Chapter twenty-three

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We sat in the hospital, waiting for the doctor to come out of my dad's room

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We sat in the hospital, waiting for the doctor to come out of my dad's room. My mother stayed inside as the doctor checked my father's condition. I sat across from Nate, who surprisingly joined after he said he had nothing to do and wanted to meet my parents. Not as my boyfriend but as my brother's good friend.

Luke sat right next to me, his hand in mine, squeezing away the nerves building up. I glanced at Nate after almost five minutes of staring at the ground and met his eyes.

Had he been staring at me this long? I don't know. And I didn't find it in me to care.

He sat there with his hands crossed over his chest and his legs spread apart slightly. He still wore his glasses and I couldn't help but admire him.

"Do you need anything?" He mouthed to me and I smiled at him before I shook my head slightly. His phone began to ring the moment the door opened and the doctor came out with my very worried mother. Nate glanced in the door's direction and stood up before looking over at me. "I'll be right back." I gave him a nod before Luke got to his feet with my hand still in his. "Yes, Nico?" I followed Nate's back as he walked away towards the very end of the hall before returning my eyes to the doctor, who was still writing something in his folder.

"Well?" My brother asked, already getting impatient. He gripped my hand harder. My mother walked out of the doctor's shadows as she whipped her eyes with a small tissue and reached my side. I gave her a hug but did not expect her to start sobbing into the crook of my neck.

My mother was a few inches shorter than me. I could definitely say I looked like a true daughter of hers. My facial features looked very similar to hers apart from my eyes and my mouth which were my father's. My mom and I also shared a similar hair colour except her hair was naturally on the curlier side, while mine was straight as a piece of paper.

"Hey, mom," my brother released my hand and wrapped the arm around the both of us.

"Are you two his kids?" We nodded in unison as my mom looked up at the doctor. "Will is not getting better and I'm afraid it's getting far worse." My heart froze. "He's still in a coma and I really don't see a good chance for him to wake up." The situation made me shocked, made me want to scream and shout until I felt even slightly relieved. Tears began streaming down my face as reality kicked in.

My father was dead.

"Is there..." I took in a deep breath. "Is there anything we could do?" He looked up at me from his papers and looked me up and down. I frowned at the action. The doctor looked down at his papers before he answered.

"I'm afraid not. I do know a doctor in Switzerland who does surgeries on hearts like your father's and the number of people that have undergone the procedure, have left the place with very promising results. Some even live without any complications." My mother tightened her arms around me.

"Some?"

"Many get to live but they're unable to do most things like walking or enjoying life." I frowned.

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"Like that hasn't been my father for the past years." Sure he could walk but the constant agony and immense pain he had to endure made it a living hell for him to live and my mom to witness.

"Apart from that, I'm sorry but there's not much hope could give you?"

"Either way, we can't afford that, sweetheart." I glanced at my mother.

"How much is it?" Luke asked. I could already hear Nathanial's footsteps echo behind me.

"For the surgery - about forty to fifty thousand dollars. Treatment is another question." I looked at my brother. He might have had the money and he would be willing to pay but...

"How sure are you that it would help him?" The doctor sighed and looked up at me. "I'm sorry am I annoying you?" He pressed his lips into a thin line.

"No, miss. You're not. There's a ten per cent chance he'd recover to a fully healthy person. About fifteen that he'd walk but only about nine per cent that he'd even survive." My jaw dropped. The last bit of hope was basically taken away from us by numbers.

"Good evening, what kind o percentages are we talking about?" Nate asked behind me, making my mother look back at the fine man.

"Good evening, Mr Dalton." My brows pinched together as I looked back at Nate. He looked down at me once before moving his eyes onto the doctor. "Their father needs surgery if he wants to even wake up but I'm afraid the odds aren't in anyone's favour." I looked back at the doctor.

"I see. You're sure it isn't just the problem of money?"

"What problem?"

"The fact that you might be lying since you know there isn't any way in this planet we'd find the money from," I answered for him. His eyes looked at me as if I was the lowest human being on Earth. "And don't give me those looks. My father is basically dead and you, as his doctor, shouldn't have the audacity to look at me that way."

