Chapter 1

ISTANBUL

The young man leaned a little further on the bench he was sitting on and opened his arms.  He lifted his head.  Everything was turned upside down by the news he received a few days ago.  He is the only child of the family, the only person who will be the head of that family after his father.  The only heir... Now this is the city he loves so much...

"What will I do without you? What if you don't come?"

The young man drew his cold green eyes from the blue sea and looked at the girl whose hair was blowing in the wind.  This girl loved herself, but herself?  He looked into her eyes;  cold, meaningless, dull, expressionless...

"I have to go. As for you. I don't love you. I don't feel anything. I don't understand why you came anyway."

The girl stood up, pulling her hair that was covering her face from the wind.  He followed the sea.  Then the cold face of the man she loved… She loved this man no matter what.  And like crazy.

"Is that all?"

The young man raised an eyebrow and looked at her.  Cold careless.  What did he expect?

"What did you expect?"

The girl sighed and sat down next to the man she loved madly.  He held his hands.  His cold eyes were staring at the sea.

"My darling."

"......."

"Good luck. Come quickly."

...

The last person he spoke to in Istanbul is the last word.  "Come now" and the point.  This much.  How many years had passed since that day?  Ever since he left Istanbul and came to these arid lands... The young man was staring at the vast land with his hands on his chest.  Empty, meaningless and cold.  Being the only child in his family was never in his favour.  How many times her mother had been pregnant and miscarried for unknown reasons.  The fact that she lived alone had caused her family to tremble and overwhelm.

Now he was staring at the endless lands and couldn't think of anything.  Cool winds, arid lands where no color other than yellow and brown tones predominate.  It was all his own, but it was of no use to him.  He thought of Istanbul as his green eyes stared blankly at the arid lands.  The years he studied at the university, the crowded environment.  He was now smoking in his eyes.  It's been years since I've been here.  He was with his family, but he didn't feel like he belonged here.  It was all at once that his father had been partially paralyzed and they had urgently asked him to come here.  He had a job that had nothing to do with the school he attended.  The republic where the words of the elders of the family are considered the law and are never violated.  A republic that he has been questioning since he lost his mind, but could not get answers to his questions.  Now he was the head of the republic.

one

He told the men who worked for him that they had to talk about the law and get their rights, and repeatedly, but in return, blank stares or people with their heads bowed and hands folded in front of them and unable to respond...

إ

Although his father was partially well now, he could no longer go.  He learned the jobs that his father wanted so much and that he hated.  His mother was already shaking him.  She clenched her teeth and put her hands in her pockets.  The last thing he talked to was Jülide.  Was he still waiting for himself?  Did he miss her himself?  If he missed, he wouldn't have changed his line, he wouldn't have cut his ties with his past!  He thought of it once in a while, but after a few minutes his thoughts were wiped out.

"Sir."

The young man answered the person who came without turning his back:

"Like this!"

"Your father is calling you, sir."

The young man did not call at all.  He looked at the vast earth.  Since he has been looking for years, every time he looked at it, it was like the same arid lands, his eyes contrasting with his color.  After the footsteps disappeared, he quickly left with an expressionless face.  He wandered around the mansion like an unusually large labyrinth, and finally came to his father.  His mother was beside his father, holding his hand and looking at him with love as usual.  He approached them with a stern expression in silence.  He sat in the chair next to his mother.  Her mother turned her sad gaze to Altan when she did not receive any response because she was looking at him with love.  Her husband, who was partially paralyzed on his left side, tried to smile and reached out his good hand and placed it on his son's.  While the young man stared with stern expressionless eyes, his father's voice fixed his cold gaze on his eyes.

"How are you son?"

"Usual."

As usual... Same answer to the same question asked.  Cold, hard, dull and dry and cracked just like arid lands... How are you, however, is a normal question.  The answer given in return is usually "I'm fine" and it is a clear answer that will follow.  After that, the conversation would go away, but the young man's voice froze both the time and the atmosphere with his answer.  The conversation was limited to a few short words, and that was what he wanted anyway...

