" Halil Ibrahim..." Young Zeynep shouts from the other end of the school hallway. Young Halil Ibrahim looks back and sees the approaching Zeynep. Her height extremely short with long curly hair, her school uniform in perfect size and she had put a pair of glasses on. Halil who was speaking to Young Temel starts running away and so the young Zeynep chases after him. All the kids at the school watch as the both of them chase each other around. The whole school knew of their little fights. Halil Ibrahim the quiet kid and Zeynep the cheerful and clever girl. Suddenly the bell rang and all kids were expected back to class. Zeynep and Halil who had chased each other to the school field laid down from fatigue. They laid down so they could catch their breathes after the intense running they did.

"Today marks the fifth year..." Zeynep says.

They were both staring at the sky then both simultaneously turned their eyes to each other. Halil smiled at Zeynep slightly, then gets up from the ground to sit.

"You should know, I won't marry anyone if not you... And if you marry someone else, I'll steal you away from her..." She pauses for a second, got up from the ground and says, "Let's get married when we grow up, ok?" Halil looks at her and smiles once again, he stands dusts himself then stretches his hand to Zeynep. Zeynep was somehow waiting for his response but Halil only stretched his hand towards her. She looks at it then offers her hand for Halil to assist so she can also stands from the ground. As Zeynep dusts herself Halil starts running again, while running he shouts, "If you marry someone else, I'll also steal you from them."

Hearing that, Zeynep runs after him, she also shouts warning him of not keeping his promise. They both arrive in class and the teacher has already entered. They both get punished for being late and are told to go sit down. This wasn't a punishment for them, as they head to their seats, they chuckle silently at each other. They were the brightest students in class, Zeynep and Halil always alternated in ranks so the teachers mostly overlooked their mischief. Coincidentally, heir seats were also beside each other, they would sometimes fight each other in class, gossip about other kids together or even about certain teachers. Halil always warns Zeynep of bringing him any gossips about the teachers but Zeynep almost always never listens. When other kids gang up on them or certain students, Zeynep always plays cheerleader while Halil fought the bad kids. Such was their life in school.

Just behind their seat, sat a boy named Ali. This boy was a bit fragile so Zeynep and Halil protected him sometimes. Ali admired the both of them and acted as their little follower. Both Halil and Zeynep lived not noticing him and this made him especially bitter. Ali dreamt of being their equal, he dreamt of walking the same path as Halil and Zeynep but to no avail. That year, Halil suddenly moved to Istanbul and stopped attending their school. Zeynep was extremely saddened by the fact that Halil won't be by her side anymore, so she mostly sat all alone. She never allowed anyone in Halil's seat, even when the teachers pleaded with her to allow other kids to sit. In this period, Ali who was once a shadow started appearing in front of Zeynep. He followed Zeynep everywhere, suggested various activities so she won't be sad anymore. He ought to fill Halil's place and as the years went by, he thought of himself as the owner of that place. He silently threatened other boys from approaching Zeynep claiming that she's his.

In time, Zeynep realized his behavior was turning for the worst so she distanced herself from him. KaraDeniz is of course a small town and there was not much avoiding Zeynep could do. Ali still kept appearing in front of her, he bothered her most of the times and despite Fikret's warning, Ali still didn't back away. Eventually he made Zeynep's life unbearable, Zeynep couldn't go outside without him harrasing her, if ever a guy approaches Zeynep, she'd hear of his death the next day. Hence, she got Shota assigned as her guard. With Shota, Ali approached Zeynep less, he just glanced at her from afar. However, Zeynep still felt his shadow haunting her and with that, her anxiety peeked.

She couldn't sleep well at night and kept feeling so scared of being alone. Ali even attempted to marry Zeynep by approaching Rizwan once, fortunately Rizwan declined his offer as he wasn't from a high class family. Due to this Zeynep was immediately engaged to Levent as suggested by her step mother Asiye.

She then left for the states to live anew and away from all her troubles. However, this didn't stop Ali. He worked hard and joined various vicious groups to gain power. Years passed and he successfully managed to climb up the gang ranks to the big boss position. He came back to KaraDeniz but found out that Zeynep had gone to America for her studies. At first he thought of following her back but shortly he heard that both Halil and Zeynep had returned. He followed up on them and witnessed as they got closer and even married. He also witnessed their break up which also gave him leeway to approach Zeynep once again. He begun with sending pictures to Zeynep anonymously with messages and threats written at the back. This extremely terrified Zeynep but she couldn't seek help from Halil since they were on their break.

