At least you are not with him, I can’t expect any more. James was trying to comfort himself saying these words to him.
He rushed downstairs, not letting Jenny see his emotions, he decided to first take care of her mom. He asked a few friends to come along, since he thought there might be another fight with Harold, but nothing happened, and they were able to pick up Patricia without any trouble. No one was trying to stop them, no one standing in their way, there was even nobody guarding the ward. James felt the situation was weird.
He went to the nurse station and asked to sign the release forms.
“Hello Sir, you must be Mrs. Shane’s family member right? Mr. Quarrington has already told us, if someone comes to pick her up, we should give you a message from him.
“What is it?” James was staring at the nurse, eyes filled with questions. So Harold already knew they would come, no wonder nothing special happened during the whole procedure.
“Mr. Quarrington said, he will hand over the responsibility to Mr. James Yard, our nursing home is the best in the city, he hopes that you would keep Mrs. Shane here for treatment, this way we will be able to take better care of her.”
James was thinking how Harold would handle this situation, but he never thought that it would result in this. If I was going to take her with me today, there will not be another chance for her to get such good treatments, but if I don’t, Harold will continue to watch over her. This was such a hard decision! For Patricia’s sake, he decided to keep her here, but he asked to change the responsible nurses and doctors. After he finished this, he went to take care of what he think Jenny had asked him for.
James didn’t want her to leave, it was so hard to get her back from Harold’s, now he will be the one to organize everything for her to leave this country. It pained his heart. But he also didn’t want to see her sad like she has been all these days. It would do her good to leave for a while, forget about everything that had happened here, start new. At least, she will take care of herself.
……
It was almost nighttime when James finished all his work, he felt so tired that when he got home, all he could do was to collapse on the couch.
Jenny was watching James, worried about if there was any trouble. “James, did anything happen this afternoon? I am worried that Harold might not let my mom go.”
“Don’t worry about that, I have taken care of everything with your mother, she is still in that nursing home, but Harold is not going to bungle with it anymore.” James didn’t tell Jenny everything happened today, on one hand he didn’t want her to worry, on the other hand he was being selfish. He didn’t want her to think about Harold anymore.
Jenny could finally stop worrying, she had been sitting at home waiting anxiously the whole afternoon.
“I went to get your passport done, you will need it when you leave the country. When do you want to go? I will check for flight tickets.”
“Thank you, James, you have done so much for me, I really don’t know how to thank you for it all.” Jenny felt she owed him so much.
“Then, I want you.” James said, laughing.
Jenny didn’t say anything, but she did think about it for a second when she heard him say that.
James saw it all. “I was just kidding. Let’s just… be friends, who help each other.” Actually James wasn’t kidding, he really wanted to be with her, but he also didn’t want to push Jenny. Maybe time will turn things around for him.
“Tomorrow I will take you to check on your mom, I know you must be worried sick about her condition. And you should tell her about your plans as well.”
“Yeah, thank you, I know.”
“I don’t want to hear you say ‘thank you’ again in the future. I will not be happy about it.”
Jenny smiled towards James, instead of a ‘thank you’ , she ran off to her room.
“You… What am I gonna do with you.”
The next day Jenny was ready to leave the house early in the morning, she even put on some light make-up, trying to cover the things that she went through these days.
When James saw how happy she was, it was worth everything for him.
They arrived at the nursing home, Jenny looked for her mother’s doctor to ask him about her situation. The doctor told her that even though the surgery was very successful, but after it the treatment has not been ongoing, which resulted in her mother not showing any signs of change. And plus, she had a cardiac arrest, it will be almost impossible for her to leave the hospital again, so it would only be best to keep on trying treatments and hope for the best.
The doctor’s words made Jenny’s heart sink, and it also made her blame everything on herself, more than she already did.
If she only had the ability to take care of her mom, this would have never happened.
James also knew what she was feeling right now and tried to comfort her, “It’s good that she is alright, at least her condition is stable, don’t worry, I am here.”
Jenny looked at James, a man who has sacrificed so much for her, but he never expected anything back from her. If I could only forget about Harold, I wouldn’t even think twice and be with you. Please forgive that I cannot do that yet, Jenny thought.
Jenny went into her mother’s ward without James following her. The doctor has done another quick check-up on Patricia, and left when he has made sure, that she was okay.
The sky outside was turning dark, as if there will be a big storm coming up. The clock on the wall of the ward showed that it was only 9AM, but it looked as if the sun was just about to rise.
When Jenny entered the room, her mother just woke up, her eyes only slightly open, still a little sleepy. As soon as she saw her daughter, she was so happy, that she started to wave Jenny towards herself, trying to catch a good look at her.
“Mom, how you doing these days? Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?” Jenny asked, looking at her mother.
“See, I’m so good now! You must be busy all the time, trying to catch up with the fees of this place, look how fancy everything here is.”
“It’s all good, Mom, as long as you are recovering, you don’t need to worry about anything else.”
Patricia knew how much her daughter has been through these years, her poor health was only making her more trouble than she already had.
“It’s all my fault, I haven’t given you a good life. Now that you are finally grown and should be living your own life, my health is not letting you to. Look, how skinny you have become, you must have worked so hard.”
“I’m fine, Mom, it doesn’t matter how hard life is, as long as you are here with me, it’s all worth it.” Jenny and her mother were looking at each other, the only support of each other.
“Mom, there is something else I wanna tell you, I want to get some change in my life, I am planning to go abroad to finish my studies in my favorite major of acting.” Jenny was struggling of how to tell her mother.
“Go, when you were in college you only dropped out it to take care of me, now that you have a chance, I don’t want to be the reason for you to bear this regret. Go, I support your decision.”