On Fire novel Chapter 8

When I arrived at the hospital, Daniel was still in the surgical theatre. Paula was standing by the door as if standing guard, and she immediately stood up at the sight of us. She was a contract cleaner I had hired to clean up mother’s house from time to time.

“Ms. Shaw, the doctor asked about the whereabouts of his relatives, and I told him that you were on the way.”

“Paula, I am really grateful towards you.”

I was really moved by Paula.

Paula was really a down-to-earth person who even came to accompany my mother so late at night. Seeing that it was almost dawn, I shoved a five-hundred yuan note into her palms and urged her to go back home.

Both me and my mother who were waiting outside the surgical theatre looked at each other with teary eyes. We didn’t have words at the moment. I reached out to wipe off the tears on her face, and while I wanted to console her, my tears gushed forth the moment I opened my mouth.

“Jessica, don’t you think you should ask Daniel’s dad to come take a look at him? He is in such a dire situation now.”

My mother always thought that I have parted ways with Daniel’s father and given birth to him on my own. She never made it clear, but I knew that she was very conscious about the fact that Daniel didn’t have a father by his side. My mother was one traditional-minded woman who saw husband as the focal point of her life, so naturally I didn’t have the courage to disclose to her the truth.

“Mum, we have broken up long ago. Can you stop mentioning him again?” I sniffed while I replied.

“Do you really want to live your life like this? Why do you reek of alcohol? And you’re always coming home late.”

“I have business gatherings in the company. I can’t pull myself out of it.”

I turned my face away, not wanting to meet my mother in her eyes. Although she wasn’t highly educated, but she was very thoughtful and cautious. If she continued to dig deeper, there was a chance that I wouldn’t be able to keep lying.

“Jessica, you’re only twenty-two now. If you have any suitable prospect for your future partner, you should consider. I have gone through your age long ago, and I know that a woman has to have a partner by her side.”

“Mum, I’m sorry, if it were not for me, dad wouldn’t…”

“You foolish child. Didn’t I tell you before? Your father’s matter is not your fault. He was already counting down the days.” My mother sighed and looked away to wipe off some tears before continuing with a heavy heart, “Alas, if you didn’t borrow so much money to try to cure his disease, I’m afraid he would be gone earlier that he had. I understand him very well. He was just feeling angry at himself for dragging us down.”

A sourness immediately overcame me as I recalled the time when I had just graduated. I was twenty then.

My father had contracted cancer, and we needed a lot of money. Without any other way, I saw and advertisement by the Golden Emperor, and I had gone to beg to Cooper to lend me two hundred thousand yuan. I even dished out my graduation certificate and documents about my studies to prove myself.

Indeed, he had lent me money, but he had also smashed all of my arrogance into smithereens. He had asked me to crawl in between his legs like a dog while I was begging him.

I had done just that!

From that moment on, I became the manager of the club, and I had to use two years to return all of the debt to Mr. Chan.

Just as I was about to pull out of this industry and stopped this work, I was framed by someone. Since then, a child entered my life.

Not even my father and mother had known of this. They always thought that their daughter who had graduated from high school had entered a reputable company, and she would have a great future. To smash that expectation into pieces, the matter of me getting pregnant before marriage had broken their hearts and made them lose face.

I wanted to earn a lot of money, no, I wanted to earn a huge sum so that my mother would be proud of me, so that when Daniel grew up, nobody would poke his spine and laugh at him for being an illegitimate child…

But now…

I looked at the glowing signboard on top of the surgical theatre, and my heart was dripping in blood. Although Daniel was an accident bestowed upon me by God, he was still my flesh and blood. I could still feel the pain he was suffering from, and I was afraid that his fragile body could not fight against the suffering.

“Who is Daniel’s family here?”

Before I could wipe off my tears, the door to the surgical theatre suddenly flung open. The assistant surgeon immediately asked us that. I hurriedly rushed over and nodded, and while I stare at the surgeon’s eyes and held my breath, I was afraid that the next sentence that came out of his mouth would be something I couldn’t accept.

“Are you his mother?” The surgeon scanned me briefly. Perhaps due to the scent of alcohol on my body, he furrowed his brows unhappily. I felt a little shameful.

“What is wrong with you? How can you only send him here now? He has no detrimental danger at the moment, but he needs to stay in the ICU for observation for a few days. Please go through the hospitalization procedure later.”