Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Two
The screen dimmed to grayscale as the first three armored vehicles rolled away. The reflection of Asli’s silhouette lingered longer than she did, paused at the Villa’s perimeter before she finally slid into the back seat of the last vehicle and disappeared behind bulletproof glass.
Inside the surveillance room, the silence was its own noise.
Markus did not say a word. Not because he had nothing to say... he always had something to say— but because there was not a joke that could lift the heaviness sitting in the room. Even the hum of the monitors sounded like mourning.
Ahmet stood with his arms crossed, his eyes still glued to the screen long after the feed went black. There was a sharpness in his jaw, his teeth clenched tight enough to crack bone.
He was not watching for movement anymore. He was staring into the empty frame like it owed him answers. Like he had missed something vital in the static and silence.
Markus finally moved, not to speak, but to sit on the edge of the table, running a hand down his tired face. His eyes burned from the long night, but what burned worse was the weight pressing on Ahmet’s shoulders.
Cole was gone.
And Asli was too.
But it wasn’t their absence that weighed them down, it was the realization of how he was going to lose her.
Ahmet’s fingers twitched by his side, itching for something. A drink. A distraction. A time machine.
"She waited," he muttered suddenly.
Markus looked up.
"She could have gotten in the car and left, but she waited. Like she knew I was watching. Like she was... giving me a chance to rush out and speak to her... to explain all this."
Markus did not respond. He did not have to.
Ahmet scoffed softly, shaking his head. "And what did I do? I stood here like a damned statue. I let her leave."
"You did not let her," Markus said. "She chose to. Just like she chose to call you before coming. Besides, what could you do? Here people were with her, watching. If you were to rush out or go to see her, they’ll grow suspicious."
Ahmet turned his gaze sharply. "You are right but at least I should have... I don’t know man. If I should call her right now, she wouldn’t pick up, I know that at least. And if I force her to meet me, the first thing she will do is fight me."
"I’m still thinking about how she warned you when you called her. She could’ve come in here and killed as many as she wanted. She was angry, and killing would have made her feel better," Markus finished for him. "But instead of her own feelings, she told you. She avoided the war that could happen."
A low, bitter chuckle rumbled from Ahmet’s chest, but it had no humor. "She has a heart, Markus. Regardless of what everyone thinks... even what we think of her, she has a heart. She is better than we thought. Better than I know her, sometimes."
Something was crumbling behind his eyes now. Something slow and painful.



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