It was Friday, I finished my lectures, and I got Layan and Lila out of the daycare in the hospital. I got inside the car and went into Yilmaz's Mansion.

The girls were astonished by the large mansion that Layan started running while Lila tried to follow as they went through the backside of the house, and I ran to catch them.

"Girls, can we be more careful" I uttered as I got alongside them.

"They even got a tiny sea inside the house!" Lila commented innocently.

"It is a swimming pool, dummy." Layan corrected.

Suddenly, the backdoor opens, revealing Nermin, my mother in law, who was smiling. Yes, this woman actually smiles at me. I'm not expecting this.

"Wahaj," she chuckles heartily, startling me even more. "You made it! Come in, then!"

I immediately take Lila and Layan with me, if I didn't know any better, I would say that this was her nice twin sister.

"Mrs Yilmaz?" I questioned.

"Call me, Mother." She grins.

"O-kay."

My eyes scan over the place; it hadn't changed much except the toys that seemed to be everywhere were now nowhere to be found.

Mellisa's Children grew older.

Mrs Yilmaz laughs as she looks at the girls who were attached to my legs. "They look so much like my handsome boy, not like you at all."

'Oh, Nermin, that I know and love is back' I comment sarcastically in my mind as I rolled my eyes. Some people don't change, no matter how many years you give them.

"Mama is pretty," A soft voice commented as I looked down at Lila who seemed to be still attached to my legs while Layan went and comfortably laid in the sofa as if she had been here for ages.

"They certainly have your manners," Nermin commented looking at the girl in the coach.

"And the eyes..." she covers her mouth, giggling in amusement as she bends down to look at Lila. "Why they could've cut them out of my boy and put them on you they're so similar!"

Despite my nervousness, I find myself grinning as a young girl actually, comes bounding down the stairs. She gives me one of those friendly grins I'm not expecting - before pulling me into a hug.

"Wahaj! It's so good to see you!"

I blink, startled, and back away.

"Leyla," I grin, remembering the little 8-year-old girl who is now twelve.

"You have grown so much," I went in for another hug, "I have missed you so much."

"Sure you did," she rolls her eyes playfully.

"I sow Layan, where are Deniz, Emir, and Roya" I excitedly anticipated them forgetting all about Yilmaz.

"Layan and Roya are at university now. Deniz is out with uncle Ahmad, and so is Emir but they will home tonight. We can all catch u-"

Before she got a chance to continue talking, she gets called in by Nermin who left to go outside near the swimming pool. A few minutes later, Yilmaz came downstairs.

I sat in the coach in the old living room just like ancient times, but this time my daughters were beside me waiting for him. As he approached near us, both girls started whispering and turned their faces away.

Slowly, Their head turns, and they lock their eyes on him.

His eyes.

He stands frozen, clutching to two boxes he held tightly to him.

"Layan, Lila, darlings, remember I told you about the nice man who gave you the 'bestest of kidney?' This is him..."

I search his eyes, his face, as I say those words and this time he let me see it all: his pain, his regret.

I trail off when Lila squirms out of my arms. Without breaking her gaze with him, she takes a couple of small, slow steps to him her long, light brown hair flowing in waves in front of her shoulders.

While unexpectedly, Layan sat in my lap not wanting to move. Lila went to him. Layan was always the more friendly, outgoing child. She makes conversation easily with other children, plays with them, and smiles happily when I take her to the supermarket while Lila seemed to be comfortable in a suited environment such as the hospital, the house. She wasn't outgoing like her sister, and that was because of me. I am always more cautious about what she was going to do next.

But now, in front of him, they were so much different.

The two girls seemed to share an idea of who the man in front of them was. Whether it was the eyes, or the hair, or the similarities in their features that even a child as young as Layan and Lila could pick up on, or whether it was something entirely different altogether, some established instinct told Lila that Ibrahim was her father. Somehow, she'd just known.

"Your eyes..." Lila said, "You are Baba ?"

I gasp unknowingly at her words.

"Yes," He says, his voice shaking, his vision blurring.

He smiles at her, even while the tears streak down his face.

He can actually cry, I wondered.

"Yes, Lila, I'm yours."

She continues gazing at him in wonder while Layan hugs me tightly turning her face from him and into me and avoiding his wonderous eyes as she kissed my cheek, afraid to let go as I hug her back, and whisper, "It's okay; I am okay."

I smiled; I knew my little girl all too well. She was so smart. I knew she was worried not about her but me, she saw Yilmaz earlier in the car, and I think she put the pieces together that when the time came, she was concerned about me more than herself. I confirmed my own suspicions when in a matter of seconds, she went beside Yilmaz as she took the box he gave each of them.

All sets of emerald eye twinkle, and then... They both smile at him.

*******

They were both comfortable with him, a comfort that usually arises with familiarity, the familiarity that occurs from having known someone all your life. That's how they have taken to him. It was as if they knew him as if he's simply been away on a trip and has now returned.

The boxes he has given to each of them contains a kid-friendly camera embroidered with each of their names. They both gone nowhere without it since he gave it to them three days ago.

He told them to photograph everything they saw, everything they liked so he could share it with them, and they did just that. When they all meet, they gaze at each other with equal awe and fascination.

