Lana arrived at the hospital and immediately ran to her mother's room. Lana looked at the doctor and asked, "Doctor Gong, what happened to mom?"
"She's stable now Lana and soon she will wake-up. Don't panic, dear?" Doctor Gong said, and Lana heaved a sigh of relief.
"Lana, you come with me, I want to talk to you about your mother's condition?" Doctor Gong said to Lana with a very solemn expression.
Lana looked at Liam and said, "I will be right back."
Liam nodded and replied, "I'll stay with her."
When Lana left, Mrs. Huang regained her consciousness, Liam saw that and immediately went near her.
"Liam, you're here." Mrs. Huang whispered.
"Yes, mom. Lana just left with the doctor to his office to explain your condition." Liam informed and helped Mrs. Huang sat properly when she tried to do so. He was calling her mom because Mrs. Huang always scolded him whenever he wouldn't call her mom.
"Oh, that's bad, Lana will surely get angry when she returns." Mrs. Huang murmured, then told Liam about her medical condition.
"I'm scared Liam, what if something unexpected happened? I haven't seen Lana settle down yet. I will only compromise if I know Lana is already in good hands." Mrs. Huang indirectly stated, and Liam could understand her fully well.
"Don't worry mom, I will take care of Lana and I will keep her by my side always no matter what happened." Liam firmly declared that made Mrs. Huang at ease.
Mrs. Huang smiled and held Liam's hand.
"You see, Lana… my lovely daughter has a stoic personality, she doesn't show her real emotions in front of anyone. She is good at masking her emotions, but I hope you can hold extra patience in understanding her…" Mrs. Huang requested.
"Don't worry mom. I will…" Liam assured her with a sweet smile on his face.
His sweet gestures and the fact that she had seen them together a few times made Mrs. Huang very calm, and she decided to ask Liam something she wanted to know very dearly.
"Do you love Lana?" she suddenly asked in her weak yet very soft and intrigued voice that shocked Liam for a brief moment.
Liam blushed and with a smile on his face, he immediately answered, "Yes, I do."
Mrs. Huang heaved a sigh of relief and nodded while looking into Liam's eyes.
"Then I hope you both can get married as soon as possible, but I know it is going to be tough to convince my stubborn daughter in doing so."
Liam chuckled and said, "Don't worry, mom. I can handle your daughter well. I will take care of it, but I will need a little extra help from you in this regard..."
"Tell it to me, son…" Mrs. Huang, with bright eyes, asked.
*****
Meanwhile, Lana nervously followed Dr. Gong to his clinic. There he explained her mother's condition to her and also called Dr. Jean Wang, a gynecologist who also specialized in oncology.
Dr. Wang showed her the MRI scan of her mother on the screen.
"The dark spot that you see here, this is the tumor…" Dr. Wang showed Lana something on the screen.
"Lana, your mother has early-stage ovarian cancer. The sooner we give her the treatment the better, and the more we delay, the higher are the chances of it spreading further and it would be difficult for us to control.
We need to perform a hysterectomy on your mother and remove the tumor entirely. It's in an early stage and more likely to be treated successfully just by surgery, but we will also continue with some chemotherapy to be on the safer side. But the problem is your mother outrightly refused to undergo the operation." Dr. Wang explained.
Lana was in a total shocked state and all she could hear was her mother had ovarian cancer that needed immediate surgery. But she was unable to connect the dots of her mother fainting in the office and with the cancer.
She then asked doctor Gong, "Dr. Gong, though you are our family physician. But how did you detect her cancer in just a few hours?" Something was not right there.
Dr. Gong hesitated a little and told her they had detected her cancer a few days back and were already trying to convince her for a surgery, which she continuously kept denying. She had fainted in the office because of fatigue and high tension.
Lana broke down when she heard that. Her mother hid her illness from her to keep her away from any tension. Seeing her crying profusely, Dr. Jean patted her shoulder and comforted her and then explained to Lana that her mother's stage had a very high success rate, if treated immediately.
The doctor then asked for her help to convince her mother because early treatment of the cancer was very important for it not to spread on other organs.
Lana knew her mother was very reluctant to get any kind of surgery done. She was not only afraid of being operated upon, though she was detected with cancer, she could be stubborn in her stance.
Her mother was always vocal on it, even to her. Her mother would even scold her whenever she would be caught watching gruesome movies.
The sight of blood made her mother sick and how much more, imagining herself being ripped open. Lana could imagine the horror on her mother's face by just hearing the words like 'operating room'. Still, her mother would have to overcome all her fears and she would convince her to get the surgery done as soon as possible.
"Please Dr. Wang, get her scheduled for surgery as soon as possible. I am sure I will convince her for this," Lana reassured before excusing herself to leave and go back to her mother's room.
She came out from the doctor's clinic and walked a few steps in the hallway, but soon paused in her tracks. She felt her knees go weak while her body started trembling with some unknown fear.
She held onto the wall of the corridor to prevent herself from falling down. She sat down on a nearby chair and burst out crying. The thought of losing her mother without her knowing dawned to her.
She was only grateful for the fact that they could still treat her mother's conditions completely. She must convince her mother for that surgery by all means. Her mother was her only family in this world. She could still recall how she met her mother in the orphanage.
Mrs. Huang had always been a generous lady who actively supported several orphanages in the country. Her mother said she was barren, so helping a lot of children made her feel somewhat like a mother.
When she was transferred into the orphanage, she never joined other kids and would often stay alone in a corner whenever they were playing and doing some activities. She was six then, turning seven back then.
Mrs. Huang came that time and approached her. Lana still remembered her mother's eyes were filled with tears, she literally saw her crying, while she gently touched the marked bruises on her body. Then she felt her tight, warm hug. Lana for the first time felt the love of a mother in that loving embrace…
She could still recall how in her young age the terror of past experiences buried deep in her heart faded gradually because of that loving embrace. She never cried whenever she hid in the dark nor could feel the physical pain in her body, but that day… she cried in her mother's embrace, letting herself all out.
She unconsciously touched the skin on her arms. Her body no longer had the marks of her past. Her mother made sure to erase everything that could bring dreadful memories and nightmares in her life.
She would never call her adoptive mother because to Lana, Mrs. Huang was her only mother, the mother who gave her love and warmth and made her grow up into a beautiful woman, the mother who treated her as her own child and could do anything for the sake of her happiness… now was Lana's turn to repay her mother's debt of love and care.
Comments