For the Love of Kimchee (Book 1)

29

Chloe

Chloe could feel the hole that Daniel was burning into her face. It was annoying and unnecessary. Her happy stress free day had turned to crap before her eyes, having to deal with a bunch of stressful and hurtful things.

She knew in her heart, that Daniel deserved happiness. He deserved a mother who didn't put grown people problems on a young boy, and a father who actually loved him unconditionally.

Shoot, she also deserved happiness.

Here she was about to preach to him about how he deserves the best things in life, when she wasn't even giving herself the best things in life. How could she fill someone else's cup when her own was only half full?

This day was not going as planned at all. Her co workers trying to damage her relationship with Daniel and now Daniel telling her his huge messy and painful backstory. She didn't know if she was even mentally capable enough to take on all his baggage. Her own baggage was already crippling enough. This relationship was getting more and more complicated as the weeks wore on.

"So my Dad has sickle cell anemia." She spoke softly trying to control the emotions running through her body. She never talked about her dad with others. " It's pretty much a disease where the body mass produces misshapen red blood cells. The red blood cells are supposed to carry oxygen throughout the body, but with sickle cell they instead get stuck in veins and arteries because of their shape causing immense pain to the pers-" She paused and looked at him. "Wait, Aren't you a doctor?"

"Yeah" he chuckled at her slowness. "I know that talking helps when it comes to these things, so I wasn't going to interrupt you." He gave a gentle smile.

"Well, thanks." She pushed his knee with hers. "Anywho, my Dad always had sickle anemia, and suffered from it as a child, but then it sort of went away for a time. It became manageable with his medication. During this time my mother came into the picture and then they had me."

"Things were good for a short period of time. But sometime around when I turned 7, the medication was unable to control my dad's sickle cell. The pain became unmanageable and he started going in and out of the hospital." Chloe felt a wetness coat her cheeks as she talked about it. "I don't remember much from that time, but I just remember him complaining about the pain, about how it hurt so much."

It was Daniel's turn to grab her hand and give a small squeeze.

"Eventually, it all became too much for my mother. She couldn't take seeing him in so much pain all the time. She couldn't take the random flare ups and the random rushes to the emergency room, and one day she just left." Emotions started to bubble up in her, emotions that she had long thought she had dealt with.

"She left during the night when I was 10. That day, I remember clearly. The fear of not knowing where she was and the anxiety that I held. After a month, she contacted us. Told us that she wasn't built for this lifestyle. She couldn't take it, she had to go for her own sanity."

Chloe slashed at the tears on her face, her mother didn't deserve her tears. Daniel watched her breakdown in silence while holding her hand.

"Anywho,, they got a divorce after that, and then she just started sending money in from her new job. Her checks helped us a lot, but her presence would've been better." Chloe couldn't help but think of all those times she needed her mother growing up. When she got her period, or when she was learning how to put on makeup. "She never visited and barely called. After two years she remarried and has been traveling and living with her husband since."

"Wait, but who took care of your Dad then? You said you were only 10 at the time right?" Daniel looked thoroughly confused with his wrinkled nose and narrowed eyes.