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My chest tightened; my cracked ribs pinched.
Neri’s birthday.
A night that’d started off so well but then turned to absolute shit.
Is she okay?
Fuck, she’ll be so worried—
“If you’re concerned about your complexion, rest assured you’re looking a thousand times better than before. The intravenous antibiotics have combated your infection. You’re on the mend,” Cem breathed as if truly relieved. “It was touch-and-go for a while, but you’re a fighter.” He smiled. “Like me.”
My skin crawled from him touching me, and despite my weakness, dizziness, and pain, I did my best to sit up. I wanted to run. I needed to get back on a plane and return to Neri.
You can’t.
You’re forbidden from going back there.
Nausea splashed on my tongue, and fresh pain centred in my chest.
Fuck, Neri, I’m so sorry—
“Easy. It’s okay. You’re safe.” Cem shook his head, patting my shoulder as if he truly cared. “Don’t fight the process of waking up. You’ve been unconscious for six days. It’s natural to be weak.”
Six days?
Six
DAYS?
How?
Fuck.
Neri.
The phone call.
The shot to my leg.
Then nothing...
My eyes flew wide as I locked on my biological father. He’d aged from some of the images I’d found on Google. His hair silvered at his temples and was mussed as if he’d been running his hands through it. The lines around his eyes seemed deeper, and the creases around his mouth hinted at all the rage and violence he held back, camouflaged with a smile.
“W-Where...” I licked my lips and swallowed. “Where am I?”
“Home.” He squeezed my shoulder. “You’re home, Aslan. You’re finally home.”
I frowned, flinching with an awful headache. “This isn’t my home.”
“It is. You’ll learn to understand that soon enough.” Dropping his hand, he leaned back in the chair he’d pulled close to the bed where I lay. A quick glance told me all I needed to know. I was no longer in Australia. If the richly decorated room with its heavy mustard drapes, glass side tables, carved doors, and leather couches didn’t alert me, the sunlight did.
It was different from the Australian sun. Not as yellow. Not as bright.
“What happened?” I asked, vaguely remembering the argument with the doctor about a drug I’d never heard of.
Cem busied himself with helping me sit up a little and fluffing another pillow behind me. His presence made my skin crawl. But my weakness meant I had no choice but to endure it.
Only once I nodded that I was comfortable did he sit back down and say, “I followed you from the airport. I figured allowing you to travel into the city worked to my benefit. I didn’t want to cause a scene, you understand. But now, I wished I’d just approached you the moment you stepped out of the terminal. If I had, you would’ve just gotten into my car, and we could’ve had a wonderful family dinner catching up. I wasn’t aware you were injured so badly from the car accident. You wouldn’t have been able to put up much of a fuss in your current state.”
He shook his head with a wince. “I owe you a huge apology, Aslan. I let hate taint my actions and figured you’d view me as a monster. That you’d try to run from me. When my men herded you toward that alley, I should’ve just talked to you. You’re a grown man, not a brainwashed child. I’m sure we could’ve had a reasonable discussion, and all of this would’ve been avoided, but...I didn’t. And for that, I will bear the weight of guilt for the rest of my life.”
I hissed between my teeth as my lower left leg twinged. A burning little twinge. “You shot me in the leg.”
“I did. With an animal tranquiliser dart that I was assured had been amended to be a safe dosage for a human.”
“But it wasn’t?”
“No. Unfortunately, you received a high dose of xylazine. The side effects of which are...” He gritted his teeth and swallowed a growl.
“Are?” I asked, unable to believe we were having a normal conversation about a very un-normal subject.
He’d hunted me.
He’d shot me.
He’d hurt me and now I didn’t know if I would survive or...not.
Six days!
I needed to get back to Neri.
I needed to talk to her.
She’ll be frantic.
But for now...I had to tread carefully.
I’d been terrified of this man ever since my adoptive father had told me why we’d run and why I could never return to Turkey. I’d made Neri vow to me she would stay the hell away from him. His very existence had threatened mine even across thousands of kilometres.
To be in his presence?
To be talking to him?
It hurt my already hurting head; I couldn’t get a grip on this new reality.
Will he let me go?
Perhaps, I had him all wrong, and he merely wanted to meet me.
Maybe now he had, he’d help me return to Australia legally. He could put all his money to use and figure out a way to revoke my lifetime ban from ever flying back there.
