Binbir Gece, The Black Night

The Black Night: the night Onur and Sherazat spend together, his condition for giving her $150,000.

They meet in a hotel.  Onur has been secretive about his plans for the evening, not happy with the way it came about but also not wanting to call it off.  Sherazat prepares for the evening by closing herself off, literally shutting herself in her bedroom to get ready. She shuts out her son, her new friend, the rest of her home, almost as if to turn herself off and compartmentalize the coming hours.

When they go up to the room they will share for the night, she is like a statue, stopping immobile just inside the door.  Onur takes her wrap, release her hair from its band.  He is mesmerized, so close to the object he desires, and she is in torture, putting herself through an abhorrent experience out of necessity.  He reaches to take the shoulder of her dress down and she raises her hand in an involuntary attempt to clutch the dress back to her chest.  They both realize what she's done but it doesn't stop him.  He proceeds what he perceives to be tendresse.

In the morning she leaves while she thinks he is still asleep, taking the bag of money he has left.  He watches from the balcony as she walks out of the hotel and get into a taxi.  She goes immediately to the hospital to give the money over to the doctor for her son Kaan's treatment. She then spends the morning walking around wretchedly and curled up on her bed in the evening.  For his part, Onur believes she asked for a loan simply out of gall after getting her promotion.  He never considered she had a specific reason for such a sum.  And she leaves without a word, taking the money, that he assumes she conducted a transaction that had no emotion behind it.

A meeting in Dubai takes the both of them to a hotel again, alone after the meeting is over, and overnight because there are no flights available. Having misunderstood her motives and unable to stop thinking about her, Onur offers her double the sum for one more night.  This time however, she doesn't need the money and can show her true feelings about the proposition.  She rejects him with the full force of her disgust. And he has the opportunity to see her unguarded reaction.  He apologizes immediately and has to beg her to stay the night--in her own room--and finish out the trip.  Once back in Istanbul, before going back to the office though, he forces a stop off for coffee to give them a chance to calm down.  He apologizes again, profusely, and sincerely but without really understanding the extent of his transgression.  He begs her to not think of it again, that she will never hear anything like this from him again.

He immediately breaks that promise by asking, earnestly baffled, "Why did you sleep with me?"

Because he can't figure it out.  He doesn't know if he was mistaken about her motive originally and her repugnance at the thought of a second night gives him pause.  As they had been working together since spending their Black Night together he has seen more of her character and begins to feel she is possibly different from other women, despite her actions that night and the morning following.  Even to the extent that he asks his housekeeper and confidant, is he a bad person?  He is doubting his truths.
Unfortunately in making such supplications only to then demand a reason in the next breath he has completely lost all respect in Sherazat's eyes.

Over the course of Kaan's treatment Sherazat brings him to a foundation event for kids with leukemia.  They say hello to major donors, are generally available as an example of what good the foundation can do.  And Sherazat is happy to be a part of it.  She and Kaan have benefited from the work they do, and she is the kind of person who wants to foster relationships that will help more people.  However two of the attendees to the fundraiser are Peride and  Secal, Onur and Kerem's mothers.  They meet Kaan and Sherazat , not realizing she is the award-winning architect they have been hearing so much about from their sons.

And then it all comes together.  Onur's mother is in his office for a visit and in walks Sherazat.  Peride explains all about Sherazat's son, his costly operation and how they met at the foundation event.  The other three are speechless.  Kerem is stunned that she has a son, and that they didn't know the burden she was under.  Onur of course suddenly realizes what he has done.  He not only assumed she was arrogant enough to ask for a loan based on some small success but also that she thought so little of him that she might sleep with any one who made the offer.
To his credit he cannot look her in the eye while she, defiant, looks straight at him, daring him to show her he knows.  He goes into the bathroom and takes a long, hard look at himself in the mirror.

Later that evening the men and their mothers discuss what to do now, having an employee who lied about having a child.  Kerem insists they change their rules.
"We're not ruthless people, are we?" Onur's eyes flash to Kerem.  Strike one.

Onur asks, will break their business principles?  There is a foundation of many years of business practice and will they throw it all out for one woman, however deserving?  It mirrors the thoughts he's had all day. 
Kerem replies that they are the ones who made the rules, they can change them. Strike two.

Onur agrees off-offhandedly.  The mothers are pleased.
"Put yourself in Sherazat's place," Kerem offers.  "You need a vast sum for an operation.  What would you do?" Onur, of course, has no answer.
"Without thinking for a second, I'd do the same," says Peride.  Boom!  Strike three.
His mother, who constantly bemoans his father's weakness in allowing a woman to lure him away from his family, has unwittingly taken the side of a woman he paid to spend the night with him.  Because she was doing what she had to for her son.  And the music confirms the gravitas of the moment.

It's here that we get the vindication we have been waiting on.  For even though the whole story is overall a romance and we've witnessed his budding interest and even some small measure of tenderness, (though born of an unhealthy obsession,) here is where we see the full effect of his realization take hold.  We need this catharsis to be able to believe in the hero of the romance.  We watch a montage of their conversations play out as each of them lay in bed at night and relive moments they regret.

Even after Peride's interjection and Onur's subsequent understanding, he is still only thinking of his behavior towards Sherazat, of his interest in only her.  Kerem brings up the question of the boy's father.  Where is he? He's checked her file: she's single.  So she is either divorced or widowed; which does Onur think it is? Imagine leaving your son in the hospital to come to work; how could she do it?  It's only when Kerem brings these questions up that that Onur starts to think about more than just his behavior toward her that one night.  Becoming interested in her life, taking a real interest in her son, these are things that will eventually make him fall in love with her.  Sherazat also hears about Onur's father, his generosity, the circumstances of his death, all when Onur was just 12 years old.  A crack opens for her as well.  Some understanding if not affection.  Just as in 1001 nights, the more they learn about each other, the more they begin to change.