章節 30: Wait What
Chang sat in her chair unmoving. The words repeated themselves over and over in her brain, yet she could not seem to make sense of them.
"My mom... what?" Chang stared dumbly at him. "What did you say?"
"I know you have a lot to process, but you can do that on the flight over." Jian calmly told her as he offered her his hand, pulling her out of the seat she sat numbly in. Pulling a large bill out of his pocket, more than enough to cover the bill multiple times over, Jian left it on the table. Without waiting for his change, Jian started to hustle to his car, with Chang in tow, led by her hand. Along the way, he was stopped short by the weight attached to his hand.
"Jian this can't be right. There's no way my mom...No there must be some kind of mistake." Standing in the middle of the walkway Chang tried to deny what he said, a stricken look haunting her face.
Looking at her, Liang JianAmal kept his face as calm, trying to mask the sadness he felt. Putting a protective arm around her shoulders, Liang JianAmal ushered her to his car. After securing her in the passenger seat, he called his assistant to have him help make the necessary flight arrangements so that they could reach San Francisco as soon as possible.
From the corner of his eye, as he spoke in a terse tone with Luo Jun, Liang JianAmal watched Chang as she looked out the window lost in thought. After ending his call, Liang JianAmal reached over and took one of Chang's hands that lay neatly folded on her lap. Giving it a comforting squeeze, he held it over his knee, rubbing his thumb across the back of her knuckles.
"Everything is fine, do not overly worry yourself over this. It is not good for your health to worry too much." Chang gave him a weak smile in exchange for his comfort, still feeling like an anxious mess inside. The guilt from all the time that had passed without seeing her mother had piled on her now, gnawing away at her slowly.
'How can I not worry though? From the way he was speaking it sounded really bad... What if this is the last time I will see her?' Shaking her head Chang tried to empty her head of those kinds of thoughts. 'No, I can't think like that, my mom is fine. Everything will be ok.'
"I should let Justin and my boss know what's going on."
"Already taken care of. You do not have to worry about anything" He succinctly replied, ending the subject quickly. Chang tried to think of another topic to talk about but could not, so she reached forward to turn on the radio. Every song though made her mood worse and worse until she finally turned it off. Letting out a long sigh, Chang turned her head to the window, trying to lose her thoughts in the dizzying blur on the way to the airport.
Fairly soon they arrived, before she realized. Since they did not have luggage, they only needed boarding passes and identification. Chang remembered then about her lost wallet and phone, having other thoughts pressing it from her mind. Whipping her head to look at him, Chang grabbed his arm worriedly.
"Jian, I lost my ID the other day, I can't board the plane."
"Do you mean this?" Reaching inside his jacket, Jian pulled out an old, faded tan leather wallet. Out from which he pulled her ID.
Astonished Chang reached out and grabbed the wallet. "Oh, my baby! Thank you, I was so heartbroken over having lost this. Wait how did you come to have it?"
Gleeful at first, Chang clutched her wallet to her cheek before catching a whiff of it. Quickly she pulled it away and admired it at arms length with a tear in her eye. After rejoicing at he return of her prodigal accessory, Chang looked at the man beside her suspiciously.
"In an alleyway dumpster, strangest of places, it is not as if you were actually in there either right?" As he spoke in a playful tone, Jian gave her a crooked glance.
"What, me, in a dumpster? Hahaha, no way, I would never do that." 'I will never admit to that!' "I must have dropped it somewhere and it got thrown out accidentally!" Laughing a tad too loudly, Chang waved her hands in front of her vigorously,
Liang JianAmal gave her a grunt in reply, a slight smile tugged at his lips at her vehement denial.
Within a half-hour, they were boarded and the plane started to take off. Looking out the window, Chang watched as Los Angeles became further away and eventually disappeared from sight. It had become special to her over the last year, a safe harbor.
'Goodbye, I wonder if I will ever return again.'
Chang thought of the last time she had seen her mother over a year ago. She had come home to visit, right before she had left for Shanghai. Her mother, LiHua, had been as healthy and energetic as usual. Equally doting and scolding her daughter who was always traveling and rarely came home to visit.
Her mother was a strong figure in her eyes, able to keep carrying on, no matter what. There was no way anything could happen to her...
章節 31: Belated Reunion
After several dragging hours the plane touched down on the tarmac in San Francisco. As they had gotten closer and closer, Chang's feelings threatened to overwhelm her. As if sensing that, Jian had kept constant contact with her throughout the flight, trying to help assure her.