One thing led to the other and because of the threats and fear Zeynep found herself asking for a divorce. It was not until later that she realized what she had done but it was already spilt milk. She couldn't take it back or turn back time and erase the divorce claim. And when Halil came to her begging to not break up, she ruined it all by hurting his feelings. She was fighting battles that no one knew, not even her brother knew what she was going through. Zeynep lived all her pain and anxiety alone while the whole world blamed her and pointed fingers at her. That day in the court room, she made her final move of cutting off her connections with Halil Ibrahim because of the last photo that arrived.

Zeynep was alone in her room after witnessing Halil hand over Yilmaz's dad to the authorities. She kept wondering why Halil did that then a sudden envelop flew into her room. She saw it was Halil's photo when she opened it, she flipped it over and that's when she saw the words written behind the photo. They read, "The only way to your heart is separating the head from the body..." She quickly threw away the photo from shock. Her hands started shaking like crazy from terror. She felt as if she had gone to the days where she mostly lived with fear. For a month she stayed in doors and didn't dare step outside. Just like that all her nightmares came back to her, her brother and mother too busy with their own issues didn't notice how Zeynep closed herself up. They just thought she was regretting her decisions in an even more uglier state, so she never left her room or had not much to eat. In real sense, Zeynep was being haunted by a fearsome ghost and she couldn't fight back.

Today Ali stands between both Halil and Zeynep. He came back more vicious with even more zeel to take Zeynep for his own. "That day outside the hospital..." Ali explains, " I didn't act too manly, Zeynep am sorry" He walks to Zeynep and holds Zeynep's hands then continues, " I didn't mean to kidnap you... I just wanted to capture his attention." Then points to Halil.

"Let go of her hands..." Halil roared from the ground. His eyes had turned bright red from anger, Osman's body laid on the floor cold. His blood streamed down in a long stream that reached where Halil was. The two men holding him back were having a hard time as he kept fidgeting and moving to almost free himself from their grip. They had to call a third man to hold his legs down.

"I thought your stupid step-brother would finish him off, making it easier for me to have you... but he failed miserably..." Ali bangs on one of the car with his arm.

"So you sent Tamer?" Zeynep asks while she chokes up.

"I gave him a suggestion..." Ali answers facing away, "I didn't tell him to kill Halil Ibrahim, I just gave him a gun and told him he had two bullets to take revenge..." Ali turns to Zeynep then places his arms on Zeynep's cheeks then speaks in a very soft tone, " I didn't know he'd come for your ex-husband..." Zeynep so disgusted by him, she pulls her face out of his hands.

"Guys let him go..." Ali commands his men.

The moment they let Halil go, he quickly grabs one of the guys by the neck and threatens to break it. Ali looks at him pitifully and says, "You think I care about that guy? Please let him go... I'm giving you a chance to fight me..."

"Who are you and what do you want from Zeynep?" Halil asks.

"Oh... Halil Ibrahim you don't remember me..." Ali speaks in a mocking voice, "They all know me except you..."

Hearing this, Halil looks at Turan, he can see that Turan knows the man. He had his head facing down and tears were coming down from her eyes while looking at Osman's dead body.

"Turan, you know him?" Halil asks.

" He was in our class when we were young..." Turan answers.

"Yes, Turan... I was in your class Halil Ibrahim..." Ali speakes insisting on Halil. He looks at him straight in the face, Halil also stares at him and a certain image starts forming in his mind. He almost recognizes him but his memory is foggy.

" I was there for Zeynep when you left her..." Ali shouts, " I was there when every man fought for her... I was there when you were not... Halil Ibrahim."

Ali turns to Zeynep, " I am the only person that is supposed to be loved by her but she never loved me... She loves you, she only loves you despite all my efforts.... ahhhhh!!!" Ali grabs a gun from one of his men then shoots at the man Halil is holding hostage at the head. The ladies scream in fear, Zeynep has now crouched down with hands on her ears. She is shaking from fear, Ali was just a few steps away from her and every time she tried to walk over to EdaNur and Sema, Ali turned to her with his nonsense.

"You have no idea how long I've wished to put a bullet in that stupid brain of yours..." Ali said pointing a gun at Halil Ibrahim.

