ARTEMIS
The next morning, Artemis woke up disoriented in the mansion, remembering
little from the night before. Her limbs felt as heavy as lead. Efil knocked
softly on the door, coming in with a kindly expression. Artemis recalled
flashes of the previous night—the swirling euphoria, the forced intimacy, the
mention of a policeman hunting for artifacts. She tried to rise, thinking maybe
she could poke around for clues in the house. But her head throbbed, sunk deep
into the pillow.
Efil sat on the bed, saying nothing at first. When Artemis asked about
breakfast, Efil’s face grew solemn. She explained that they needed to discuss
what happened between them. Efil confessed she had truly treasured their
intimate moment but had no idea Artemis was still a virgin. Artemis, her memory
returning, said she had no regrets, for Efil was enchanting. Efil burst into
tears, which Artemis gently wiped away, wanting to console her.
Then Efil made a trembling admission: their tryst had not remained
private—someone had filmed them in that room. Artemis felt her heart pound. She
swiftly dressed, left without a word, ignoring Efil’s apologies. Confusion and
anger took hold. She had wanted to discover art; instead, she had become an
object of performance.
In her haste to leave, she tripped near the mansion’s gate, scraping her
forehead. Akuji and the policeman rushed over, trying to calm her. Artemis
cried, “Officer, help!” but the policeman could not risk blowing his cover.
Efil soon appeared, and they waited at the gate, uncertain if they could take
the girl anywhere. There was no word from Pertev—he was gone.
LISSA
At the workshop, the boss had set the final stage for Lissa to wed the
hulking worker that very afternoon. Rather than passively comply, she schemed
to slip away. But Akuji was nowhere to be found, so she had to rely on her own
wits. The boss and his son forced her into the car with the “fiancé,” heading
to the marriage office. Lissa felt suffocated; she thought of Akuji, prayed for
strength. By the time they reached the registrar, her stomach hurt so fiercely
that she could scarcely pay attention to the boss explaining “lightning
marriages.” The fiancé merely grunted. Lissa clenched her teeth, stepping
inside. She had to play along until there was an opening to flee. If she asked
for outside help, the scandal might ensnare Akuji, leading the police to him. The
boss’s son smirked triumphantly.
In the bride and groom’s waiting room, Lissa noticed a second door. She
bided her time. Eventually, the fiancé wandered off, and the boss’s son hurried
away to find him. Seizing her chance, Lissa exited through the other door,
joining a crowd of onlookers leaving the main hall. Hiding under a black scarf
from her bag, she slipped out a rear exit leading to a metro station, jumped on
the first train she saw, and let her breath out in relief. She couldn’t return
to her home or job, but at least she still had Akuji’s thousand dollars in her
account. She decided to find him, to fill her empty stomach, to start anew.
At police headquarters, the officer investigating antiquities smuggling was
convinced now that Musa’s death had been suspicious. Why had his assistant
wept, “I killed him”? Why was his computer missing? Late-night footage showed
Musa leaving home in a black car, then, bizarrely, Akuji showing up outside the
building. Possibly the recordings had been tampered with. The policeman
remembered Artemis’s suggestion: “Go see Pertev’s exhibit.” He pictured the
shy, herb-scented girl and decided it was time to pay the mansion a visit.
EFIL
Pertev’s collection received enormous attention, with Efil at the center of
it all. She was at the museum for over an hour, giving interviews, hair and
outfit impeccable. But upon spotting Pertev’s father, she approached him only
to be met with gruff coolness. He scorned these so-called works, though people
adored them. Efil whispered that Pertev had chosen them, prompting the father
to ask why her name was on the label. She tried explaining that art must push
boundaries, but he curtly announced, “I’m closing this museum.”
In the restroom mirror, Efil hovered on the brink of tears. If the museum
closed, she’d be cast aside. She needed a quick solution to get back into
Pertev’s good graces. That evening, the fiasco at the mansion escalated beyond
anything she had imagined.
