Madi’s POV:
“Good morning, I’m Madielyn Davis, I just want to visit your patient named, Richard Miller. May I know in which room he was admitted? Thank you.”
I asked the reception nurse and she gave me the room number of the person I wanted to visit. There’s also a nurse who accompanied me to his room.
I’m now in Florida, I came here yesterday when I was sure that Gabriel had already flown to Paris. I just don’t want him to follow me here, if ever. And the reason why I’m in the hospital today is because of my Mom’s request to visit and meet her former executive officer’s condition. Mr. Richard Miller.
He was admitted here three months ago when he was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer. My Mom is the one paying his hospital bills.
“Ma’am, here is Mr. Miller’s room.”
Thank you.” I smiled at the nurse before pushing the door.
A surprised smile was the first thing I got from the former company officer.
“Princess Madielyn. You surprised me.” said the man lying in bed with an IV tube attached to his right arm and nasal oxygen on his nose.
“Mr. Miller, how are you?” I asked him smiling as I walked over to the chair next to his bed.
“Well, I can say that I’m fine even though I have this type of disease.” ….(‘Cancer’ is a disease in which cells in the body grow out of control)
I smiled and put the basket of fruits on top of his bedside table. “Mom wants you to have this. It will help your immune system for you to stay strong.”
“Thank you, Madi, and please send my regards to your mother. I don’t really know how would I pay our depts to your mother.”
“Mr. Miller, we don’t consider it as a dept, because it’s a help.” I took his hand which rested on his side.
“But I’m no longer an employee in your company since I was admitted here.”
“Yes, but you have worked so hard before and are one of the great employees who have made a huge contribution to the success of our company. And we would just like to return the favor and if there’s no Richard Miller before, the company will never get the success it is having right now.”
“Thank you. Thanks to you and your mother, I’ll never forget this, I owe you my life,” he said taking my hand. And I was about to speak when I heard the door open.
“Stacey!”
My head snapped in the direction of the person he called Stacey.
“Daddy——”
And her words died in mid-air when her eyes landed on me. We were both shocked and stuck in our tracks. I can’t believe my eyes that I’m looking at the face of the same Stacey I met before. But there’s a lot of difference when you’re going to compare the Stacey before and the woman who’s staring back at me right now.
When I first saw her inside the boutique, she was wearing a sophisticated red designer dress, which perfectly fitted all her curves, she’s also wearing some accessories and a designer bag on her arm. But the Stacey who’s standing in front of me was the exact opposite of that sophisticated woman. She’s just now wearing a pale peach blouse, super faded blue jeans, and a black shoulder bag which is far from what she had before.
She walked over to us and I immediately got up to give her my chair, which was the only chair you can sit inside the room.”
“Stacey,” I said giving her a knowing smile.
“Madi.” she smiled too, but she quickly avoided my gaze.
“Do you two know each other?” I glanced back at Mr. Miller, but no one answered his question.
The new information that I heard hasn’t been registering in my head yet. So, Stacey’s last name is Miller, and she’s the daughter of Mr. Richard Miller who happened to be our former company officer.
But what happened to her? Why she’s not wearing those classy items like before? And what about her baby? Where is her baby, and where is Gabriel? Why does he keep chasing me if Stacey is here in Florida?
“Well, let me introduce you again. Princess Madielyn, this is my only daughter Stacey Miller.” I didn’t miss the confusion written in her both eyes when her father mentioned ‘princess Madielyn.’
That was what he often called me since I was a kid. I remember he also mentioned before that he also has a daughter of the same age as mine. But she doesn’t live with him but with her mother. And now, who would have thought that the little girl he was mentioning before is none other than ‘Stacey’ his daughter, Gabriel’s ex-fiancee and the mother of his child?
“And Stacey, this is princess Madielyn, Madam Cherry Petterson’s only daughter, and the sole heir of the Green Ribbon company.”
“Huh!” she gasped as her eyes widened in surprise.
“Why do you look so surprised? I already told you that Madam Cherry has a daughter.” her father asked her.
“Yeah, I-I didn’t know it was Madi,” she said looking at me with eyes full of shock.
“Yes, and we owe everything to them, Stacey. The money I’ve been transferring to your account when I was still working came from their company and sometimes from the bonus I received from her mother.”
I don’t know but suddenly I felt uncomfortable with the things Mr. Miller was saying to his daughter. So I decided to say goodbye and promise him that my Mom would come personally to visit him next time. She just has an important meeting today that needs her personal appearance.
He understood and allowed me to go. But I was just taking a few steps away from the closed door when I heard it open again and Stacey’s calling my name was heard in the long and silent hallway.
“Madi.”
I stopped walking and sighed before turning around to look at her.
“Stacey.” I smiled at her.
“Can we please talk for a while?”
“Stacey, I still have—”
“Please? At least five minutes?” she pleaded and I finally nodded.
We walked down the long corridor until we found a long bench and decided to sit there for a while.
“I just want to thank you for supporting my father’s needs. I don’t really know what to do and where to find the money for his hospital expenses. That’s why it’s a great help that your company is still supporting all of his hospital needs.” she said with her head down.
“He deserved it… the help he’s receiving right now. Because he worked so hard before and gave his best for the company.” I said with a half-hearted smile.
I really wanted to ask her about her baby but I don’t know how to start my sentence.
