Chapter 4 Mom, I...

"What have you done to me?" Zeynep shouted.

"I woke up next to you, but you should have seen that coming, right? If I knew you were that kind of person..."

"Never! You scoundrel, you dishonored me! I can't believe you brought me here unconscious, I..."

"Dishonored you? Where's your honor?" Emir stood up and showed the clean sheet. "Unless, as I suspected, there was nothing in you that could stain a sheet."

Zeynep felt relieved; that probably said more about Emir than herself.

She didn't doubt that this scene had been staged to harm him. After all, someone had tried to drug him with the drink.

Feeling calmer, she started to look for her clothes between the sheets on the bed.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"I just want to go home; I don't care what you think of me."

"I think you have a beautiful face, a sexy body, and a cunning mind... If you wanted me in your bed, you didn't need me unconscious; in fact, I can show you now."

"I'm not interested." She couldn't find her clothes, looked at his jacket on a chair, and grabbed it.

She put on a nightgown that was lying on the floor; fortunately, the piece easily passed for a long dress.

"What are you doing with my clothes?" Emir stopped a few inches away from her; he could feel her breath and held her gaze.

"Something I'll never do with you: warming my body."

"Your mouth deserves a kiss."

"And your face deserves a slap, but unfortunately, I don't have time."

Zeynep went to the door and left.

The brunette looked around and walked to the elevator, looked at her bare feet, shook her head; after all, she couldn't even catch a bus. She called Zehra, who came to pick her up almost immediately.

"Friend, but you...?"

"No, I would never lie with a man I don't love."

"Zeynep... We're talking about Emir Ozkurt, the most handsome and delicious man in Turkey!"

"Zehra, he's unbearable! He sits there thinking he's better than me..."

Yasin's mother said he's covering all of his treatment expenses, left an employee at her service.

"He... Zehra! I almost forgot, you gave me a cat that you got from a suitor..."

"I'm allergic to cats, Zeynep, and there are no suitors..."

"I know, but I told Mom that you gave me a cat that I got."

"Okay, but who gave you that cat?"

"Emir."

"Are you two together or not?"

"Of course not."

"When you have the courage, tell me everything."

Emir spent the night awake; that woman took him to extremes. He watched the dawn turn into morning in Istanbul, and he drank another cup of coffee. Murat didn't answer his calls, and it stressed him out.

He remembered her sleeping in his arms and felt a warmth spreading through his body, as if it were an electric current capable of heating every inch of him.

Zeynep didn't sleep; she still felt the anger from the night before. Luckily, her mother wasn't at home when she arrived, and her sister was at the hospital with Yasin.

Autumn curled up between her legs, making her smile.

Emir arrived at Murat's office; he noticed people whispering as he passed by, and he proudly walked with the attention that being the protagonist of a series from a major producer brought him.

He opened the door to Murat's office and saw him furious.

"How do you leave the great Stephen Lions and end up in bed with a makeup artist?"

Emir was surprised by that; he didn't expect her to seek publicity.

"Murat, she drugged me, and..."

"Ah! They drugged you before you drove, and now, before sleeping with her... I see."

"Murat, listen to me..."

Emir tried to explain, but his friend didn't believe a word he said. Murat answered the phone and soon was arguing with someone.

When his friend mentioned the Crazy portal, Emir realized that something very serious had happened.

Crazy was a blogger whose gender was unknown. Among other projects, the main goal of the portal was to criticize Emir's career and everything related to him.

As soon as Murat hung up the phone, he showed the news on Crazy's website.

"Emir Ozkurt, the famous Turkish actor, is caught leaving a hotel with a makeup artist who testified in his favor.

Hello, little sheep! The great superstar Emir was caught leaving a hotel right after the mysterious woman accompanying him. And, of course, our portal had first-hand access to her identity. The woman who left wearing the superstar's jacket, drumroll, please... None other than Zeynep Baysal, the makeup artist who served as a witness in the accident where the drugged actor ran over a poor boy.

