Nick was attempting to concentrate on driving, trying his best not to remember the stressful week he had. He almost broke the traffic laws two times for speeding, but controlled last minute; He couldn't be late again for the speeding ticket. His car was stopped in front of a busy and reputed hospital. Immediately Nick's ears were filled with ambulance's siren, stretchers and wheelchairs' wheel's sound, patients' crying out in pain, Nurses' own terminology while helping the patients. Nick looked towards the busy scene before finding a spot in the visitor's parking lot. He quickly and effortlessly parked his car there before coming out of the car hastily. He carefully passed the patients on his way to the reception and asked the receptionist.
"Excuse me? Can you tell me where they taking the patient named Mr. Jackson Matthew?"
"One minute." The receptionist typed in keyboard quickly and responded, "He is taken to Emergency Operation. Room No 3C, third floor, right side after walking out of elevator."
Nick was so baffled to hear that his father was taken to the operation that he forgot to ask the which way the elevator was; But the receptionist was nice enough to understand and guided him by saying, "Left side of this corridor." He mumbled a 'Thank you' before running towards the guided path.
On the way, he couldn't stop thinking about the incidents happened in the morning.
Today he woke up in rather disturbing mind, though it was nothing new for him. He was disturbed from that day when Amy started her blackmailing. For that reason, he even couldn't fully concentrate on his work and yesterday lost a huge deal from client. He was upset and irritated after waking up and decided to leave for office early. He was walking across the living space while his father called from the dining area, where he was having breakfast with Anne. Nick halted and sighed before turning around. Anne put her hand on her husband's elbow in trying to stop him, but he asked directly without pretending anything.
"What is the matter with losing the already favorable deal? How did you even lose it?"
Nick's head hung low; he just mumbled a "Sorry."
"I don't want to hear your 'Sorry', I want to know the reason behind it. Do you have any idea how much we worked to grab that deal? How many months we spent on this deal? Our team was trying to catch their attention from last 2 years and finally they came to an arrangement with us and you just lost it in a second! On top of it, our rival company got the deal."
Nick was feeling more guilty as he was hearing his father. He just kept silent.
"Don't be silent, Nick! I'm asking you something." His father yelled and immediately started coughing and panted. Anne came quickly beside her husband's side with a glass of water, as he already stood up from his chair.
"Jack, calm down please. Have some water."
Jackson grabbed the glass with shaking hands and gulped down all the water. In hastiness, the water entered the wrong tube and he started coughing. Nick got worried and rushed to go to his father, but stopped when he saw Anne slowly patted her husband on back. Nick decided to walk out from there. He might had no hard feelings towards Anne, but it still was hard for him to accept her and his father together. It was not easy to accept after a long feud of misunderstandings. Before he could completely go out of the doorstep, he stopped hearing his father again.
"I was wrong about you. I thought you've changed. You have become more responsible and serious about works, but no.... You still are that moody spoiled brat, who doesn't know the value of hard work and money."
Nick's fingers turned into a fist in annoyance, anger and hurt.
"Jackson, stop!" Anne scolded and looked towards Nick in concern, but he was already gone. She sighed.
Nick straight drove to his favorite spot, the park, to calm his nerves down and be as close as possible with his mother, just like any child would seek their mother's lap when they were scared or restless or having any type of problems.
"WHY?!"
He screamed in full of pain and anger.
"Why this is happening to me? After a long time, everything was going well in my life, then why are you taking that happiness away from me, God? Why do you have to be so cruel?"
Tears were flowing from his eyes, but there was no one to answer his worries or comfort him in his misery. He was all alone, or so he thought. After spending some time in peace, he thought of facing the reality again. Deeply inhaling the fresh air and exhaling it slowly, he went for his car. After entering into the car, he was securing his seatbelt, when his eyes fell on his mobile, which he kept in the car this whole time. He reached his phone and switched on, just to frown to see many missed calls from Gina and.... Anne? Anne never calls me before.
He thought and started to dial her number, when Gina's call came through. He picked up immediately. Before he could even say "Hello", Gina's voice boomed in the car.
"Sir got heart attack."
Nick's frown deepened again, but for different reason this time.
"What? Dad got heart attack? When did this happen? How is he now? Did Doctor come? I'm coming home right now." He asked everything without breathing while started his car towards his home.
"He is already admitted in hospital. Anne went with him in the ambulance. I wanted to go with them too but she told me to stay at home and called your number as she couldn't reach you. I too was dialing your number for a long---" Gina was talking non-stop in worry, when Nick stopped her.
"Send me the hospital name and location. I'm on my way there." Nick reached his phone to cut the call, but stopped to reassure her. "Don't worry. He is a tough fighter. He'll survive this. I'll keep informing you about his health." He could hear the quiet sobbing on the other part before cutting the call. He swallowed the forming lumps of sorrow and focused on the driving, but his mind kept drifting off.
