Salient Secret

Chapter 24

Kai's pov

I can't believe this is actually happening, I'm about to meet my mother... the last time I saw her, well spoke to her, I was 11, 8 years later she wants to meet. I'm still mad at her but I feel like I have to hear her out, I need to know exactly why she left. Sammy just went to bed, I told Jackie to just keep an eye on him if he wakes up which is very unlikely. 

I'm driving to the little restaurant nearby that we agreed to meet at, I'm almost there and I have no idea what to say. She should be nervous though, not me, I am not the one who chose to abandon their family. 

I pull into the parking lot for the restaurant, I walk in and see her sitting at a booth in the back corner of the restaurant, I tell the waiter I'm with her, I walk to the table and sit down across from her. 

"Hello Melanie," I say in a harsh tone.

"Really? I'm your mother Kai."

"You lost that title when you decided to abandon us."

"Guess we're starting right away then."

"No, you don't determine how this conversation goes, I do. You first tell me how you got my number."

"Well, I've seen you sneaking in and out of the hospital, and yesterday when I saw you leave, I noticed your beanie, it's your fathers. I searched you guys on the internet and no one came up, so I went to Fly or Fall and I saw your brother fighting and you in the background, I knew it was you. I called in a favour to get your number. I just had to see you," she explains reaching for my hand across the table but I pull it away.

"You know about Fly or Fall?" It was the biggest South American illegal fighting league, my father and brother both were the champions from their weight classes. 

"Yes, I've been keeping an eye on you boys for a while now, I was even at one of your father's fights in South America, I was going to come back to you guys, but then I saw your father fighting and I got scared. Then I saw you, you helped the man your father injured, he had 3 fractured ribs, a broken arm and a serious leg bruise,and you helped him." Yeah well for a large stack of cash.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better? Sammy was 2 years old! You wouldn't even be able to pick him out of a line up today!" She keeps her head down and says nothing. "Just tell me Melanie, just tell me why you decided to abandon your family." She doesn't say anything, so I stand up to leave because she is just wasting my time, but she grabs my arm.

"Okay," she says so I sit back down and wait for her explanation."I left because I was pregnant... with my best friends' husbands child." My brain just threw up. "I didn't want your father to find out, or my best friend or him," she says looking very ashamed, as she should be. 

"How?" I ask.

"Your father always used to work late, and I used to go to Julia's house after work for a couple of drinks, and one day, she wasn't home, and her husband was, we got to talking and after a few drinks we ended up having an affair."

"Then you got pregnant and left?" I say with my face in my hands because I actually can't believe this is my mother. 

"No."

"No?"

"The affair went on for 10 months, I told him I didn't want to do this anymore and he agreed. Then a few weeks later, not long after your birthday, I found out I was pregnant with his child. I went to his house to tell him but then I saw him through the window beating his son. I was scared. I had no one to turn to except for Julia, so I told her everything and she got so mad at me. Then two days later she called and said she can't file for a divorce, he will kill her so she stayed and pretended she knew nothing, but she told me to run, leave everything behind and have the child, no one can know."

"I've never seen you with a child."

"Yes that's the point. I believe you've been stalking me for a while now."

"Only since we came here a few weeks ago.When I found out you were here, I just wanted to see what your life was like without us."

"It's great," she says smiling, "I have a little girl, her name is Palmer, Kai I know I've screwed up everything in my life but that little girl is the one thing I did right. She is funny and smart and-"

"So you decided to ABANDON 3 of your children to have a child who you had with your best friends husband. You are the most selfish person I have ever met." I feel nothing but anger right now. "Sammy was two years old Melanie! TWO! Do you know who raised him??? ME! Do you know why I had to raise him??? Because after YOU decided your unborn child is more important than your other children and so you left us, Dad was crushed, YOU crushed him, YOU broke our family apart!"

"I know but Kai-"

"No Melanie, I don't ever want to see you ever again!" I say standing up then I add, "Oh and find Avery Shaw a new doctor, I don't want you around her."

Melanie stands up and says, "I am the only doctor available who can do what Avery needs done."

"I'm sure many doctors can treat her Melanie."

"Kai, she has SCLC. I'm the only doctor available to do her immunotherapy."

I just look at her in the eyes for a few seconds, turn around and storm out ignoring everyone staring at us. I get into my car and drive to the hospital. It's  10 pm, I don't know what I'm going to say but I sneak into Avery's room, I close the door gently behind me, and walk towards her bed, she's asleep. I look at her beautiful face and I find it very hard to imagine a world without her.

"Avery, I know," I whisper as she's sleeping," I've known since the first day we met, and I understand why you didn't tell me, I'm not mad at you, I could never be mad at you. I'll wait for the day when you're ready to tell me yourself...While I'm being honest you should know I'm the one who made sure you got this nice room, I shouted at them about the crap breakfast but they said there's nothing they can do about that, so I told them to leave you alone if they see you sneaking out of here in the mornings to get something from the snack bar. They have no idea I sneak in here though. Oh and your doctor is my mother, but I didn't choose med school because of her , I chose it because I hated seeing my dad and brother get hurt and then having to pay thousands of dollars to get some medical attention, so I decided to do it, in case you were wondering..."

"I'll see you tomorrow Ave, I can't tell you any of this until you tell me about your cancer, otherwise you'll know I know because my mother is your doctor. So hurry up and tell me already, it won't change anything, I promise."  I kiss her gently on her forehead and make my way out quietly. 

When I get back to the hotel, I go straight to Sammy's room and just watch him sleep, I can't believe it, he has a 7 year old sister somewhere.