Chapter 23- The leukemia

The receptionist checked the details of the patient on the computer and asked, “Angelina White, right? She was brought here unconscious.”

“Yes.” Charles was anxious, and he wiped his face with his palm.

“She is in the emergency room.”

Charles turned around and rushed to the emergency room as soon as he got the answer. He saw Angelina’s mother sitting on the chair in front of the emergency room. She was weeping uncontrollably.

He walked up to her and asked warily, “Lucy, what happened to her? Why did she pass out?” He sat on the chair next to her and looked at her inquisitively.

Lucy was just crying harder and harder and couldn’t reply at all. Charles sighed and cooed, patting her back, “Okay, stop crying. She will be fine.”

Lucy grabbed his hand and started saying word by word, “She… she is suffering from leukemia.”

“Wh-what?”

Charles was shocked. He never even thought in his wildest dream that Angelina might suffer from Leukemia.

‘Another cancer!’ He murmured in a state of despair. He felt like the sky had fallen upon his head. He lost his mother due to cancer, and his childhood friend whom he treated like his sister was also suffering from cancer now. He couldn’t lose another close one due to this disease. Waves of shivers were running through his body from top to bottom. He was scared and anxious at the same time. He wiped his face with his palm. At that moment, he recalled how his mother used to scream in pain. He couldn’t see Angelina go through the same pain.

His trance was broken by Lucy’s next words, “She was already in the third stage when her illness was diagnosed six months ago. Now her condition is getting worse. The treatment is very expensive. I used up my entire savings. I don’t have enough money to continue the treatment. I don’t know what to do… I don’t know what to do…” She kept repeating the last sentence.

Charles squeezed her hands and said, “Don’t worry. I have some savings. I will do everything possible to treat her.”

Lucy stopped crying and turned her head to look at him, her expression perplexed. She shook her head and denied, “No… no, Charles no. I… I can’t take your money. I know you are saving that money to fulfill your mother’s dream. I… I can’t take it. No… No.”

She pulled her hands back and waved her hands in denial. She turned her head and looked at the closed door of the emergency room.

Charles licked his lips and requested, “Please, Lucy. Don’t say no. You have helped me and Mom in the past. Let me help you out. I want to repay you. And don’t worry about the money. I can earn it again as long as she is cured. You two are like my family. I can’t let her suffer.”

“But…”

Lucy wanted to refuse him, but Charles didn’t allow her to speak, “No, but. Let me do it, Lucy. I insist. Please…”

Lucy stared at him cautiously and realized how serious he was. After hesitating for a long time, she finally nodded, “Alright.” She sniffed and said again, “Thank you.”

Just then, the door of the emergency room pulled open, and the doctor came out. They stood up and walked to the doctor.

“How is she?” Lucy was anxious. She almost choked while saying those words.

“She is saved now. However, you need to resume the treatment as soon as possible. I told you to continue the treatment when she was hospitalized last time. But…” The doctor sighed and didn’t finish his sentence. After a few moments of pause, he spoke again, “Anyway, if you don’t continue her treatment immediately, her condition will get worse, and the chance of her survival will be slim.”

Fresh tears well up, and Lucy started crying again. Charles licked his lips and said, “We want to start the treatment.”

The doctor nodded, “That’s good. Deposit the treatment amount so that we can start the procedure immediately.” He turned and left soon after he finished speaking.

Lucy slummed on the ground, crying miserably. Charles crouched down beside her and placed his hand across her shoulder.

“You have to stay strong. I will go and deposit the money. Stay here with her.”

He pulled her up and made her sit on the chair. Then he headed straight to the financial section of the hospital. He was informed that he had to deposit a hundred thousand dollars for the treatment to commence.

A cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He had promised Lucy that he would help with Angelina’s treatment, but right now he was not sure if he could cope with the expenses or not. Hundred thousand dollars was a big amount for him. He was also aware that it was not the end. This amount was to start the treatment. When the treatment continued, they would seek more money. He had no idea how much it would cost to cure her. He wiped his face in anticipation. But he couldn’t just give up without trying. After contemplating for a while, he took his debit card out of his wallet and passed it to the middle-aged woman with curly hair on the other side of the desk.

“Swipe fifty thousand from this card as of now. I will deposit the remaining amount tomorrow. But, please, start the treatment.”

The woman took the card and peered at Charles with her sharp eyes as if she was inspecting him. Then she swiped the card and gave it back to him. Immediately the fifty thousand were debited from his account, and he received the message from the bank. He took the card and put it in his wallet. Then he turned around and left.

Abigail locked herself in her room when she came back from the party. She didn’t know how she had kept herself calm at the party. Although she was in pain, she still smiled and maintained her composure. She didn’t let down her father and Aidan in front of the guests. But after coming back home, she couldn’t control her emotion any longer and burst into tears.

She sat down on the floor, hugging her legs with her head down on her knees. She wanted to cry out loud, but at the same time, she didn’t want to alarm her father. So, she only shed her tears silently. She kept rubbing the heart-shaped diamond pendant. She was so happy since morning, but at the end of the day, she received unbearable pain. The scene of Charles walking out of the hall was still vivid in her mind.

Initially, she was delighted to think that he had planned a surprise for her, but it turned out that he was only following his boss’s order. For him, she was nothing more than the fiancee of his boss. He didn’t have any feelings for her. He had only his girlfriend in his heart. She couldn’t win his heart. He could never be hers. One phone call from his girlfriend was enough for him to abandon her. She was a fool to fall for him. More tears streamed down after thinking all these. Now she should stop thinking about him before it could cause further pain to her. She should forget him and concentrate on Aidan.

“He is no one to me… he is no one to me…” She kept chanting this sentence.

………

The next morning, the news of Aidan proposing Abigail spread in social media and tabloids. Photo of Aidan kneeling in front of Abigail, offering her a diamond ring was viral on social media.

Erica was so angry to see the news that she crushed the tabloid into a ball and threw it in the trash can. She grabbed the phone and dialed Aidan’s number, but as usual, the call didn’t connect. He blocked her new number too.

During this month, he didn’t contact her for once. She tried to call him several times. In the beginning, he used to cut her calls, but later, he blocked her number. She changed her number and called him, but when he found out that it was her number, he blocked it again. Likewise, she changed many numbers, but every time he blocked it. She went to his office as well as to his residence, but the guards didn’t allow her to enter any of these places. And what’s more, he also replaced her with another model.

She was already mad at him, but the news of him proposing Abigail, piqued her agitation and anger. Now she had become desperate. She was not a woman to play with. She wouldn’t let him deceive her so easily. She would force him to come back to her. If she couldn’t get him back, nobody could have him. A villainous smirk crept into the corner of her lips, and her eyes shone with anticipation.

Charles went to the bank and withdrew the remaining fifty thousand dollars and returned to the hospital. He hurried to the finance department to deposit the money, but the middle-aged woman with curly hairs informed him that the medical expenses of Angelina’s treatment had been taken care of by someone. Charles was dumbfounded, and he asked frenetically, “Who? Who is the generous man?”

The middle-aged woman smiled apologetically and replied, “Sorry. The person strictly prohibited to disclose his identity. I can only tell you that he is a good man. He donates to many hospitals, and this time, he wants to pay the medical bills of a cancer patient. He picked a name at random, and Miss White’s name came out by luck. Now you no longer have to worry about the bills.”

Charles was stunned, and amazement spread across his face. He wondered if it was a miracle or Angelina’s good luck. He wanted to thank the person personally, but he also respected his wish. He let out a chuckle and thanked the woman before heading to the ward.