On Fire novel Chapter 7

I lived in a small unit on the eighth floor of Block A. It was a simple unit with a single living room and bedroom, and the monthly rental was two thousand yuan.

When I reached the second floor, I saw my mother standing by the door with a horrified expression. Her eyes were swollen, indicating the chance that she had just cried. With my heart sinking, I moved towards her uneasily.

“Mum, why are you here?”

“Jessica, Daniel is sick now with neonatal sepsis, which was caused by his high fever. He’s currently being operated on in the hospital, and I couldn’t reach your phone all the time, so I could only come here. Why are you home at this late hour? Were you working overtime just now?”

“Yes, it has been busy for me in the company. Mum, which hospital is Daniel staying in?”

I lied to her face, which made me feel bad.

Daniel was an accident that happened last time when I was framed. At that time, I planned to abort him, since I wasn’t married yet. However, the doctor had given me a verdict, telling me that the wall of my womb was too thin. If I had aborted a child that time, the probability of me getting pregnant again was close to zero.

Hence, I had given birth to that child although I wasn’t married, and I had named him Daniel.

My father’s condition worsened because of this, and in the end he left us because he couldn’t be saved. Later on, I used all of my savings and bought a two-bedroom unit in the countryside and took my mother there so that she could take care of the child.

My mother wasn’t literate her whole life, so she was a woman without her own opinions. She never dug deep into my life and my work. During the time when my child was just born, in the span of just a few months, all of my savings were almost gone. Therefore, I had to work after my month of confinement in childbirth.

I studied interior design when I was in university, and my mother always thought that I was working in a foreign corporate, never suspecting anything. I hoped that she would never learn of the truth forever so that she could live in peace.