“I’m sorry, Madi.”
I gulped when she suddenly blurted out those words.
“For what?”
“For everything that happened before. For all the stupid things I’ve done and told you. I don’t really know how to start apologizing for everything that I’ve done to separate you and Gabriel.”
“Stacey—-” I wanted to say that we’re not really a couple before but she cut me off.
“Gabriel loved you so much, Madi. I saw it in his eyes.” she looked at me and I bit my bottom lip. “I’ve never seen the happiness that shines in his eyes every time he looks at you, and every time he stares at you. And that was so far from the stares he gave me when we were still in a relationship. I’ve never seen him so happy and so much in love, not when he’s with you.”
I blinked my eyes and avoided her gaze. “It’s in the past, Stacey.”
“Yes, but I still want to tell you this. I’m really sorry, Madi if I came suddenly and caused your relationship to break. And I even used my child to get him back, but I failed because I know, even if Jared became his real son, he wouldn’t treat me—–”
“What do you mean by became his real son?” I asked as my body faced her completely.
She gave me a half-hearted smile. “My son, he’s not Gabriel’s son, Madi. It’s Ray’s.”
My mouth hung with the questions that suddenly came to my mind.
“But how did it happen? Gabriel always came to you before, right?” I remember the times he didn’t sleep in his room and didn’t come home before.
“No! Gabriel never came to me, Madi. I was the one chasing him.”
“But you said—-”
“What I said was a lie, and I’m sorry for all those lies that I told you. He never came to see me, to my house and he never followed me once, Madi. The truth is… I was the one who spiked his drink in the club. It’s a sex drug, and since he’s already drunk, it was immediately absorbed by his body.”
I gasped and I covered my mouth with her confession.
“I paid two men to take him to the hotel, and there… I started my plan. I realized my mistakes in leaving him at that time when I saw him sleeping after what happened to us that night.”
“I-I think—-”
“Listen Madi!” she faced me. “I’m not telling you this to hurt you or anything. I’m telling you this because it’s part of the truth. That night, it was you he was calling, Madi. Your name was the one he was calling and not me. And then I realized, that no matter what I did that time, I can never replace you in his heart. He loves you more than the love he gave me. And I really don’t know if he really loved me before.”
Funny how she feels the same thing Gabriel told me. But it’s funnier how the tables turned themselves and put us in this situation. But the question hasn’t been answered yet… if Stacey’s son was not Gabriel’s child, then where did he always go every time he disappeared for days before.
“And now, I really do believe in karma.” she chuckled bitterly. “Because she let me experience more than the things I’ve done in the past. My mother died in an accident, hit and run and until now, we still couldn’t give her the justice she deserves. Then my father was diagnosed with cancer, and my son is now in the same hospital with him for having a malignant brain tumor.”
“Ohh…” was the only word that formed in my head after her confession. That’s a lot of things to take. “W-Where is Ray, the father of your baby?”
She looked at me shaking her head and with unshed tears in her both eyes.
“He left me, after knowing that my child was his. He didn’t show up after that.” then the first tear fell on her hand.
“For now, what I’m thinking is my son’s upcoming surgery. He’s too young to suffer all of these things. I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes before, but why did my son have to suffer for it?”
I immediately wiped the tears that rolled down my face. That bastard Ray! He just put his sperms inside her, but he didn’t know how to be a fucking father and his responsibilities! All he knew was to fuck!
I sighed, placing my hand on her shoulder.
“Everything will be okay, Stacey. Just pray and be strong.” I gave her a sincere smile that she returned to me too.
“I’m sorry, I’ve already shared my life story with you.” she lowered her head.
“It’s okay, maybe you just need to release all the stress inside of you.”
“Yeah, thank you. By the way. I have to go back to my Dad’s room.”
“Oh, sure… Uhm.. what’s your son’s name again?”
“Jared Miller.”
“You gave him your last name?”
“Yes, I don’t want him to use Ray’s name so, I decided to give mine. He doesn’t deserve to be listed as Jared’s father on his birth certificate.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I said nodding.
“I have to go, Madi. Thank you and please tell your mother, our thanks.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
She smiled before she turned back to her father’s room.
And I went straight to the pedia station and settled a few things before deciding to go home.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
After feeding her father and fixing the fruits Madi brought earlier, Stacey immediately went to the pedia billing station. She’s planning to give a partial payment for her son’s hospital bill.
“It has already been settled, ma’am,”
“What?”
“I mean, your son’s hospital bills have already been paid.”
Her eyes widened in shock. Paid?
“What? But I haven’t deposited any amount since—”
“Someone has already paid the bill, Ma’am, including your son’s upcoming surgery. And all the professional fees of the doctors who will perform the surgery have already been taken care of by this someone.”
Tears welled from both her eyes after hearing the good news.
“Miss, may I know who this someone who paid my son’s bill? I just want to thank him or her personally.”
“I’m sorry, Ma’am, but the person who paid your bills didn’t want to reveal any information about her. She just wanted to help you and your baby.” the nurse said and I smiled at her in tears.
But just by mentioning the word ‘she’ and ‘her’… she already knew who that person was who paid all of her son’s bills. And now she believes what her father told her, they owe their lives to this mother and daughter who were both sent from above and both have hearts wrapped in pure gold.