Meeting You Again

Chapter 24

Patients' Choice Hospital

Upon leaving the airport, I swiftly called for a taxi yet again and sprinted for the hospital. I ran to the receptionist and asked her where Lyra's room was. I navigated my way to the room and my heart sang further and further. I was heading towards the child's wing. Milo...

I opened the door and I saw a young lady my age, with cropped, neck-length black hair. Her black eyes seemed listless, and her nose was tinged red from stress. She was haggard, to say the least. Lyra.

Hearing the door open she turned her head toward me, only to look back at the emancipated boy on the patient bed right next to her. That was all I needed to know that the situation was worse than expected.

I knelt in front of Lyra and caught her body which was slowly slumping to the ground. I hugged her tightly, trying to rub her arms and give her back some sensation. She was too cold, and her nails were a shade of blue.

"What happened?" I felt her trembling in my arms, and within seconds, the shoulder she was leaning on became soaking wet with her tears. I closed my eyes and tried to shove back the tears that were brimming, ready to fall.

"Remember that blood test I took Milo for?" Her unsteady voice fell upon the stifling air.

"Yeah, when I called you said the doctors were still analyzing it and that it would take a few more weeks to get the results."

"Before they had a chance to send me the results, Milo fainted. He was complaining that his stomach was hurting even more than normal two nights ago. We went directly to the emergency room, and Ayla?"

"Yes Lyra?"

"Ayla."

"Hmm...I'm here."

"...Milo... has c-c-c-cancer. Pancreatic cancer. And it's re-really b-b-bad."

She drove tighter in my arms, burying herself into my embrace.

It hurt, but not more than the pain Lyra was going through right now, not to even mention Milo's pain. I looked towards Milo and couldn't bring myself to continue looking at him. His face looked sunken, all the childhood liveliness gone.

Ayla, we can't fall weak right now. Lyra and Milo need you to be the voice of reason right now. Just like they are for you.

"What did the doctors say? What are the treatment options like? Both of us aren't short of money, we can pay for the treatment. Why..why aren't you speaking?" I felt incredibly tense, still trying to rub Lyra and give her warmth.

She looked up at me at that moment, her tear-stained face driving a knife right into my heart, bile rising up my throat, forcing a prickling sensation. Her hands were trembling at a visibly faster rate. My gut feeling grew 50 million times worse. Please, don't say-

"...There are no treatment options."

I collapsed next to Lyra, both of us hunched on the ground next to Milo's bed. Neither of us could stand up, talk, or do anything. She was too tired from the entire situation while I was shocked silly.

I forced myself to look at Milo, then back at Lyra. Tears rolled down my face, burning my skin with its hot temperature.

Milo wasn't Lyra's son, he was her nephew. But Lyra, after fighting her family for so long, won the grueling court case to take Milo with her to Nation T as her adopted son, instead of leaving him in an orphanage. Milo's biological mom, Lyra's younger sister, died during childbirth, so Milo was all that was left of Lyra's sister.

Although Lyra and her siblings didn't have the best of relations with their parents, they were all incredibly close with each other, so when Milo's mom passed away, Lyra almost couldn't take it. She took it upon herself to take care of Milo in her sister's place. But now Milo...was going to die. My poor Lyra, my dear Milo.