Returning to the estate, she found the blond man smirking. She demanded the
bloodstained sheet, but he sneered that it had already been hung at the museum
entrance. Furious, she lunged for his collar, prepared to tear him apart. He
seized her wrists with surprising strength. Efil felt a wave of helpless rage,
tears falling. She asked where Pertev was. The blond man said he had gone
abroad and wouldn’t return anytime soon. Efil needed to confront him, but he
was gone.
“Pertev left you a voice message,” the blond man added. Efil, unbelieving,
checked her phone. Indeed, Pertev’s recorded words praised her for “doing a
great job,” but suggested they take a break from working together. Efil
staggered, nearly tumbling down the stairs.
She stumbled into the performance room, thrashing about and smashing
anything in reach. Grabbing a chair and slamming it against the wall, she was
left holding only one leg of it. The blond man loitered by the doorway,
observing. Efil forced open another door, coming face to face with his embryo
collection. In a rage, she destroyed them with the chair leg, one after
another. The blond man vanished. Efil, staggering outside like a drunk, made
for her car. Suddenly, shots rang out. The policeman, Akuji, and Artemis
recoiled. The policeman drew his gun and sprinted toward the noise. Efil lay on
the ground, covered in blood. Artemis collapsed over her, sobbing. The blond
man engaged in a firefight with the officer. Akuji felt compelled to save the
policeman who had spared him. The officer was wounded. Akuji grappled with the
blond man. He aimed to shoot Akuji, but Lissa appeared, having tracked Akuji’s
location to the mansion. She slipped her bag’s strap around the blond man’s
neck, combining her strength with Akuji’s. Together, they subdued him. The
policeman had already called for backup. There was no sign of Pertev.
PERTEV
Pertev sometimes needed a clean slate, and he knew how to orchestrate it.
Invite the wealthy and talented, exploit them for their ideas, and discard them
in one swift motion. Efil had made him an authority in the art world with
minimal effort on his part. Now his final “masterpiece”—the bloodied sheet
draped at the museum—was making waves on television and social media. As he
flew away in his private jet, he hardly cared about the power struggle left
behind. Efil had done her job; had she known her place, she wouldn’t be
stirring up trouble. Artemis’s name was already fading from his memory. He had
the files he needed for his father—end of story. He was aware a policeman was
working undercover among the migrant workers and that eventually the smuggled
antiquities scandal would blow up. The blond man’s half of the operation was
beyond saving. Pertev feared for his own safety, but not enough to stop.
He hadn’t realized matters would escalate into outright violence, but he
knew how to weather scandal: vanish for a while, continue his “art” endeavors
abroad. Indeed, his father complained. The gunshots at the mansion made the
news as “breaking events,” and the police discovered a few bones in the garden.
Everything was blamed on the blond man who had been “renting” the mansion. The
family expressed regret, denied any involvement, and the public, eager to
defend their philanthropic patrons, asked why a wealthy family would possibly
murder undocumented migrants. Some even prayed the family would never suffer
such misfortune again.
At least no one died that day. Efil landed in the hospital, with Artemis by
her bedside. Artemis handed the police everything on Musa’s flash drive. Enraged,
Efil leaked Musa’s memoir online, so the entire country learned the family’s
secrets. This turned Pertev into the “God of Art,” catapulting him to a new
echelon of notoriety. Akuji, having cooperated with the policeman and saved his
life, was granted citizenship and would soon wed Lissa, continuing to work in a
home with a spacious garden. The blond man was sent to prison for killing
undocumented migrants while high.
Finally, Pertev held his dying father’s hand, watching him lament that
everyone now knew of his homosexuality, cursing his half-brother Musa. Pertev
soothed him gently, possibly for the first time truly taking his hand in his
own—like God reaching out to Adam. He felt a tickling in his belly as his
father breathed his last…
All rights belong to the author Evrim Tanış. No quotation allowed.
Seven episode series project. God of Art
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