They ask a myriad of questions:

What's your favourite food?

What's your favourite colour?

The title 'Baba' flows out of their mouth with such ease, as if they uttered it all their life. I feel as if I'm missing something as they talk to each other.

It seemed that the professor was losing his hard exterior with every passing day with them as I look at their interaction. I think back to my own dad. Will I ever have this with him? Did he ever love me?

"Baba, take this fish!"

We're inside the swimming pool inside the Yilmaz's Mansion. Lila, Layan, Ibrahim and I. We are here because Lila told him she always wanted to go fishing, but because of her condition, she couldn't go, so he turned the swimming pool to a fish pond.

Ibrahim indulges her, and though he's in trousers and a polo shirt, he folds the hems up and goes in before he goes into it old school and grabs the fish by hand. Layan grips tightly to his side, "Baba let the fish back," she begs, laughing when her father takes her from the small float like a boat and takes her to the water with the fishes. Drops of water land on their matching fringes of hair. Lila put her hands up from her father to take her too and he did just that as they all swam with the fishes.

The giggles and laughs couldn't be described, it was as if they were only laughing for him. It was a different sound from what they always make, it seems to be a secret laugh only meant to be shared with him.

I sit in one of the beach seats placed a few meters away. I was capturing the moments in both of their cameras. They didn't want the cameras to get wet even though Yilmaz tried to explain to them that they were water resistance. They didn't want to risk it. It was as if they thought that the camera and all the memory it held inside it would vanish with their father.

Watching them play and get to know each other more and more, connect on a level I've never seen my daughters connect on with anyone - besides myself. It's fascinating - and terrifying beyond belief.

"Your mom's right, Lila," he chuckles after a few minutes before shuddering playfully, making Layan giggle. "This water is freezing. Come on; let's take a rest."

My daughters hold his hand and follow without protest, without question, much the same way I once followed him. A chill runs through me even as the warm, breeze strokes my bare feet.

Three days. They've spent the past three days together, but it's as if they've known each other their entire lives. They look up at him adoringly. He looks down at them the same way.

But for how long?

And what happens now?

Ibrahim and I haven't fully discussed it yet because none of this was supposed to happen – at least not yet. I hadn't been expecting it to happen this way. Layan and Lila weren't supposed to know that he was their father – not yet, not until I made them pay.

But things are out of my hands now; they've been so since I walked into this house, into his life. Now all I can do is watch - and make duaa.

I hold out pair of towels for both Lila, and Layan – in their matching bright pink bathing suit with the tutu around it - and wrap it about them tightly, holding them close to me, feeling their inner warmth despite how cold the water has made their skin – praying silently once again.

Ya Allah. Don't let him break their hearts.

"You're freezing, Lila."

"No, I'm not, Mama." She smiles up at me, her dimples on display, emerald eyes bright and excited. I could feel her heart murmur. I could see it evident in her eyes that she had some chest pains.

The heart murmur - a noise made by blood as it travels through the hearing. She is suffering from coarctation of the aorta (CoA) which causes the heart to overwork, leading to heart failure, possible kidney failure, and in some cases, death.

"I guess I shouldn't have let her in the water" Out of my periphery, I see Ibrahim run a hand through his hair - his go-to nervous action as he grabs Layan with the towel and hugs her tightly.

"It's fine," I say, keeping my eyes on Lila, smiling down at her. "The towel will warm her up."

I carry Lila from the ground as I run my fingers on her bright copper hair; I knew this is too exhausting for her heart. I could see that Ibrahim knew that too and keeping her here as she watches Layan play with Ibrahim while she is in the sidelines will have a negative effect. She will soon beg and join them and to avoid all of this; I simply decided to leave. While I take Layan beside me as I guide her away from Ibrahim as he stands there.

I'm trying to be as normal as possible around him, for my daughters' sake, yet I know that there's still so much unresolved between us. All of that will have to wait though until I know precisely how Layan and Lila will fit into his life – if he's willing to fit them into his life permanently. If not, I've just let the same man who promised me the world and took it away do the same to my daughters.

How will I live with myself if that happens?

"Where are we going ?" I hear Layan say as I guide her away from the bench and she refuses to leave.

She's pulling no punches now.

The pleading gaze that she once only gave to me was directed to Ibrahim, "Baba, I want to stay her with you a little longer."

The words I feard the most came out of her mouth as I gaze at him, and he holds my gaze for a few seconds before he looks at my daughter, "Layan," He signs before he whispers something in her ears.

When he finishes, her face lights up, and her eyes sparkle just like his. "Take care now," He spoke after he tried to carry Lila from me, but I didn't let him.

"I love you," Lila spoke with a weak voice as she rested on my shoulder.

"I love you, Baba," Layan mimicked as she threw a flying kiss as I held into her tiny hand while she carried into her camera and Lila's.

Ibrahim takes deep, uneven breaths, "I love you, mega annum(a period of 1 million years)." He roared back to the giggles of both girls.

How can they not love that? How can they not trust that?

It's beautiful.

It's terrifying.

I want to laugh and scream and cry and pull them away and run off somewhere he'll never find us so that he can't let them down. So that he can't tell them, he was keeping a secret and now that it revealed everything is broken once more.

But it's already too late for that.