"Oh now I remember... You are that kid who kept begging to be part of our team... looking so proud now when you used to get your ass kicked at school..." Halil responds

"Where are those bullies now, huh? I... murdered each one of them in the cruelest of ways without their knowledge..." Ali angrily replies.

"I should've never helped you then, pooping on the hand that saved your life... What's the difference between you and those bullies..." Halil continues with his provocation. This was a very sensitive spot for Ali, being reminded of his low moments made him feel weak and disgusted with himself. His anger intensified making him shoot out in the air while screaming.

"Oh no... Did I hurt little Ali's feelings...?" Halil says in a provocative tone.

Ali sprinted to Halil's face and pointed a gun at him then said, " You... can't... hurt me..." while gritting his teeth, " But I can hurt you in every... possible... way... because you are surrounded by loved ones while I have an army protecting me." Ali speaks while he turns around to the crowd.

Suddenly, Halil threw a punch hitting his stomach while he was off guard. Ali feeling his pain, Halil grabbed the hand with the gun and kneed his wrist making him drop it off. Quickly Halil takes the gun and points it at his face, then shouts, "Let's see who dies first, your boss or me...?" Ali's men hesitate to shoot, they have no orders to follow and most of them look confused.

"This man must treat you like shit, I wonder why you still follow him around..." Halil speaks.

" What are you waiting for, kill him already..." Ali shouts at his men.

" You can kill me today but who's going to stop him from killing you? See how one of your friends is lifeless on the ground, what's going to prevent any of you from ending up like him?" Halil advices.

"Don't listen to him and shoot already..." Ali says.

"Shut your mouth before I blow your brains out..." Halil warns then continues, " Do you still want to follow him or do you want to free yourself from his grasp? You guys have an advantage in numbers and I assure you, he's not a hard man to kill."

Ali's men started lowering their guns after Halil gave out a long speech about freedom and self love, deep murmurs could be heard coming from them. The one's that held EdaNur, Sema and Turan at gunpoint also backed away. This gave them a chance to collect each other and escape from the guns.

"Here, I'll do you a favor..." Halil shoots Ali on the knee, Ali screams from pain but no one comes to his aid. He swears at his men as they stand there watching him suffer without moving an inch.

"What? Halil Ibrahim says a few words and he's coaxed you all, wait till I recover... I'll kill you all. I won't even consider your families, I'll make sure there's no one with your names on this eart-" Ali couldn't finish his sentence, his men had now surrounded him. They all had rage in their eyes and them ganging up on him like that meant they wanted to finish him off.

One gunshot, second gunshot, third... multiple gunshots could be heard as Zeynep and Halil walked into their house. Halil held Zeynep's hand and supported her as she wobbled to the door, she looked so scared but Halil's arms and warmth erased all her fear.

Thankfully Mecnun with his team arrived straight away, they started controlling the situation and rounding up every one of Ali's men, Oguz who was injured got taken away by a stroller and headed to the hospital. Both Sema and Turan followed Osman's dead body and EdaNur accompanied Oguz to the hospital. Zeynep and Halil gave their statements, Halil even brought the pictures he found at Zeynep's house. They both explained to the police and finally got done with the procedures. It was as if they had overcome a nightmare that had been haunting them for years. Zeynep in fact, bravely explained all her horrifying experiences to the police. She didn't leave any detail out and through that, Halil actually found out Zeynep's struggle in the years he wasn't around. As his protector, he didn't do much protecting which in turn lead Zeynep into experiencing all that pain and suffering.

Months have now passed and today is Halil and Zeynep's wedding. They had put all the bad days behind and we're both ready to accept each other into their lives once again. Zeynep is so nervous she can't focus, she's been pestering the makeup artist to re-do her makeup for hours.

"Hey, can you leave us alone..." Halil requests the artist as he enters Zeynep's room.

"You... Don't enter... It's bad luck..." Zeynep says as she covers her face.

"What bad luck..?! I don't think such a thing works on our second marriage..." Halil says as he takes Zeynep in his arms. He looks at her then gives her a loving kiss which Zeynep melts in.

"Ahh... My wife to be is so beautiful I can't take my eyes off of her..." Halil comments.

"Stop with your half-assed comments and get out..." Zeynep replies in a cute tone. She shyly looks at the ground, Halil uses his hand to raise her face by her chin then he says, " I love you Zeynep... I love you more than anything else..."

"I love you too Halil Ibrahim... You are my only love..." Zeynep responds as they hug tightly.