His father's sad gaze met with his mother's.  There was nothing they could do.  They were their only child, but he had never wanted to come here.  He didn't want to live here, but while he was planning, the plan had already been made and life had condemned Altan Karahan to bed.

East and custom.  They were inseparable, but this was not the east.  In the very corner of Nevşehir, one of the beautiful provinces of Central Anatolia, arid lands have been settled stubbornly;  It was very far from the town.  The Karahan family was one of the few families that was mentioned.  The Karahan family, who opened up to the world apart from the investments they made in many areas in Turkey, but lives in such a place.  A huge mansion.  Hundreds of employees, all kinds of luxury but compulsory living spaces...

Do not let the traces of your ancestors and grandfathers be erased.  Let the family reign here.  That was all that was wanted.  The young man, who rebelled against this, could not go no matter what he did, and as time passed, he felt that his heart was drying up like the land here.  Not only his heart, but his feelings, his eyes...

one

"I'm leaving!"

one

The young man's cold voice rang in the room, while the cold breeze of autumn was much warmer and warmer than his voice.  He had already slammed the door and left without his mother needing to speak to his father.  While Nevra and Altan looked after their son with sad eyes, Altan turned his full eyes to the window next to his bed:

one

"I was like that too. I rebelled a lot, but I stayed here. I said I wouldn't do this if I had children in the future, but I condemned my son with my hands. If we had other children, one of them would have stayed with us, but willingly. He is not a prisoner like our son. If I was healthy, I would put my son alive in the grave with my own hands." I wouldn't bury it."

Nevra wiped her tears and held Altan's hand.  He was right, but his hands were tied.  There was nothing they could do.  He didn't want it either, but his hand was bowing his neck like a prisoner and consenting...

one

After stroking his horse's neck and checking it, the young man got on and went away from the mansion.  As the horse accelerated, he bent down and narrowed his eyes.  This is the only way he could get rid of the distress inside him, even if it was a little… The horse ran as it ran, but it still couldn't get out of its own land.  If he did, he would breathe easy, as if he had come to a new life in another life.  He quickly passed through the workers who gave life to the arid lands.  He was running away from home again, running away from the lands that suffocated him.  As the field began to turn green, he slowed his horse.  While he was going calmer, he came under the big tree he saw and got down and tied his horse.  He looked around and sat under the tree.  He looked around without knowing what he was sitting for, what he was thinking, what he was feeling, empty meaningless… Being away from that stifling mansion had given him some breathing room, but he was still suffocated by the boredom inside him.  He belonged around here, but he didn't know why it was like this!  He put his hands on his chest and leaned his head against the tree, closing his eyes.  Maybe he'd have a good night's sleep here, if only for a few minutes.

Hearing the sound of gunfire, startled and reared at the same time, he opened his eyes.  Without flinching, he looked around without panic.  His horse was getting more and more fierce.  He stood up quickly, trying to calm his horse, while looking around.  There wouldn't be that many shooting guns around here.  He let go of his horse, calmed by the crackling he heard, and turned around.  He squinted his eyes as he walked slowly.  The shooter must have been nearby.  Seeing the white horse tied up ahead, he quickened his steps and, startled by the sound of a gunshot, started walking towards the direction the sound came from.  As he progressed a little further, he began to watch the scene he saw with curiosity.

A man was out hunting.  He was collecting the birds he had shot in one shot.  A person with boots up to the knees, an outfit in brown tones suitable for these places, and a hat in the same tone on his head.  He began to watch carefully.  The man bent down and walked slowly, looking at the great tree.  He stopped suddenly and took aim.  He fired the rifle and calmly picked up the bird that had fallen to the ground behind him and put it in the basket.  Then he kissed his rifle and set it on the ground.  He didn't come around very often, but when he did, he had never seen anyone like this.  After the man put the birds in the basket, he tied his horse and secured it.  After loading his rifle, he started walking.  The young man followed behind him curiously.  After walking for a while, the man bent down to the water flowing from the ground.  After immersing his hand in water and washing it, he began to drink from the water he filled in his palms.  After drinking his water, he took off his hat.  When the hunter took off his hat, the young man stood staring, as if in shock;  to the girl she thought was a boy with her curly hair falling out.  After the girl washed her face, she sat down by the water.  As he lit a cigarette, he began to look around with pensive eyes.

