Nola had been relieved to see that Ryan hadn’t just thrown himself out.
She was able to stay with the Garcia Family and get on their good side.
So she wore an elegant smile on her face, “Yes, I’ll wait a few days then, I’ll …”
Without waiting for her request to stay, Ryan took a phone call and walked out, not treating her like family.
Nola bit down hard on the corner of her lip and snorted reluctantly.
Sooner or later, she would show everyone in this family what she was made of!
…
Later that afternoon, Miller received a call from Sherry.
“You said you found a nurse who was the same time as Nona?” Miller was beyond excited, he was on his way to the Institute when he got the call and was anxious to get Sherry to bring the person back immediately.
On the other side of the phone, Sherry was a little hesitant.
“Professor Miller, Aunt Shirly is not well and I’m afraid she can’t walk that far, so if you think it’s okay, I’ll get her to a safe place and you can come and see her, is that okay?”
“Yes, I’ll send someone to arrange that right away.”
Putting the phone down, Sherry looked over at the middle-aged woman sitting on the bed, her face full of wrinkled vicissitudes, looking seven or eight years older than her actual age.
Her husband had been injured and broke his back a few years before and was bedridden for years. She was also diagnosed with a heart condition and could not overwork, so the family had an incredibly hard time.
So Shirly was a little nervous when Sherry asked someone to turn up and find her, “O girl of the old Garcia Family, is this person you’re talking about really going to give me a lot of money to help my son go to college?”
“Will.”
Sherry gave the answer in the affirmative.
If she hadn’t said so, Shirly would have kept her mouth shut about what happened back then.
Hearing Sherry’s attitude so sure and a child that the village had watched grow up, she finally had a little despondent smile on her face, “That’s good …”
Only when Miller arrived a day later, Shirly changed her tune.
Miller talks to her alone inside.
Sherry didn’t go in, and within ten minutes Shirly was shouting like a shrew, scolding Miller and his assistant out, “That kind of heartless shit, I don’t do it! Not for any amount of money.”
Sherry was all frozen.
Miller doesn’t seem like someone who would make any unreasonable demands.
And he’s not offering anything less than what Shirly wants, so how could he not negotiate?
“Professor, are you all right?” The assistant was splashed with water and was still concerned about Miller’s condition.
Miller waved his hand, “Go ahead.”
He didn’t say another word the whole way, and when he got near the sanatorium, he offered to see Kate.
“Professor Miller, do you still want me to keep checking?” Sherry didn’t know what to ask and hesitantly opened her mouth.
Miller walked forward, his hands tightening a few notches, and looked back at Sherry.
As if considering something.
“I’ll see how your mother is doing first, and we’ll talk about the rest later.”
Sherry just had to nod her head and say yes.
At that moment, Shirly packed a suitcase of clothes at home and called her son, who was in his third year of high school, home, “Buy a ticket right away, don’t tell anyone, and let’s get out of here right away.”
“Mom, what are you talking about? How is my dad going to leave like this?”
“Get your father on your back, stop asking questions, and if you still want to go to college, come with me now!”
Shirly was sweating, clutching tightly to her little black bag, which contained a card Miller had given her, a hundred thousand dollars, enough to cover their family’s immediate needs.
But a cold sweat broke out in Shirly as she thought about what Miller had said.
Must go.
Back then, the fate of those three children who were dropped must never be known to anyone again, especially those who came to the door some time ago.
Miller’s cold warning voice just surrounded her mind, “If you want to live, get out of here now, go incognito and never come back.”
Miller had sent someone here over a month earlier to investigate, just to do his bit for Beinean’s condition, but to his surprise his people had found something by accident.
On the night of Beinean’s birth, things didn’t seem as simple as they thought they would be.
The lights are dim.
He sat at the bedside, checked Kate’s pulse and asked some simple questions about her recent history.
“Professor Miller, thank you for still coming to see me.” Kate was grateful.
Miller nodded and said to Sherry, “Can you get your mother’s most recent monitoring records, I’d like to see how her recovery is going after surgery.”
“Okay, I’ll get it right away.”
Miller’s assistant also received a gesture from Miller’s eyes and immediately walked out.
The door closes again.
Without further ado, Miller pulled out a photo and placed it directly in front of Kate, “This woman, does she ring a bell?”
What he took, was a picture of Beinean over twenty years ago, when she was pregnant.
Such a pretty face, round though it is, wears a light smile, the kind of smile that is so infectious and soothing and gentle to look at, but it’s been a long time since Garcia Family people have seen her smile.
Just for a moment.
Kate’s panic was written all over her face when she saw what the woman in the photo looked like, and when she looked at Miller again, Kate’s hands couldn’t stop shaking.
Without further questioning, Miller was sure she knew the inside story!
“Say it.”
Kate bowed her head, her eyes wet with tears, choked and silent.
“What do you … you want to know?”
“There were three children born that night, is it possible that someone, by accident, carried the wrong one?”
Miller says this with extreme care in his wording.
For Sherry was one of those children, and it seemed to him now, on closer inspection, that Sherry bore a slight resemblance to Beinean in her youth!
Will it …
Kate’s hand shrank back, squeezing out a smile as her pale voice rang out, “Professor Miller, I was in danger of labor, hemorrhaging, delirious, I don’t know how I got Sherry into labor myself, I can’t be sure.”
Her Sherry has suffered so much following her family.
Kate can’t just spill the beans on Sherry’s life under these circumstances.
Even if Miller was her primary surgeon, he could have been up to no good.
Kate finished, smoothed out her thoughts and looked at Miller again with a less agitated attitude, “Suddenly remembered something from twenty years ago, more or less all a bit emotional, Professor Miller don’t mind.”
Miller was a doctor and knew something about the risk factor of giving birth to a pregnant woman, and as Beinean had been ill for over twenty years, he could relate to Kate’s feelings.
But listen to the back and forth in her tone.
He still clung to his judgement that there was, in this case, something else going on.
Perhaps today is not the best opportunity to ask for clarification.
Sherry took back Kate’s custody records and after a brief look at them, Miller added and subtracted several medications, and on his way out the door, he made a serious promise, “Mrs. Kate, I’ll be back to see how you’re doing in a little while.”
Kate glanced over her shoulder and just had to say, “Good.”