Look at this, little sheep, it seems our promiscuous actor paid for the girl's good deed with favors that shouldn't be mentioned in this blog, which values the morals and good customs of our country.

Let's follow this case and see where this scandal will lead.

Bye-bye, international career of our beloved superstar. Don't be sad, little Ozkurt, you will still be a superstar in Istanbul, at least for now.

A kiss from Crazy."

Emir paced back and forth, his blue eyes filled with anger; he still couldn't absorb the news.

"How did that idiot from Crazy know that the mysterious woman was Zeynep?"

"Why don't you think with your head?!"

The young actor was furious, trying to remember what had happened the night before, but there was no memory in his mind.

He remembered receiving the card to enter the room, where the producer was waiting for a meeting. After that, he couldn't remember anything else.

"Murat, I swear to you, I didn't touch that girl. I've already explained that I don't know how we ended up in the same bed... This must be a setup by her, who realized she had no chance with me and set all this up just to complicate my life."

"Emir, please, my friend, don't lie to me. I've known you for many years, and I know about your preferences for young women like Zeynep. I warned you that your career is entering a great phase, told you not to do anything stupid, and what do you do? Sleep with the witness of the accident where you almost killed a young man!"

"I have nothing to do with this girl, listen to me."

"What are we going to do, huh? How can I face the series producer? Should I tell him that you're in love, hopelessly in love? Maybe I should announce a marriage?"

"Never, Murat. I don't have and don't want anything with this girl."

Zeynep sighed as soon as she arrived home. She spent the day without her phone, no idea what had happened to the device; she was exhausted, as Yasemin demanded that she accompany her on an exterior shoot in the countryside, and she spent the day practically isolated.

The freelancer on the country's most successful series was taking much of her time.

As soon as she entered the house, she heard shouts coming from the kitchen.

"Tuğba and Mom are arguing again? What contest did they lose this time, Autumn?" She picked up the cat, which quickly escaped.

As she entered the kitchen, she was greeted by her mother with a slap on the face, and she almost fell to the ground.

"What happened, Mom? I just got back from an exhausting day at work, and I'm received like this?"

"Tired of being in men's beds? Is that what I raised you for?"

"Mom, I..."

"You are immoral." Fazilet took Tuğba's phone from her hand and showed the news headline. "See this? My daughter is involved in a scandal with this man! My God, what a shame! How am I going to walk the streets of the neighborhood after all this? And don't lie; I saw his jacket among your things. I saw it! Oh, my God, my daughter is dishonored... The whole of Istanbul thinks I'm the mother of an easy woman, Allah! Allah!"

This couldn't be happening! Zeynep was in shock to see herself as the headline of one of Turkey's most famous gossip blogs. What shame and humiliation, being exposed as just another conquest of the all-powerful Emir Ozkurt.

The disappointment in her mother's eyes and the angry look from her sister cut her heart into a thousand pieces.

"Mom, I can explain to you; this is not what you think. I went to work, remember? But I don't know how I ended up in the same room as this guy, nothing happened between us. I sneaked out of there, and I don't know how they managed to photograph me. This must be a trap."

Fazilet looked at her daughter with a disgusted expression. Everyone in the neighborhood would have more reasons to laugh and make jokes about her daughters, as if she weren't a good mother.

Zeynep remained seated in the kitchen, listening to her mother's crying, who didn't stop talking about how her life was over.

Being pointed out as the lover of a famous actor, as if she were one of those women who sleep with rich men for interest.

Fazilet looked at Zeynep, and without saying a word, she went to her room.

The young woman stood there with her sister's phone between her fingers, crying and reading disgusting comments from people who labeled her as a loose woman, who took advantage of his success and fame to have a career.

The night before continued to be a blank in her head. She only remembered the van; no one sent a vehicle to pick her up. There was nothing to be done.

For a moment, Zeynep thought that Emir had set it up to revenge the rejection she had given him, but he couldn't be so low as to destroy a girl's honor just for his ego. Or could he?