Chapter Text
Judging by everything so far, it all seemed like just another ordinary and sunny day in Sarıyer.
'I won't eat, I don't like toast, it's gross.' Mercan stated, pushing her plate away from her. Ceylin didn't really have time to fight Mercan, who at times resembled her. Although she resembled her father in character and quite a lot, sometimes she would show her ‘Ceylin side'.
Ceylin gave up convincing her because she knew Mercan would definitely win.
'Do you see how I've been feeling all these years?' Ilgaz asked, smiling, as he put on his black coat.
'You can’t wait to shove that in my face every time, even though it's not exactly like that.' She replied, a little offended as she adjusted his tie, giving him a quick kiss.
With everyone ready, they were about to go to work and kindergarten, just like every other morning.
Usually, either Ilgaz or Ceylin would pick her up later, but sometimes they would send one of her grandfathers, aunts, or uncles to do that.
Everything really seemed like an ordinary day without any sign that something could happen.
Ceylin was already working on her new case (if anyone told her about 6 years ago that she would love working alongside Yekta, she would laugh in their faces. But right now they were running one of the largest and definitely finest law firms in Istanbul, and even Yekta himself admitted she is already far better than him at her age.) It was safe to say she adored everything about her life currently, both personal and professional.
Ilgaz tho, as always dealt with cases at work and analyzed everything carefully. He was always so through and commited to his work that Ceylin was openly displeased when court brought another new bassavci, ignoring him again. He would lie if he said he wasn’t a little disapointed too but he was better than his lovely wife at hiding it.
'Vay, vay, vay, you'll have that phone glued to your ear, brother. It's not like you don't see your wife every day. I don't want to interrupt, but we have a lot of work.'
'Maybe I'm waiting for you to finish burek, I'm not the one who's doing nothing at the moment, Eren baskomiser.'
'Thank you, this role of a prosecutor in love really suits you, you won't recognize anyone soon. A pale shadow of Ilgaz will be left.'
Eren was Ilgaz's friend, but he knew very well when he was his friend and when he was savci. And he respected that. Or rather, everyone in the court respected that. Ilgaz was their abi, kardeş, friend, but it was obvoious when he was just savci for them.
At this moment, he was a friend. At least until Eren finishes his burek.
'When you meet someone one day, I hope soon,you will understand me better. And you will also have the phone glued to your ear.'
'Will I be able to do that in front of you, sayin savci?' he teased him as he put the last piece in his mouth.
'Of course not, I'm savci.' Ilgaz and Eren laughed here, while Ilgaz just shook his head and glanced through the window. His thoughts wandered everywhere, from Ceylin to Mercan, all the way to the case that was currently ongoing. Goksu entered Eren's office with some files in her hand.
'Sayin savci, baskomiser, we've identified the victim. It’s Yusuf...'
At the mention of this name, Ilgaz's heart stopped beating for a moment, and a cold sweat had already broken out before Goksu could read the last name. 'Yusuf Baybars'
Ilgaz seemed relieved and sighed. Goksu looked at him strangely, but didn't ask him anything. Ilgaz seemed so relieved to hear the last name. Eren didn't ask him anything. If he noticed he hid it very well as he just threw the leftover food into the trash can and took the files from Goksu.
'I have to go to court, you give me the news.' Ilgaz said, trying to sound normal and Eren nodded, while Goksu looked at him in surprise again, but she continued with her work.
Ilgaz quickly came out in need for the fresh air, and took another breath, but this time he frowned as if he was fighting his emotions? He had such a nice day, why did he had to hear that name after so long…
Ceylin was just finishing a meeting and going to her office, already fantasizing about making herself a coffee from the new fancy machine.
Just when she sat down her phone rang and it was a call from kindergarten. They usually don't call unless Mercan is sick or has a fever so she answered quickly, already knowing that her coffee break won’t happen.
The teacher's voice was anxious, scared, after all, she could end up in prison when she tells Ceyliin the news. There were two of them, one was Zerrin and the other one Dilek.
Ceylin realized that the problem is bigger than just a fever, so she rests one hand on the table trying to hold on. In the worst case, Mercan might have fallen, hurt herself badly...
'Mrs. Ceylin, you have to come here. A situation has happened, but don't worry, we immediately informed the authorities.'
'Will you tell me what happened!?' Ceylin's patience snapped, she raised her voice, taking her bag and keys from the table and quickly ran towards the elevator. She hit one of the employees with her shoulder on her way, she looked at him for a second to give him an apologetic look.
'Mrs. Ceylin, today we took the group outside. We were all there, the children were playing in the kindergarten yard. But when we went inside Mercan was gone' Zerrin explained but still didn't understand how.
The gate is locked, the guards are around, she still had no way to leave. No one from the outside could take her. And Dilek was with her the whole time, the other teachers were in their classrooms with the children.
'How could you let a child disappear? Am I paying for kindergarten so that you lose my child?' Ceylin yelled into the phone and hung up. Normally, she would never say something like this, not even when she had the chance, but things were different now. Ceylin blamed everyone, not just the teacher. Soon she called Ilgaz, but the line was busy. They already called him from the station to inform him about the report they had received. Ilgaz didn't even listen till the end and hung up the phone and just as he was about to call Ceylin, but she called again.
'Why don't you answer, Ilgaz? What could be more important?' From her hysterical and tearful voice, Ilgaz understood that she had just found out about Mercan.
'Ceylin, they called me from the station, I’m going to the kindergarten, the team went, we'll meet there. Everything will be fine. Don't worry, everything will be fine'
The order was immediately given to close the streets, check vheicles, train and bus stations, hell, even airports, because Ilgaz didn’t want to risk.
