Chapter 5

"Deniz, how do I look?"

"You look extremely beautiful."

Meral adjusted Deniz's tie and pressed a light kiss to his cheek. Deniz wiped the spot where she kissed him with his sleeve and furrowed his brows in annoyance, casting a reproachful look at her:

"Meral, stop kissing me like this! The red lipstick leaves an annoying mark."

Meral paid no mind to his grumbling and smiled at him with genuine affection. Deniz looked much sweeter than usual, and she couldn't help but show her tenderness toward him.

Ever since Ethan had dropped that bomb on the dinner table, she had been feeling anxious and unsettled. She had no desire to attend this external dinner party. She had grown so accustomed to not mingling with people that she inevitably felt uncomfortable heading toward an invitation she didn't want. She wasn't entirely like this before; despite rarely going out among people, she had stopped completely after the humiliating words her father had directed at her.

Her father hadn't liked her very much, and it was impossible for him to accept that a man like him could father a clumsy child who couldn't control her appetite like Meral. Ever since childhood, she had grown up deprived of his affection, knowing full well that he didn't love her and actually hated her beyond measure.

She didn't know the reason for this; it made no sense for him to hate her simply because of her appearance. Whenever she asked her mother about it, she would evade the question without providing any satisfying answer. As time passed, she accepted the reality of her father as well, and no matter how hard she tried to make him love her, he chose not to love her.

Yet what truly hurt her heart the most was that instead of loving her, he loved her sister Banu. The father loved Banu to such a degree that she couldn't help feeling jealous; as harsh and silent as he was with her, he was exceptionally tender and affectionate with her sister. During her adolescence, this situation planted an even deeper lump in her throat, though now it no longer affected her to the same extent after she had grown used to it.

When she wanted to go to university, that man stood firmly against it, while doing everything in his power to ensure Banu's education, sending her to the most expensive private tutoring centers. While her beloved sister was a future doctor, she lived her life as a housewife.

She breathed sharply to push these thoughts out of her head; whenever she thought of her father, she came close to the verge of tears, and thinking of him was no use to her at all. Meral looked at herself in the mirror and adjusted her attire; she was wearing a long, simple black dress, having applied only red lipstick as a form of makeup she knew nothing about and had never had any connection to throughout her entire life. She had grown up confident enough in herself to believe that even makeup wouldn't do her any good. The main reason she wore black was to conceal her weight and stoutness; the more she managed to hide her extra kilograms, the more of a win it was for her.

She had begged Ethan repeatedly not to go to this dinner, but he flat out refused and yielded to no plea, forcing her to prepare despite herself.

Ethan looked with annoyance at the woman who was trembling with cold sweat before him; he didn't want to take her to this dinner at all, but he was forced to do so. This dinner was their only shared meeting point after a long period, and neither of them was actually willing to go to it in the first place.

He was trying to tie his necktie but couldn't manage it in any way. Normally, he didn't wear neckties and avoided them entirely even if he wore a formal suit, but this occasion forced him to do so, and that precisely was why he hated elegant evening dinners.

"Meral, I can't tie the necktie."

Meral looked with a smile at Ethan's struggle with the tie, wondering how he managed to tangle and twist it every single time. She stood right in front of him and began gently untying the knotted mess. The young woman was affected every single time by that close distance between them.

She tied the tie calmly and fixed her eyes on the young man's eyes, while Ethan looked at anything except her at that moment, as if he were deliberately keeping his gaze away from her. Meral couldn't understand these behaviors of his; why did she feel he was running away from her like someone afflicted with a plague during some moments of their closeness? She preferred not to think about it as was her habit, for thinking would only break her heart anew.

As soon as she said, "I'm done," Ethan immediately stepped back, moving as far away as possible, while his hand reached toward the tie, as he felt uncomfortable with the presence of her warm breath on his neck.

"If you're ready, let's head out."

Meral nodded in agreement with Ethan's words and took hold of Deniz's hand so they could leave the house together. Ever since they got into the car as a family, Deniz hadn't stopped talking; the idea of this dinner appealed to him greatly.

"Dad, do you know that Alia came over to us?"

Ethan smiled in response to Deniz's enthusiasm; he had been hearing the name Alia with so much repetition lately that he no longer needed to ask who she was.

"Really?" he asked inquiringly; Alia was Deniz's schoolmate and the granddaughter of their neighbor Mrs. Nariman at the same time.

"We had so much fun, Daddy, and I just proposed marriage to her today!" Deniz had seen a marriage proposal in a television series, and despite not fully grasping the matter with his childish mind, he felt the need to make the offer to Alia just like the hero of the show who made the woman there happy, and he wanted to make Alia happy too.

Meral let out a booming laugh that prompted Ethan to laugh in turn without being able to restrain himself, for his son's behavior seemed funny and entertaining to him.

"And what was her response then?"

"She said her brother will beat me if he hears about that! Do you know, Dad, that Uncle Akin is truly terrifying? Every time I go over to them, he glares at me with evil looks."

Deniz was very afraid of Alia's brother; Akin was an eight-year-old child, but he was fiercely protective of his sister from Deniz, pushing him away immediately whenever he saw him close to her and sometimes threatening him.

Ethan smiled at his son's grumbling and pouting lips; he knew Akin too, and fully realized that he couldn't stand Deniz, yet he noticed his fake behavior and politeness toward him whenever his father was nearby.

"You, Meral, say something too. Can't Alia come live with us? Don't married people live in the same house? Or Dad, take Alia with us as a sister, I enjoy playing with her so much," Deniz said, appealing to Meral for rescue.

"I am exercising my right to remain silent, my dear Deniz."

"Son, let's discuss this topic later."

Deniz furrowed his brows in anger as Ethan evaded him; for he knew his son wouldn't keep quiet if he opened this door with him.

"But you took Meral, Dad! It doesn't matter, I want Alia too. I don't want to play with Meral, but with Alia." Deniz said, crossing his arms in silence and a pout. And because he didn't grasp the concept of marriage, he viewed Meral as his father's friend, and since Alia was his friend too, there was no harm in the two of them living in the same house according to his way of thinking.

Time and time again, despite the enjoyable times he spent with Meral, he still wanted to be around his peers; apart from school, he didn't have many friends, and Alia would come to visit her grandmother sometimes, while otherwise he was alone the whole time, and his loneliness was amplified by the lack of siblings.

Ethan understood his son's feeling of loneliness, but he had nothing to do about it; children didn't go out much given that they lived in gated residential compounds, and due to everyone being busy with screen devices in this era, children seemed to have vanished from the streets.

And because Meral considered technology unhealthy, she didn't leave the tablet or phone in Deniz's hands for long, and Ethan didn't object to her stance since he agreed with it. However, their daily hour-long outing with Meral began to become insufficient for the child.

Because of this situation, Meral brought up the topic of having a child with Ethan once more, but the latter showed a reaction harsher than usual; he definitely did not want another child, Deniz was enough for him, and the idea of having children with Meral did not appeal to him; his child from the woman he loved was enough for him and more than enough.