing to do with my feelings."

I pulled my wrist back and looked carefully into his brown eyes locked on my face. "I know Cihan, but neither I nor my family would accept this. Do you understand me?"

He shook his head in displeasure. I was aware of his good intentions, but I couldn't accept help coming from him while knowing his interest in me. This would be taking advantage, and my family hadn't raised me to be a parasite.

"I understand," he said with genuine understanding. "Still, if you ever need anything, I'm always here."

A smile of gratitude settled on my lips. "I know."

He stayed by my side throughout the lecture, but I was almost sure he wasn't listening to the class because of his gaze that I frequently felt on me. Ultimately, when I left the classroom leaving a dry 'see you later', I found Gupse waiting in front of the faculty just as she had said. She was sitting on the hood of a flashy car, wearing a mini skirt and her brown hair extending to her waist.

"Hi."

When her eyes found me, she wrapped her arms around my neck. "Hi gorgeous!"

"Did I keep you waiting long?"

Taking off her stone-studded glasses that covered almost her entire face, she said, "Nope, I just got here. Hop in the car."

I looked at the red car with surprised eyes. Gupse didn't have a car, nor was she in a position to buy one.

"Don't look like a deer caught in headlights," she said in a cheerful voice. "It's the workplace car. I'll drop it off when my job is done."

"Hmm..." Taking a sarcastic tone, I got into the car. "I guess things are good between you and Burak." Burak was her boss, and she had been trying to get the man's attention for a long time.

After she took her place in the driver's seat, we hit the road. "Not bad, but he failed when it came to character."

Not understanding, I looked at her right profile. Gupse was quite beautiful. She had wheat-colored skin, green eyes, and plumper lips for the past year. She was a girl who could easily draw attention in any environment she entered.

"First of all, you should know this, Rozelin," she said, with a wise attitude. "Men are divided into two. Gentlemen and assholes."

I looked at her with eyes that had given up hope on her. "Was Burak an asshole?"

She shook her head negatively. "No, he was an asshole disguised as a gentleman."

A week ago, she was talking about how handsome, rich, and cool her boss was.

"What did he do?"

She said something that left my mouth wide open, and this wasn't the first time. "He said his ex-girlfriend's name while we were making out. Right when my in—"

"Okay!" I definitely didn't want to hear the rest. "Don't continue."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Gupse was a complete lunatic. She was like this not just around me, but in every environment. Sometimes I wondered how someone with a calm nature like me could get along so well with her. The answer I found never changed.

Gupse made me smile.

It had been a while since we got on the highway. I had told my mother that I would be late, but I hadn't expected the foundation to be this far. A little later, I turned down the music Gupse had turned on.

"Where is this foundation? If we go a little further, we'll exit Izmir."

She turned off the highway and veered into a forested road. "Do you remember Melda? You know, my cousin with the toilet paper roll face... She told me. Besides, there's very little left. From what I saw in the pictures, it's excessively large. It's normal for it to be built in a place like this."

As she said, a short while later we stopped in front of a two-story villa resembling a black box. It rose alone in the middle of the wide forest land; it had no roof, its walls and frames were pitch black, like a void that swallowed light. Its windows resembled dark holes rather than glass, and it seemed as if even the surrounding trees stayed away from it. It didn't look like a foundation, but like an ominous shadow driven into the heart of the forest.

- Safornikon Foundation -

The name of the foundation was written at the very top with red stones.

Without taking my eyes off the foundation, I asked Gupse. "Are you sure this is the place? It's very strange. Look at the name, I've never heard of it before..."

"You're right, it's strange, but I'm sure this is the place. I told you on the phone, it's a new establishment. If your questioning is over, shall we go inside?"

There was something that didn't sit right with me, but because I trusted Gupse, I headed toward the steep stairs of the villa with her. At the top of the stairs were two men I guessed to be guards. The men, who were dressed in black from their glasses to their suits, stood motionless like statues.