*Ding*
Nick came back to the present after hearing sound of lift's door opening. He came out of it and walked the way receptionist told him. He was frantically searching the room when his eyes landed on Anne, sitting helplessly in front of a closed door; A red light was on top of the door and below the "Operation Room 3C" text, indicating the operation was going on. He crossed that path in two steps and stood in front of her. Anne was so worried that he didn't feel any presence around her until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Nick and broke into tears. She was holding herself till now, trying to be strong for her husband, but the moment she saw Nick, she couldn't hold herself anymore. She hung her head low and covered her face to muffle her sobs. Nick never saw her this broken before; Though it'd lie that he ever gave his attention towards her. He never did; He never looked her straight in the eyes. He always blamed her for the reason of his ruined family, but never searched for the truth. But now, after knowing the whole truth, neither he could blame her, nor hate her. It was rather awkward for him to approach her, but in this tough situation they both needed each other more than anything. So he just sat on the empty seat beside her, thinking what he should say to give her some type of comfort. But she talked first.
"How did it all happen again!! Why is this happening again?" She wept out.
Nick was going to say something else, when something struck him.
" 'Again'? What do you mean by 'again'? He has been hospitalized before?" He looked shockingly at Anne. She nodded her head slowly without looking towards him.
"Yes, but not hospitalized before."
"When? And why wasn't I inform about this?" He got angry for not knowing about his father's condition.
"It was Jackson's decision to not to tell you. Also you both weren't on good terms at that time. You were dealing with your share of problems. So he didn't want you to worry about his health." Anne spoke softly.
"How could he? So what if we weren't seeing eye to eye at that time! I still was his son. I have every right to know about his health." He growled in rage and questioned her directly.
"Why didn't you tell me about father? He didn't, but you could at least tell me!"
Anne finally turned her face towards him and looked him in the eyes before saying, "We were even worse than you two. We never spoke to each other until today. So how can I? And then there is Jackson, who requested both me and Gina not to tell you." She pressed her lips into a sad smile.
Nick listened her with his eyes wide open as realization hit him. She was right. He didn't give her any chance to talk with him, even though she tried multiple times in the past. He treated her as a ghost. And today when he questioned her about not informing him his father's illness, he had no right of it. On the other hand, she had every right to behave rudely or to taunt him; But she never did, not even once. He felt guilty for behaving rudely, not just with Anne, but with his father too. His father even didn't consider him worthy enough to tell about his illness. He sighed, trying not to think of it and focused on the current situation.
"When and how did it start? Tell me everything." He demanded the answer from Anne.
"It was around three and a half years ago when the company was running into loss. Your father was trying so hard to float the business, but some of his rivals got together and played against him. That day he had his first heart attack at home after getting the news. We called the Doctor. The Doctor came and informed that it was a mild heart attack caused from immense stress and anxiety. He prescribed some medicines and changed some of his eating habits. After Jackson getting back on his feet, he took a bank loan by mortgaging our home and worked day and night to bring back the company reputation." Anne stopped to take a breathe.
Nick on the other hand, was sad hearing all of this and thinking how much in bad condition his father's health was and still is, but he didn't know anything about it. He felt left out from his father's life. He also felt guilty after hearing how much his dad had gone through to make the company where it is today..... and he just ruined it. This reminded him of his current situation with Amy. He still was risking the reputation of the company.
"No, I can't do that, even if that means I need to forget my first love, I will." He mumbled to himself, remembering the adorable mesmerizing face. Tears glistened in the corner of his eyes.
"Are you okay?" Anne asked concernedly.
Hearing her, he snapped back to reality and quickly rub off the tears that threatened to fall at any moment with his coat sleeve. He nodded and cleared his throat before speaking, "Yeah, I'm okay. How does this happened today if he's taking his medicines? He's taking his medicines properly, right?" Nick asked worriedly.
"He was, but..." Anne was now calmed down a bit and spoke in a tone of doubt, "But these past 2 months, he was having trouble in breathing and even getting tired easily. I asked him many times if he was feeling any type of uneasiness, but as always, he smiled at me and reassured that he was okay. I was a fool to believe him! I shouldn't believe him!" She face-palmed in guilt.
Nick hesitantly put his hand on Anne's hand, trying to console her and spoke so softly, "Then?"
"He was a bit disturbed from the news of the cancelled deal since yesterday. Then today at the morning, you came downstairs and you both had that fight. After you went out of the home, a very fashionable model like young lady came to meet your father--"
"A young lady?" Stopping her in the middle, Nick asked. A doubt was peeking through his mind, but he ignored it for the time being.
She nodded her head in a 'yes' and continued.
"She introduced herself as a new employee of the company and wanted to talk with only Jackson for some important matter. I didn't know that person, so I called Jackson out of his library-office. He recognized that young lady, but confusion and resentment were written on his face. He still listened to her request and took her to his office for that important talk. Just after 15 minutes or so, that girl came out of the office and went straight out of the main door, making clacking sound from her heels. I looked at her direction with confusion, when a loud noise came from the office. Me and Gina both ran there and saw Jackson lying on the floor and writhing in pain. He was trying to gulp down the air into his lungs, but failing miserably and for that reason, he was losing his conscious fast..." Anne sobbed again while describing the horrible scene.
Then again was a long silence. He was giving her time to calm down before confirming his doubt.
"That young lady, did she tell her name?"
Anne again nodded before pronouncing the name, which Nick was hoping not to come true. But it was.
"Amy Brown."