To a new beginning!

Part 13

    "You really don't have to stay. I don't want to keep you away from any important thing you have to do." Martha said when Susan made herself comfortable in the chair next to the hospital bed.

   "I told you, i am not leaving. Except you want me to."

   "I want you here."

"Then i am staying" She picked up her bag and brought out her laptop. "Besides I came prepared. Give me ten minutes." She told her mother and got to work.

  Martha watched her daughter.

  Her long lean well manicured fingers moving effectively against the key pads. Her brows furrowed in concentration.  The look of frustration that came and went on her face a couple times.

    Leaving her was the worst mistake of her life. She'd thought she had been doing the right thing. She'd been in a dark place, consumed by her addiction.

  And she'd been scared.

Scared to taint her daughter's life. Scared to have her daughter constantly having to clean up after her.

  But she knew now that she hadn't done the right thing. She'd abandoned her child when she'd needed her the most and deprived her of a mother.

   How was she ever going to make it right?

She carefully masked her face when her daughter closed her laptop.

"Sorry, just something i had to take care of. You okay?" Searching her mother's pale face.

  "Yeah, all things considered. That was work from your tech company over there?"

There was a little surprise on Susan's face. "How do you know about- oh, Dad told you."

  Martha nodded. "He was very proud of you" So am i, Martha thought.

  Susan smiled. "He pushed me to start up Forte's tech. Actually he got me the building on my Twenty-fifth birthday."

  There was absolutely no point in telling her daughter She'd bought her the building, not Patrick.

When Patrick had told her of the plan, she'd begged him to let her do that one thing for her daughter, and he'd agreed on the condition that Susan would think the gift came from him.

  "It's not the right time Martha, this would disrupt her world. But i promise, the right time will come." He'd said to her.

    He'd known his heart was failing, and the right time he'd been talking about was after his death.

    Goddamn coward.

"He was a good father. I knew he was going to be, he loved you." She said to her daughter. No matter the case, Martha couldn't deny that. He had doted on Susan since she'd been born.

   "What's your company about?"

Susan leaned back against the chair and relaxed her shoulders.

"We design, develop and test applications for phones and computers."

"You love what you do?"

Susan shrugged. "It's what i am good at. And yeah, i do love it."

"It's must be hard, being away from your work"

"I see it as a much needed break, its either that or go crazy worrying about it. Besides i have competent partners and staff. Forte's tech is in good hands."

"I used to own a company" Martha said.

"Really?" Susan leaned forward, interest sparkling in her eyes.