“ELLA! Doctor!!” Chun called for help as he felt her hand tightened.
With in seconds the doctor came in rushing through the doors and forced Chun out of the room.
--
“How is she doing?” Andrew asked
“She’s very weak, but she’s a wake now. We‘ll start the transferring when ready.” the doctor announced and Chun barged in.
Ella glanced at the door when she noticed the door flung opened.
“Ella? Hey--how are you doing?” he cooed.
Ella immediately looked away. With pain jabbing her with every movement.
Chun could tell she wasn’t in the mood to talk with him. Or anyone.
And he expected that.
But he just wanted to hear her voice.
“Ella, talk to me.” he whispered and sat back down reaching for her hand.
Ella pulled her hand away quickly and continued to stared at the other side.
“Please?”
“get out.” she said.
It was almost a whisper, he couldn’t hear.
“Ella-”
“Get Out!” she screamed at hard as she can.
Andrew looked at them from the door way and when he heard Ella screaming, he dragged Chun out of the room.
---
“You’re daughter’s awake.” Andrew said to the Chens.
Li immediately got out of her bed and trotted into Ella’s room.
Andrew stayed behind and cried.
He cried for Ella.
He cried for Sheng.
And he cried for himself.
It took him 20 long years to keep a secret, he was afraid of.
And now it seemed like all of those years were catching up with him with some bad fortune.
--
At first, Andrew didn’t believe that Ella was their daughter.
So he checked with the doctors, but the information was confidential, so he asked the doctors to take a hair sample.
The results were positive.
He secretly got a strand of Mong’s hair strand, and within seconds, the doctors gave him the approval.
He cried but then realized that all his life, he wanted to get rid of Ella.
But now that he was no longer in his hands, he wanted her back.
He didn’t know what to feel anymore.
He knew he loved her as his own daughter.
But maybe he was obliged to love her, because he became her father.
He didn’t know anymore.
He cursed himself for putting Ella through crap day and night.
He wanted to stop thinking for once about Ella, and just focused on himself.
But everything kept revolving around her.
The good and the bad.
When he couldn’t think anymore, he feel asleep on the couch, praying to the heavens above that Ella would be all right.
---
“How are you honey?” Li asked her daughter.
Ella just looked at her oddly. “I’m ok. I guess.” she said weakly.
“Do you know where you are?”
“Heaven?” she hoped.
Li took her hands and smoothed them out. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you are the only one that treats me like anything. I must be in heaven. Only good people are in heaven.” she cried.
Li looked at this fragile girl lying on the bed.
She hated herself for letting her daughter suffer through so many years. “You know that’s not true Ella.” Li whispered.
“It is. No one wants me. I’m not loved. I want to go to heaven and be with my mother. There, she’ll love me.”
Li couldn’t take it anymore. She broke out in tears.
“Jia Hua! I’m your mother! I’ll love you! I’ve been searching for you for a long time now, and I finally found you.” Li sobbed.
Ella forced a smile.
“No one can replace my mother in my heart, Mrs. Chen. And I’m sorry because I can not be your daughter. I belong to one family and one family only. The Chengs.”
“No, no no no no no no! Jia Hua, you’re my baby. You belong to me, and Ah Mong. Don’t you remember this?” she asked pulled out the necklace. “We gave this to you when younger. But then you were stolen--”
“You didn’t want me either?” she asked.
“Of course we wanted you, but you were stolen from us, we couldn’t find you. We thought you were dead.”
“You wished that I was dead, was that it?”
“No, baby-”
“You are just like the whole world who doesn’t want me! I don’t deserve this! I don’t! Where’s my dad?! Where is he?!” she screamed.
“Ella--honey, shhh--”
“Get away from me! I want my father!! Dad!!--”
“Doctor!!!” Mong cried over Ella’s bloody voice.
The doctors came in and injected a fluid into her body to calm her down, and eventually fell asleep.
---
“Are we ready to do the transferring?” the doctor asked Li.
She nodded and was wheeled into a room with Ella by her side.
As they rode through the halls of the hospital, Li held tightly onto her daughter’s hand.
“doctor,” she said. “If one of us were to live, please let it be her.”
The doctor promised her and soon Li drifted off to sleep, leaving everyone anticipated as to what was happening behind the big white doors.
