Using my phone, I took photos of their shameful state in bed, printed countless flyers with those pictures and captions, and sent them to every employee in their company.
Outside the office building, the banners revealing their dirty affair kept increasing.
I went to the school to report Leah for inappropriate behavior.
The forum of the art academy where she studied was filled with indecent gossip.
At her graduation ceremony, I hired people to play a looping video of the three of us laughing together on the big screen.
The memories I once treasured turned into weapons for me to strike back at them, but Evren still managed to shield her.
She graduated successfully from the nation’s top art academy. And she was soon going to hold her first art exhibition.
To clear the path for Leah, Evren finally met my eyes.
“Leah’s dream is about to come true. It has nothing to do with what happened between us. Don’t make things hard for her.”
By that time, I was already consumed by anger.
“How is that causing trouble? I’m all set for it. The guests at her exhibition will be thrilled to see those masterpieces.”
A folder suddenly landed in front of me.
“If you want to keep your mother’s resting place intact, behave yourself. Sign the divorce papers and stay far away from me and Leah from now on.”
At the time of my mother’s burial, I had been too overcome with grief, so he, her son-in-law, managed everything, including picking and buying the cemetery plot.
Maybe because land was limited, even the graves for the dead were being resold.
If Evren put his name on that document, my mother would never be able to rest quietly.
I flung a cup of coffee straight into his face.
That night, I wept myself to sleep beside my mother’s grave.
The next day came, and I still went to the city hall, but what I faced wasn’t what I had imagined, since Evren only gave me one of his family’s old houses.
“When you reported the company’s financial issues, a large part of the funds got frozen. This is all I can give you.”
“If it weren’t for Leah pleading for you, you wouldn’t get a single cent.”
I had never been able to compete with Evren, not even when we were kids.
By nature, he was calm and composed, never reckless, and skilled at using tactics and influence to reach what he wanted.
I, on the other hand, was the kind who rushed forward without thinking, hurting the other side by eight hundred and myself by a thousand.
Quieting down, I did exactly what he wanted.
The house was sold, and before I headed south, I still went to Leah’s art exhibition.
I decided at the last minute.
The giant screen in the city center showed the woman’s gentle, lovely face, and the exhibition was named The Key of the Soul.
That phrase had appeared countless times in the letters we once exchanged during our youth, a word that carried pure, innocent hope, a mark of the most genuine beauty between friends.
With the last bit of almost self-inflicted nostalgia, I wrapped myself tightly and stepped into the exhibition hall, like a rat sneaking a glance at someone else’s happiness.
I didn’t realize what I was seeing until my eyes landed on the painting called The Key of the Soul.
Two bare bodies.
The mole on the man’s shoulder blade was one I had brushed my fingers over countless times.
The woman held the pillow so tightly that the fabric creased. The backdrop was a bed covered in pale purple sheets, and beyond the window, magnolias bloomed in full splendor.
That was the exact kind I had chosen myself at the flower market.
Pink petals, wide as cups, quiet in their beauty.
That had been my home.
It turned out to be the place where she and Evren first lay together.
So the soul belonged to her, and the key was his.
A rush of sickness climbed up my throat.
I threw up right there on the floor.
The noise startled the two of them as they greeted guests nearby.
Then a soft, delicate voice reached my ears.
