Chapter 10

                                    

                                          
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"You know it should happen sooner or later... Our parents won't be able to live with that shame if they find out, Zeynep!" Kemal was towering over Zeynep, trying to persuade her about the marriage with Hakan.
"Is it my child, not a shame!" She defended herself instantly.
"Zeynep! This is serious, you need to marry Hakan as soon as possible. Emir should not come close to this child!"
"I don't want to marry Hakan! I changed my mind!" She told him, turning her head to the other side.
"What did you say?! What? You think you are funny, aren't you?" Kemal was losing his patience little by little.
"I don't love him. I can't marry him." She spoke calmly.
"You will love him! What do you think will happen? Emir is a dirty man, Zeynep! Do you want such a father for your child?"
"I love him!"
"He used you! He used you and manipulated you like he used Nihan!" He started shouting little by little.
"I love him! I wanted to get used! I wanted to! Nihan never looked twice at him, but I did! And I loved him!" Zeynep stood up, raising her voice back to him.
"Don't make me crazy, Zeynep! This child won't be a Kozcuoğlu!" He pointed at her belly furiously. 
"It is a Kozcuoğlu! No matter how you deny it, no matter how you hate it, it is! This is a child from the man I love!" 
"SHUT UP!" Kemal suddenly yelled, turning his back to her. "You are going to marry Hakan. This child won't ever know another father!" 
"So you will do to me what Emir did to you? Huh?! Is this how much you hate me? Is this how much more importance Nihan has over me?! Congratulations, brother!" She smiled sadly, a few tears falling down her cheeks. 
"YOU told us you were going to marry him in the first place!" 
"I was mad at Emir, okay?! I thought he gave me to the police!" She sat back down on her bed. 
"Of course he did! And you know why? Because he doesn't care, Zeynep!" He told her emphatically with a bitter tone.
"He didn't do it!" She insisted, caressing her stomach. She was feeling weird.
"Do you think you know him?! You don't!"
"Brother, just stop this please... I don't feel good." She sighed, trying to take some breaths.
"I will arrange a date for this wedding, Zeynep! Get off your cloud nine and think of our parents! Our honor!"
"I won't marry Hakan!" Zeynep slapped her palms on her sides. "You can't tell me what to do just like I didn't tell you what to do! Did you ask us when you got us in this mess?! Have you ever thought that everything is your fault!?"
"Zeynep!"
"It's all your fault and Nihan's! If she had even loved him, even loved him, a tiny hint of love, this would never have happened and we would all go on with our lives!"
"Enough!" Kemal warned her, raising his finger on her face.
"But you know what? I don't regret it a second! I don't regret that he used me and manipulated me because he woke me up! He taught me how to live! I'd rather die right now than marry anyone else, so please leave my room right now." Her voice was so strong and brave, it made Kemal narrow his eyes at her courage.
"Zeynep, my sister..." His look softened. "Don't disappoint our parents, not again."
"Do you believe you aren't disappointing them? You got a child with a married woman, brother. But of course, I am the problem..." She laughed bitterly, standing up. She leaned on the wall with her back.
"Watch it, Zeynep."
"It's not a lie, is it? What are you trying to do? Play fair with me?" Zeynep crossed her arms full of attitude. She really didn't understand why he was behaving like this. This wasn't the Kemal she knew. 
"I am a different case. I love Nihan and she loves me. We want to get rid of him and be a family!"
"How will you get rid of him exactly if I get married to Hakan? It will get even worse! You will take this child from him and he won't give you Deniz, not even in your afterlife!" She rubbed her palms on her face, literally in a dead end.
"What are you saying then?" Kemal thought about her words for a second.
"I am saying that this is wrong. Things won't get better if I marry Hakan. The opposite will happen... You will infuriate him and you're gonna burn us all."
"Do you know him that well?" He looked at her sympathetically.
"I do. And even better than that."
"Well then... We have to throw him a bait." He suggested, puckering his lips as he was thinking about their next move.
"What bait?" Zeynep asked full of curiosity.
"Don't you worry... I will let you know when the time comes. If you don't want to marry, you won't." He assured her, leaving a quick kiss on her forehead. "But don't think for a second that you'll find peace with him. I will support you."
"Okay brother... Let's not talk about this now." She prompted him, already tired of their intense conversation.
"I will go meet Nihan... You go lay down and relax." He held her face in his hands, smiling softly at her.
"Take care, brother." Zeynep nodded her head, smiling back.
The moment he left her room, she placed her palm on her abdomen.
"What's wrong with you, huh? Be quiet..." She talked to the baby. Thank God her mother was out for grocery shopping and didn't hear their discussion with Kemal. Banu was almost never at home in the mornings so that was good too. Everything was messed up enough already, she doesn't need more problems.