Chapter 6: The Woman Who Came Back
Lena made a sound that wasn't quite a word.
She was out of her chair before Evren could move, crossing the kitchen in three steps, dropping to her knees on the floor in front of the wheelchair.
She put both hands on Ilaria's face.
"Hi, baby," she whispered.
"Hi.
I'm here."
Ilaria stared at her for one long moment.
Then she grabbed two fistfuls of Lena's hair and pulled her forward and buried her face in her mother's shoulder.
Evren stood by the window and watched his daughter cry in a way she hadn't cried since she was an infant — without restraint, without trying to be small about it, with her whole body shaking and her arms locked around her mother's neck.
Lena held her and rocked her and said nothing.
There was nothing to say yet.
She just held on.
Evren turned back to the window.
His jaw was tight.
He was not going to fall apart in his own kitchen.
He was going to hold it together until he knew what the next step was.
His phone buzzed on the table.
Selin again.
This time, a call.
He let it ring.
It rang again thirty seconds later.
He declined it.
Then a message: *I'm outside your building.
I saw Lena's car.
Evren, open the door.
You need to hear my side before this goes further.*
He showed the message to Lena without a word.
She was still on her knees beside Ilaria, one hand stroking Ilaria's hair.
She read it.
Her face didn't change.
"She'll come up," Lena said quietly.
"I know."
"Let her."
He looked at her.
"Are you sure?"
Lena stood up slowly.
She smoothed Ilaria's hair back from her face.
"Ilaria, sweetheart, can you go back to your room for a little while?
I'll come find you in a few minutes.
I promise."
Ilaria looked at her with red-rimmed eyes.
"You won't leave again?"
"I won't leave again."
Ilaria looked at her father.
He nodded once.
She turned her wheelchair and went back down the hallway.
They waited until they heard her door click shut.
Lena picked up the manila envelope from the table and held it against her chest.
"The originals are in there," she said.
"The lab results.
The chain of custody documentation from the private facility.
And a written statement I had notarized before I came back." She looked at Evren.
"And the recording is backed up in three places."
"You planned this."
"I've had four months to plan this." She set the envelope back down.
"When she comes up, let her talk.
Don't interrupt her.
Let her say everything she wants to say."
The intercom buzzed.
Evren pressed the button.
"Come up."
They heard the elevator.
They heard footsteps in the hallway.
Then a knock — three sharp raps, impatient.
Evren opened the door.
Selin stood in the doorway in a coat he hadn't seen before, her hair pulled back, her expression arranged into something that was trying to look calm and not quite managing it.
Her eyes moved past him immediately to Lena.
Something crossed her face.
It was gone in an instant.
"So she's here," Selin said.
"Good.
That saves time."
She walked in without being invited.
She stopped in the middle of the kitchen and looked between them.
"Whatever she's told you," Selin said, "you need to understand that Lena has been unstable for years.
Ask anyone who knew her.
She left her own daughter.
What kind of mother does that?"
"A frightened one," Lena said.
Her voice was steady.
"Frightened." Selin laughed once.
"Of what?
Of being a parent?
Of the fact that your daughter needed more than you were willing to give?"
"Of you," Lena said.
Selin turned to Evren.
"You see what she does?
She makes herself the victim.
She always has." She took a step toward him.
"Evren, I know you're angry about yesterday.
I understand that.
But this woman abandoned her child.
And now she's back with some story designed to make you forget that."
Evren said nothing.
Selin's eyes moved to the envelope on the table.
Her expression shifted.
Just slightly.
May you like
Just enough.
"What's that?" she said.
