Chapter 43
JOJO:
“Good day, Miss Wyatt. Do you want to talk here or shall we do that in my office?” He asked.
I looked around the room, silently requesting their permission to step out. Mel nodded and I turned to the doctor.
“Your office, please.”
He turned and I followed him out of the ward.
I closed the door of his office behind me when we walked in. He was already pulling out a chair which he sat on afterward, then gestured for me to sit on the one opposite him.
My heart thudded in my chest as I settled into the chair. I scrubbed my nervous and sweaty palms against my thighs. The large room felt like the walls were closing in on me. I waited in silence for his verdict.NôvelDrama.Org owns this.
“This is not the first time it’s happened,” he started. My frown appeared again.
“It’s the third time and we’re deeply sorry for not letting you know until now. We believed we had it under control. At this point, we have no choice but to let you in on it.” There was a long pause. I was still waiting for the bad news.
“We might have to introduce new options apart from the normal treatment.” The silence after that was enough for me to realize the budding feeling I was experiencing was anger seeping through my veins.
What did they mean that they had it under control? My mother was suffering! And none of their bloody asses deemed it fit to tell me!
“This would involve some more money. The money that had been paid in for her treatment is almost exhausted and the balance would not be enough to pay for this option we’d like to try. We decided to get your opinion. Would you want us to carry on with her usual treatment or would you bear the cost of the new method?”
Money. Money. And more money. That was all they cared about here.
I wanted, more than anything else, to send their new method and their greedy purses to hell. But, this was my mother’s life on the line. I did not mind laying down my life.
Goosebumps crept to the surface of my skin. I could only imagine how much this new option would cause.
“How much do I have to pay for this option, doctor?” I asked.
His eyes glittered with pity. He heaved a sigh and fell back into his seat.
“We’ll need an additional thirty thousand dollars. We’ll be doing a cardioversion session on her, we’ll be shocking her heart. It will have side effects, but I promise that it would do her more good than harm.”
Thirty thousand dollars was all the money I had with me. I had planned to pay off Ley’s tuition fee and some debts with it but I still snuck my hand into the purse. I took the whole amount and placed it on the doctor’s table, swearing on my life that if my mother didn’t get any better, he would cough all the money I had spent, along with bits of blood.
He looked down at the money and back up at me. I grit my teeth. He must have been shocked, how could the pauper who slept in her mother’s ward because she had nowhere else to suddenly manufacture thirty thousand dollars in less than ten minutes?
He did not know half of it.
“That’s your money.” I gnarled.
“Take it and bloody do your job.”
He shifted in his seat, visibly uneasy before he looked up at me.
“Oh. We’ll start the session in no time, then. I’ll get my team ready.” He stated, getting up and I did too.
“Doctor, do your best to make sure she survives this. I need her to be alive.” I fought back my tears. This man did not care about my small family, I could not give him more reasons to pity me.
He sighed.
“I wish I could promise you that everything would be fine, Miss Wyatt, but unfortunately I cannot do that. Your mother has a very low possibility of surviving at this point, around 30-40%. She’s been fighting for eight years, it’s understandable that her organs have become weak which is why she has been defying every treatment.”
I sniffed, forcing my tears back in.
“This might also be happening because she had not received any form of treatment in the last eight years before now. That is, apart from oxygen and water to keep her alive.”
I corked my right brow. What was he talking about?
“No, doctor. She received treatment for five years before my Auntie stopped paying for it. You should check your records, I’m sure it’s there somewhere.”
First, he keeps my mother’s condition away from me. And now, a lie to back up his incompetence? Wow!
“If she told you anything of that sort, then she lied. There has been no payment for her treatment. Ever since she was abandoned here, she’s merely been surviving.”
My eyes danced around his face. He was not lying.
I fell and sat back on the chair with a thud. My head began to spin, my chest and heart ached simultaneously, and my mouth remained open.
What was I supposed to tell Ley now? Give up? Should I take back the money? No, that was not even an option.
I had to do something, anything at all.
So I stood up again and took the doctor’s outstretched hand in a handshake before I walked out of his office.
I stood in the corridor of my mother’s ward for countless minutes, pushing back my tears and finding the smile I could use to lie. When I believed I had found the perfect smile, I walked into my mother’s room.
Ley’s eyes widened as she saw me.
“Will momma be okay?” I took a seat beside her, clasping her small palm in mine.
“Of course, she’ll be fine.”
I watched as she swallowed the last slice of bread in her hands and dashed to our mother’s side.
“Done eating! Can I clean her up now?” She asked, facing Mel. Ley had also learned our puppy dog eyes trick.
I chuckled, but Mel did not fall for it. She feigned a frown and shook her head.
“Not until you drink some water too.”
Ley ran back to where she sat, took up a bottle filled with water from the side of her chair, and gulped half of its content down. She ran back to my mother and took out everything she needed to clean her from a drawer.
I watched her do it with a smile that never left her face. My heart squeezed in pain as it shrunk in my chest. I had to smoothen my features every time she looked at me. At that moment, it hurt so much to smile. Mel nudged my arm during one of those times and whispered.
“I know he told you something and it’s bothering you. Just remember, you’re not hurting alone. I’m here.”
She intertwined our fingers. It was impossible to hold back the tears after then.