Ceylin was the first to reach the kindergarten, the police were already there, questioning Zerrin, with whom Ceylin had been talking on the phone. She was visibly scared and nervous, and a sense of guilt could be seen on her face.
Ceylin first ran to Ilgaz and hugged him to calm herself down a bit. And no matter how much this shook or scared Ilgaz, he didn't dare show it, the only thing he said was that he will find their daughter and not to worry. Although fear prevailed in him as well.
As a prosecutor, he searched for other people's children, finding them both alive and dead. And as hard as it was for him, this is different. Here he is no longer a prosecutor but a father.
'She lost my child there. She left her outside on purpose.' She shouted, pointing her finger at Zerrin.
'Ceylin, don't do that, let's see what happened first.' He tried to calm her down, running his hand through her hair and hugging her.
Soon Efe Savci arrived, the new prosecutor who had just started working at their court. It was up to him to handle the case.
'Ilgaz, is this a joke? With you, Derya, Iclal, Pars, this scoundrel this clown is supposed to find my daughter?!'
'Ceylin, let him do his job, he can't do it like this. Please.'' Efe questioned all the employees and when he thought that no one was suspicious, he sent them home. Although Ilgaz didn't like it, he couldn't do anything, he would probably do the same if there was no evidence.
'How can you allow this, I’m saying that my child is gone! She is gone!' She shouted at Ilgaz, who in this case could do nothing but stand strong as best he could, because he had to be there for Ceylin. They can't both fall.
'Basavci sent him Ceylin, I can't do anything' The disappointment in his voice was huge, thinking how rummors about bassavci favoring Efe are definitelly true.
Now that it’s his child’s life at stake, he can't do anything and everything depends on someone else. He's solved so many cases, found so many people, but now he can only wait for others to find his daughter.
'Tell him to hand over the case.' Ceylin wiped her tears and looked at him pleadingly, but was still furious.
'The others are working on it too, you have to calm down, we'll find her.' He tried to call her to come with him, taking her by the hand and hugging her again, but this time she moved away.
'Go do something so I don't have to. Don't annoy me Ilgaz. They chose him to look for the child while you are here alive and well, and don’t give me that crap about you being Mercan’s father, there are at least 3 other prosecutors more qualified than him for this! I don't give a damn about your laws and rules' she shouted from the top of her lungs so that everyone could hear her, including Efe. And actually many agreed with Ceylin here.
'I only trust you, you have to take over, I only trust you. Lutfen sevgilim' Her voice calmed down, almost begging him, the only one she trusted here was Ilgaz.
The police went around every place nearby, checked every corner. Every car that left was checked, but there was no sign of Mercan.
Teachers were questioned several times. However, suddenly Zerrin remembered that at some point Dilek went inside to the toilet. While the statement says that she was outside the whole time. Dilek defended herself by saying that she simply forgot about that detail. Which makes sense to some extent. The night was already passing, but there were no results.
Merdan, Metin, Parla, Cinar, and the family were looking for Mercan. Tugce, Parla, Cinar, Ceren, visited various bars and abandoned houses throughout Istanbul as much as they could reach.
Metin was retired but joined the team and Eren. Ceren was Ilgaz and Cinar's younger sister, who was studying law. She wanted to be a prosecutor like her big brother, but she never imagined this as practice for that.
Tugce and Ceren went one way, and Parla and Cinar went the other. Ceren announced the news to her acquaintances, if anyone heard anything, to report it, but so far, all of them, even Merdan dede came back empty-handed. Like the earth swallowed the girl and the one who took her.
................
In the faraway and luxury part of thecity, tall man with dark hair leaned back in his chair as he was looking at a picture in his hands.
There were two boys in the picture, both had dark hair and dark brown eyes, and looked almost exactly like each other.
Looking at the picture he was proud of the shorter boy and of who he had become when he grew up into a man that he is now.
There was also sadness on his face, it felt like something was cutting him off every time he looked at that picture.
He didn’t notice at first, but young woman was standing in the doorway, watching him.
He put the picture in a drawer and glanced at the door when he saw her. Esme.
His gaze changed, now his lips spread in a wide smile, his eyes sparkled and he immediatelly walked over and kissed her on the forehead. She was petite and quite shorter than him, especially in her house slippers.
He remembered how two winters ago he joked that she could almost disappear in his coat and she actually hugged him right there to see if his theory is correct. And it was.
She looked up at him and gently took his hand leading him to the living room.
'I made coffee.' She smiled, she was in floral pajamas and disheveled, but still so beautiful. He was enchanted by her beauty and mind from the very beginning and it could be said he was almost obsessed with her hair.
Curly and wild, sometimes red, sometimes orange, depending on the light, her hair was something he loved the most about her appearence.
They walked down the stairs into the living room and when they sat down he wrapped one arm around her and pulled her close as he played with her hair.
'What are we going to do today?' Esme asked.
'Whatever you want, today I dedicate the day only to you.' He smiled and kissed her temple.
'I thought we could actually sit at home, just like this.' She said cheerfully and leaned more into him, lifting her legs to the couch.
'You know I wouldn't mind that at all, gulum'.
But the fate had a different plan, he realized when he turned on the TV and raised his eyebrows.
On the news was all about Mercan's disappearance. That they were looking for her, that the search had been going on since yesterday. He frowned and increased the volume so he could hear better what was this about.
Cold sweat covered him, watching the news he took Esme's hand, and she immediatelly covered it with her other hand and they both followed the news closely.
'It looks like you'll have to meet your brother earlier than you thought, Yusuf.' Esme said in the end, while Yusuf was frantic.
He knew what he had to do, but did he have the strength? He had to find the girl, but how would he face his brother after so long?
Tbc...