Chapter 7 – The Agreement
A social worker named Giulia helped Sara collect new documents and discuss longer-term housing.
Giulia warned her repeatedly not to meet her family alone.
Sara agreed.
Then her mother called from an unfamiliar number.
“I am at the hospital.”
Sara stood up immediately.
“What happened?”
“Your father.”
“What happened to him?”
“Chest pain.”
“Is he okay?”
“They’re checking.”
Sara asked which hospital.
Her mother hesitated.
Then said:
“He keeps asking for you,”
Giulia told her not to go alone.
Sara became angry.
“He could actually be sick.”
“I understand.”
“He’s my father.”
“I understand.”
“You say you understand everything.”
Giulia let the frustration pass.
“I’ll come with you.”
At the hospital, Hamid – no, Cemal – was sitting upright.
He had not had a heart attack.
Tests suggested stress and elevated blood pressure.
When Sara entered, he looked older.
That frightened her more than she expected.
Her father cried.
Sara had seen him cry only once before.
At his own father’s funeral.
“I don’t want to lose my daughter.”
Sara sat beside him.
“You don’t have to.”
“Come home.”
“I can’t.”
“Nobody will mention Emre.”
Sara looked at her mother.
Leyla nodded.
“No engagement.”
“And Matteo?”
Her father looked away.
Nobody answered.
Sara stood.
“This is the same thing.”
“No,” her mother said quickly. “No. Just come home. We will talk.”
“No.”
Her father said:
“One week.”
Sara looked at him.
“One week?”
“Come home for one week. If you still want to leave after that, I will take you myself.”
Sara stared.
Her mother began crying again.
“You don’t trust your own father?”
That sentence did more than any threat could have.
Three days later, Sara returned home.
Temporarily.
That was the word everyone used.
