Yesterday's You |18+|

Chapter 40

CHRIS

The ambulance was rushing to the hospital. Out of sudden, dad had passed out again this morning. We just had our breakfast peacefully and then, when he tried to move his wheelchair, he fainted on it. My heart thumped faster than the lightning and I could feel my hand got sweaty as we were approaching the hospital.

The nurse was doing CPR to him to make sure he was breathing when my mom and I were just helplessly sitting at the corner of the ambulance after Xavier and I had done doing CPR back at home. There was still no response from dad.

As soon as we arrived at the hospital, some of the staff had prepared to run dad to the emergency room. Both me and mom were running and pushing dad's bed along with the others. We were stopped by one of the nurses in front of the emergency room for the doctor to do a further checkup. I brought mom to sit outside the room.

"You okay?" mom asked as she wiped her tears away.

I nodded although I felt like everything was collapsing. I pat her back a few times before I put her head on my shoulder. She was sobbing her heart out as she still wasn't ready to bear what happened just now.

"Don't worry, dad is going to be okay," I whispered to her.

After 30 minutes of waiting, a doctor came out of the ward and stood in front of us. Mom immediately got on her feet and looked at the doctor with full of worries.

"Mrs Daniels?" He asked and mom nodded. "I'm Dr Collins, nice to meet you," he smiled. A second later, Xavier joined us at the hallway.

"How is he, doctor?" My mom asked.

"Thanks to God, your husband is stable now. He has been transferred to ward 5A," he said.

"What hs happened to him?" I asked.

"Well, Xavier told me about the carbon monoxide incident and for some reasons, it triggered the cancer cells to be activated at Mr Anderson's lung. According to his past history, he used to have lung cancer, so more likely that incident has developed into a severe one," he explained.

"Come, I will walk you to his ward," Xavier said as soon as Dr Collins finished talking.

My mom and I followed Xavier to the ward afterwards. Then, as soon as we arrived, Xavier opened the curtain that covering my dad who was still sleeping on his bed.

"Chris, can I talk to you for a while?" Xavier asked.

I frowned for a second before I decided to nod. I followed him to the outside of the ward and we stopped at the hallway.

"What is it?" I asked.

He exhaled deeply while avoiding my eye contact. "Um... I talked to Dr Collins just before he met both of you," he was uncertain. "And, we both know that Mr Daniels doesn't have much time," he added.

I clenched my jaw while I tried to hold my tears from dropping. "Yeah, I know," I replied.

He tapped my shoulder. "Your dad know about that too," he told me and I nodded. "Actually, Dr Collins and I wanted to tell both of you earlier but considering Mrs Anderson's emotion, we decided to tell her later."

"So, nothing's gonna work on him?" I asked.

"We will do anything we can to help him strive, but unfortunately, it won't last. His body has progressively weakened, Chris. We can't force him to suffocate even more," he said.

"Thanks," I smiled insincerely and we both parted away.

I entered the ward once again and I realised that my mom was conversing with my dad so I didn't want to interrupt them. I stood at the door while waiting for them to finish.

"Tell me, what are the things we gonna do tomorrow?" I heard my dad asking that question and I didn't mean to eavesdrop but that was actually the question that he always asked my mom since I was a kid.

"Well, Dr Collins will enter here and he will check you, examine you. And then, he will tell you have recovered. Then, we will go home and we are going to start a new life," my mom answered. It was heart-wrenching to hear that because my mom always told my dad like this but nothing had ever changed.

"So, we will no longer need Xavier afterwards?" My dad asked.

"No, because you have become healthy and eventually, we can force Xavier to get married," she chuckled and my dad joined her too.

"I love you, honey," my dad exclaimed which made my heart even broken. They shared a kiss before my dad realised my presence.

"How long actually you have been standing there?" My mom asked as I approached them.

"Not long ago," I scoffed and I took a seat beside my mom.

"Judy, can I talk to Chris for a while?" Out of sudden, my dad asked.

Mom frowned and they looked at both of us. "Is there something you hide?" She asked.

"No, honey. I just need to talk to him for a while," dad laughed a little to convince her.

"Well, okay. I will wait outside," mom plant a kiss on dad's lip before she exited the ward and closed the door behind her.

"You good?" I asked as I fix the chair to be closer to him.

"Xavier told you, right?" Dad asked and I couldn't do anything except clenching my jaw and fell into silence. "I know this day will come. Sooner or later," he added.

"Did mom know about this?" I asked.

"You know your mom, and I didn't want to hurt her," he said. Clearly, he didn't tell her yet.

"Just tell her, it will hurt her even more if you decided to leave without giving her any signs," I advised him.

He was hesitant for a while. "She will find out," he said. I just shrugged. "There's something I want to tell you. Investing in Carter's business is actually one of my biggest regrets, I told ya, because that bastard won't leave us alone," he scoffed.

"True. He even went beyond the limit and messing with Grace, I mean Katherine," I said.

He smiled at me brightly. "Do you still love her?" He asked.

"Yah," I chuckled.

"I'm sorry for starting all of these. If it wasn't because of Carter, both of you will still be together," he said.

"I tried to even explain to her every single thing but it's complex. Great now that she didn't even want to talk to me anymore," I shrugged.

"Promise me something, son," he adjured helplessly and reached for my hand. "If you love someone, you tell them. Even if you're paranoid or unsure that it isn't the right thing to do," he said.

"Dad..." I tried to cut him off.

"Do not let Katherine go," he insisted. "You only get one great girl in your life. Someday, you may find other good girls too but only one great girl that you will never forget for the rest of your life, I promise you," his hand was trembling as he finished every sentence. "Do not let her go and do whatever it takes to keep her."