"Forget the money, it isn't a concern right now. What are the actual odds?" Nate asked behind me.

"I haven't lied about it. Seriously, if I had the chance to save him I would. We've tried our best but I'm afraid this time we can't do anything about it." Maybe it was the fact these words actually cemented the fact that my father was dead, my legs gave out. Strong pair of hands grabbed my waist before I could collapse to the floor.

"Hold on," tears began to fall the fucking Niagara Falls out of my eyes as Nate sat me down next to him on the chairs. He wrapped his arms around me as I buried my face in his chest. I sobbed as it sank in.

My father was dead and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye.

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The doctor left us almost ten minutes ago and let Mel and Luke in the room

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The doctor left us almost ten minutes ago and let Mel and Luke in the room. I sat outside with their mother sitting across from me.

"I don't think we've formally met," she broke off the silence, making me look at her. I gave her a faint smile before nodding.

"I'm Nathanial," I extended my hand. She gladly took it and shook it.

"Maria Bartley." I smiled before crossing my arms and leaning back in my seat. "You're Luke's boss, right?"

"Pretty much. A good friend of his too, but it all started as the former." She nodded before wiping a tear off her cheek.

"Does Amelia know you?" I nodded. A strange urge to tell her she was mine and had that title hit me.

"I'm her professor. Math." Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh, I didn't know she had a new professor. I guess the old skunk bag finally left." I smiled. "How is she doing? I haven't heard from her in some time." I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"She's exquisite in mathematics. I wasn't expecting to find such a talented young lady in my class." That excelled in many aspects. "I love working with her and I'm helping her graduate early. I've offered a position at Matrix but it's up to her with what she desires to do after graduation."

"I'm really proud of her."

"You should be. I've never met a woman like her, trust me." She looked very closely at me. "I remember our very first conversation and it felt like a breath of fresh air. Like she actually knew what she was talking about and truly showed her passion for the field." I smiled before looking down. "I'm lucky I have a chance to work with her. Not that she needs any of my help and did just fine without me but I like to see her work and improve. It's what I've grown to love over the past few months." The door opened, making me jerk my head upwards towards the door. I immediately say my girl come out alone. She closed the door and walked over to sit next to me.

"Do you remember when your father took you on his small boat?" I looked at Amelia who smiled as her tears fell like little beans down her cheeks. She nodded a few times before her head came to rest on my bicep. I couldn't even move at the thought of her mother sitting right across from us. But the bigger part of me couldn't care less.

Hell, her brother could come out of that room and find us making out at this moment and I wouldn't care if I gave her even a small sliver of comfort.

"He couldn't wait for her to come home that day from school just to take her on our small boat. We lived in a small suburban house that we barely afforded back then and had access to the lake. It was a great place in the summer but flooded our backyard in the spring after the ice had melted. Will had his father's wooden boat there which he took out to the middle of the lake in summer for fishing.

"I've never seen a person want to participate in such an activity more than Amelia." A smile tugged my lips. "She begged Will to take her and when he did, I watched them closely from the shore. She fell in three times because she thought that it was the only way to locate where the fish was. Her father held his head with his hands after she disappeared into the water but soon it appeared she began to scare him. She came in and out of the water in different spots to scare him. He might as well have gotten a heart attack then but I got a good laugh of it." I smiled as I turned my head towards Amelia. "Have you always lived in New York, Nathanial?" I shook my head no.

"I moved here a few months ago."

"Where are you from?"

"Well, I was born there but lived in Seattle and Rome most of my life." Her eyes slightly widened.

"A bit all over the place." I smiled. "And you're a mathematician?" I nodded.

"Yes. I own the company Matrix and I've opted for the challenge of being a professor. Not a permanent position but I wanted to try something new." Maria listened carefully.

"Well, then I'm glad Amelia got the chance to learn from you."

Learn many things from me. Things I'd like to teach her every goddamn night.

I smiled through the million questions running in my head. We weren't supposed to end up together, that's for sure. Even if Nico supposedly found her, we weren't supposed to last.

But now, she won't get away even if she desperately wanted to.

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