Walking outside to a light drizzle, a private car was waiting for them to shuttle them right to the hospital where Chang's mother was admitted. Although it was only the afternoon, the gray fog that encased everything made it seem far later than it was. Looking up at the hospital building, Chang felt it looked somber and imposing with its dark swirling cloak. Tightening her grip around Jian's hand, she let him lead her inside to the receptionist nurse's desk.
Behind the desk sat a kindly-looking plump middle-aged woman. The woman wore the look of someone who had been awake for far too long and had already become deadened to the world around her. When she saw Chang's ashen face and huge wet eyes, her glassy eyes softened a little.
"Hello, how can I help you? Are you in need of medical attention?" Looking at the two of them the woman spoke in a kindly tone.
"No. We are here to visit Mrs. Dumont, a one Li Hua." Holding Chang's hand tightly, Liang JianAmal answered for her.
The nurse quickly shuffled through her files on the computer before finding the correct one.
"Are you her immediate family? With the patient's condition, we are only permitting immediate family members to visit at the moment."
"What's wrong with my mom?" Chang's voice broke while asking, the more time went on, the more serious this seemed.
At her question, the nurse looked at her incredulously. "The patient's ongoing condition just flared up. For patient confidentiality, even though you are family, I cannot reveal more. You will have to talk to her yourself only then can we release that information. You will find her in room c-42. It will be on the fourth floor, second door on your right past the elevator." While speaking, the nurse gave Chang a pitying look as Jian and her headed to the elevator.
After receiving her mother's whereabouts, Chang wanted to immediately rush to her mother's room, but she had to be slow and cautious in the busy hospital. Every step she took seemed like a mile, but the corridor to the elevator seemed to stretch on to eternity.
Eventually, they came to c-42, a private room with the door shut. Looking at the shut door, Chang reached out a nervous, shaking hand to the doorknob, her pulse pounding in her ears. She tried to swallow the dryness in her mouth but it stayed chalky.
'What is on the other side of the door? What kind of condition will my mom be in? Do I have the courage to see this? What if this is just like dad all over again?' Her guts twisting into knots, Chang tried not to think about her mom being cold and lifeless. It had not even been that long she he had been gone, how could her mom leave so suddenly as well?
"I am here." Beside her Jian spoke, breaking her from her thoughts. Even though the words were very simple, they touched and reassured her.
'I need to be here for my mom, like she always has been for me.' Giving him a smile, Chang steeled herself and grabbed the knob firmly, letting them into what awaited. 'I will face whatever awaits with Jian.'
Alone in a private room Li Hua lay in her bed sleeping with a peaceful smile on her face. The years had been kind to her and had only made her graceful beauty more pronounced. One hand was curled on her lap, while the other lay beside her side with a slow IV drip constantly feeding into the needle in her inner arm. Her glossy jet black hair was neatly braided and lay over her shoulder in her usual style. Except for being a little pale, she appeared exactly as she had last to Chang.
Tears of relief instantly sprang to Chang's eyes to see her mother whole. When she had first heard her mother was in the hospital, Chang had started feared the worst. Touching her mother's warm hand, Chang smiled through her tears. 'Mom's alright, everything is ok, Jian was right.'
Standing beside her, Liang JianAmal felt his heart twist seeing her smile of relief. He pulled them both a couple of chairs from the corner of the room to Li Hua's bedside, to wait for her to wake up.
"This might be a while before she awakens, you have not eaten today, what would you like?"
"Mm nothing, I don't feel hungry right now." Liang Jian Amal pursed his lips in disapproval at her answer and whipped out his phone.
Chang's attention was on her mother waiting for her to wake up, she was so nervous but so excited. From the rollercoaster of emotions she had just been through, Chang felt exhausted and layed her head down, nestling it in her arms on her mother's bedside.
Liang Jian Amal smiled tenderly seeing her so obviously relieved, she always so openly showed everything she felt. She radiated with a beautiful glow in her joy. Slipping off his jacket, he put it around Chang's shoulders so she would not get chilled as she rested.
Gripping it with her other hand, Chang gave him a small gratified smile before turning her eyes back to her mother. It had been past time for her to reunite with her mother. Liang JianAmal was glad he could do this for both of them.
Especially now.
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