Variant acted as if I hadn’t spoken at all and brought his bread with jam to his mouth, taking a big bite.
He was either trying to buy time or trying to annoy me like I did to him with the milk incident. Even if I wasn’t sure about the first possibility, I couldn’t deny that he was quite successful with the second.
He chewed the bite slowly. His facial expression was fixed, a testament to the effectiveness of his training. Sometimes, I couldn’t help but curse the fact that he received the same training.
The gentleman finally finished the bite in his mouth and graced me with a reply.
“First of all, ma’am, I haven’t entered your room again since you… corrupted me.”
Since I corrupted him in my room? I suppressed the laughter rising inside me with professional control. My facial expression remained just as fixed as Variant’s. Clearly, we had both put on our masks quite early today. I waited patiently for him to continue because I still had an unanswered question.
“And if you're wondering how I know how you sleep, the guards told me you never left the house. Since I didn’t see you in the other rooms, there was only one possibility left.”
Okay, that answer was satisfactory enough.
“When did the guards settle in? They weren’t here when we arrived yesterday.”
“I think they settled in around midnight, but I’m not entirely sure. Also, it’s normal that you didn’t notice; at that time, you were ruining a young boy’s life.” He hissed slightly at the end of the sentence.
I lifted my hands from under my chin, opened them as if to say “I’m innocent,” and started speaking.
“Come on, Vari, it was unintentional. Here, take this bread with jam and let’s make peace,” I said, extending the jam-covered bread toward him.
He looked at the bread, then at me. In the end, he couldn’t resist and quickly grabbed it from my hand.
“And stop saying ‘you corrupted me’ all the time. God forbid someone hears and misunderstands,” I said, laughing. The urge to laugh was overwhelming.
Variant paused before biting the bread. He moved it slightly away from his mouth and looked at me, one eye closed and the other questioning. After staring at me for about a minute, he said, “You’re dirty too,” then stood up with his bread and left the kitchen.
Now the laughter inside me was free. I covered my mouth with my hand and laughed for a while.
Even though my uncle wasn’t with us, it was as if he always was through the things he had taught us. Laughing out loud, especially laughing excessively, was strictly forbidden. Laughing could greatly diminish your serious image in the eyes of the other party. This could lead to a casualness in your relationship.
“In two-person relationships, especially when there’s a hierarchy, everyone should know their place and act accordingly,” my uncle would say.
Eventually, I ended my self-granted grace period and went back to my room to eat breakfast and get ready. My eyes wandered to the coffee table again. The glass of milk was still where I had left it.
I wore a black strappy dress that came just above my knees. I tied my black hair tightly up. I thought it was an ideal outfit for the first day. I also went with light, non-exaggerated makeup for my face. After applying my essential red lipstick, I picked up my bag—containing a weapon and other necessary items—and left the room, closing the door behind me.
While walking down the stairs, I encountered a well-prepared Variant leaning against the corridor wall. Instinctively, we looked each other up and down. After deciding we were both ready enough, we left the house.
As soon as we walked out the door, a security army greeted us. The guards around our house were not in civilian clothes like those in other locations we visited. The reason was to clearly identify who was within the boundaries of our home and in what capacity.
Since we were heading to the company now, I couldn’t count the guards exactly, but I would deal with that later. I always planned how to escape the fastest in case something went wrong. To do that, I needed to know the exact number of guards in the house.
Variant and I headed to our cars. I don’t know why, but at that moment, it felt more appropriate for both of us to go separately. In about an hour, we were in front of the company.
Normally, our house was in a forested area for security, so the road was quite long, but Variant and I were total speed demons.
Speed… I licked my lips. One of my favorite things. Everything happened quickly and ended even quicker. You wouldn’t even realize how it passed.
“That’s why you should wish for everything to be fast,” my uncle would say—especially the tortures you were subjected to.
Even though we had arrived at the company, I preferred to stay in the car and watch the building for a while. There was still over an hour left until our first meeting. Variant had parked right next to me. He sat in his car, silently watching the company with me.
The building wasn’t anything special; just a plain blue skyscraper. On the door, there was a large black board with “Korkmazlar's Company” written in huge golden letters. I kind of liked the letterplay in the name, but we’d see in time whether they lived up to it.
My uncle’s plan was to begin once we entered this building and met our new partners. The plan was simple: a slow, wounding, and deeply damaging death. The speed I mentioned earlier wouldn’t apply to the Arafs.