He couldn't see the girl's face, but his surprise had overpowered his curiosity.  A girl who hunts like a man and dresses like a man, and a girl who is obviously from here.  He watched and watched without disturbing his serious facial expression and curiosity...

nd

The girl got up after pressing her cigarette to the ground and drinking water again.  She took off her loosened hairpin and tidied up her hair, took her hat in her hand and turned around, and she met the eye of the person watching.  As she stared at first, unsure of what to do, her black eyes were filled with curiosity.  She quickly walked over to the person watching her.

one

"Who are you?"

The young man could not get over the surprise of what had happened, and when he looked at it, he immediately came to his senses.  What do you mean who are you?  As anger settled in his green eyes, he looked up and down with a mocking expression without smiling at the fait accompli:

"No one."

"What?"

The girl was surprised and raised an eyebrow.  His curious expression began to turn into anger.

"I wouldn't ask anywhere else, but this is the land where you can see it. It's my natural right to ask. Plus you're watching me and the answer I got when I asked the question was "no one." Now I ask again, who are you and what are you doing on my land?"

Although the young man was stunned for a moment by the unexpected words, he quickly collected himself without projecting it.  He looked around.  He turned to the girl in front of him with a soulless expression.

"I just followed the gunshot. Watching you? I had no business and I'm going to watch you? As for who I am, it's none of your business."

The girl's eyes filled with anger as she smiled sarcastically and looked at the person in front of her from head to toe.  He looked at her face and raised an eyebrow.  She tied her hands to her chest.

"As for who you are, I took my word back. There are thousands of workers working here. Anyway. I don't want to see you here again, let this be the last time. It's the first time I see someone who is afraid of gunfire."

While the girl took quick steps without waiting for an answer, the young man started walking behind her in anger.  He caught up to the girl and went ahead of him:

"Who are you to hold me accountable? And you said to be afraid of the sound of gunfire. Anyway. I can go wherever I want. My last word is I don't take orders from anyone!"

th

After the words that were said with a roar, the young man started walking quickly without waiting for an answer.

"Coward! Rude! Unlimited! If I see you on my land again, you will be the first animal I will hunt! Don't say Hande didn't say it!"

Although the young man wanted to answer the words he heard, he smiled sarcastically.  No woman had ever challenged herself.  If there was a fire, it would burn as much as a crime!  No offense!  He's a fool who thinks he's something when he takes a rifle in his hand!  Spoiled spoiled!  Now that she didn't answer, she would sit and cry, this spoiled brat!  He was sure!  He knew women!

He walked quickly to his horse.  He untied his rope and immediately jumped onto his horse.  He was thinking about what he had just experienced as he rode quickly down the road he had come from;  contrary to what it was.  It was empty when he came, but now he was leaving, a prisoner of angry thoughts.  He glanced at the girl who was speeding past him on a horse, distracting him.  It was obvious that he was a good rider.  She focused her angry eyes on the road as he moved to the left.  Karahan mansion had already appeared in the vast lands.  He came to the mansion, dismounted from his horse, with the cause of distress.  He handed over his horse to the groom who came next to him and quickly passed through the staff and went to his room.  After throwing herself in the shower, she sat on the bed and began to think.  How could a girl challenge herself!?  Don't mess with the man!  Tomboy!  It was actually him!  He would have stopped and answered, but he would have gotten what he wanted, and luckily he hadn't.  While she was sitting there waiting for him to cry for minutes, he immediately got on his horse and set off!  Her name was tomboy, after all!