When I weighed my family and this game, Araf’s family had given my family a fast but painful death. So I could have shown them such mercy too. But since they failed to kill us properly and left me in my uncle’s hands, they lost that right.
I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the first face-to-face meeting with the product of my family’s killers. I slowly opened the car door and stepped out with the same slow pace, closing it behind me.
Variant, noticing my movement, got out of his car too and walked over. Just like on the stairs, he looked me over. Both times were to check whether I was ready. The only difference was that this time he was trying to see if I was ready for the life waiting for me in the future.
I lifted my head high and looked into his conflicted eyes without fear. I wasn’t afraid because I had nothing to lose. After all, everything that was mine had been taken away—even me.
Variant must have decided I was ready too because he gestured with his eyes toward the company entrance. I blinked slowly to signal agreement and started walking slightly ahead of him.
We entered with confident, firm steps. We didn’t go through security. We had already said we didn’t want to go through it as half-owners of this company.
A girl approached us, thinking we didn’t know the building, and offered to accompany us to the meeting room. With very blonde hair and dark roots, I immediately recognized her as Araf’s secretary from the files we had received.
Although Variant and I tried to send her back with the excuse, “We’ll find the way ourselves; don’t leave your work unfinished,” we failed to convince her. So it was me, Variant, Araf’s assistant a.k.a. Eyşan, and her endless chatter walking together toward the meeting room.
Variant and I started mentally thanking God the moment we saw the meeting room. There was an elevator. If we had had to climb all those floors with this woman and her mouth, she might’ve been the first casualty in this revenge game.
Eyşan opened the meeting room door and stepped aside for us to enter. I went in first, followed by Variant. Just as Eyşan took a step inside, I stopped her.
“Thanks for helping us this far. We’ll take it from here. See you,” I said and practically closed the door in her face. Honestly, she should be grateful I hadn’t pushed her down the stairs earlier…
I sat randomly on one of the chairs around the meeting table and rubbed my aching head. While doing that, I heard the sound of the opposite chair being pulled out. Apparently, Variant chose to sit across from me.
“She gave you a headache too, didn’t she?”
“Headache? She practically paralyzed a whole lobe of my brain.”
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we’re thinking differently. I really thought about pushing her down the stairs.”
I smirked. “So did I.”
Variant leaned in like he was about to share a secret.
“Should we start the game by killing her first?”
I leaned in the same way and replied,
“If we do that, it would be the biggest gift to Araf.”
Variant buried his face into his arm to stifle his laughter. My smirk grew wider. While we were laughing like that, the sound of the door opening caught our attention, and we immediately looked over.
The first to enter was Araf—messy blond hair, snow-white skin despite the summer sun, 1.95 meters tall, blue eyes, dressed in all black from head to toe. Right behind him came his right-hand man, Boş. Boş was about five centimeters shorter than Araf, with olive skin and green eyes. Frankly, his name attracted more attention than he did.
Once they entered, Variant and I composed ourselves and exchanged greetings. After a quick two-minute chat, we sat back down to talk business and partnership. The only difference was that this time, Variant sat beside me instead of across. The final table arrangement: me, Variant beside me, Boş across from him, and Araf beside Boş.
As Araf was just about to speak, Variant asked for permission to go first.
“I know we’re here to talk business, but if you’ll excuse my curiosity, I’d like to ask Mr. Boş a question.”
Boş gave a slight smile and nodded, signaling Variant to go ahead.
“I’ve always believed that names have a role in shaping people’s lives. For example, Mr. Araf. His name means the place between heaven and hell—basically a place in between. This could mean that Mr. Araf’s life is currently or will someday be in that in-between state.
If that’s confusing, let me give another example. Angel. Her name means ‘guardian angel.’ That could mean she’s protected someone in the past or will in the future.
But your name… your name is hard to interpret in that way. And that sparks great curiosity in me. If you don’t mind, could you please tell us the story behind your name? Let it either guide me or soothe this endless curiosity inside me.”
Honestly, even though I hadn’t expected it this soon, I knew Variant would ask a question like this. He was always obsessed with names and meanings. When he heard Boş’s name, just like with the others, he looked it up—but the result didn’t make him happy. Even I, who usually doesn’t care about these things, was curious. Why would someone name their child “Boş” (Empty)?
That’s why I joined Variant and did my own research, but neither of us could find out why his family gave him that name.
Now, with Variant’s question, all eyes turned to Boş, waiting together for the explanation he would give...