Niamh got straight to the heart of the matter as well. As a mother, Niamh was most concerned about her precious daughter right now.
“First, tell me where’s Lily.” Fabian turned his head and looked behind him. “Lily’s in the doctor’s office.”
Niamh wanted to run past Fabian to the doctor’s office as soon as she heard the answer.
“However, it’s best if you’re mentally prepared.”
Niamh heard his sudden words as she walked past Fabian.
She abruptly stopped in her tracks; her heart started to feel uneasy again.
Niamh turned, looking at the side of Fabian’s cold face. “What do you mean, Fabian? What do you mean by that?”
After Niamh had said that, Kendrick too arrived hurriedly.
Kendrick briefly met Fabian’s eyes before shifting his gaze away, indifferent. “Nia, what’s wrong?”
Niamh gently shook her head, her eyes glued to Fabian’s face. “Fabian, explain to me, clearly, what you just said. What do you mean by ‘mentally prepared’?”
Kendrick could immediately tell that something was off with these words. “Fabian, why did you say that? Where’s my daughter?”
Fabian, looking at the frantic faces of Niamh and Kendrick, slowly lifted his hand and handed them a medical test report.
“The doctor suspects that Lily has leukemia.”
‘What?’
Fabian’s answer, like a thunder in clear weather, shocked Niamh and Kendrick. The weight of the news felt like a sudden, heavy downpour, drenching them head to toe.
Niamh’s vision went blank, as though all the oxygen in her body had been sucked out.
“Nia!” Kendrick supported Niamh, who seemed to be on the verge of fainting.
Niamh, suddenly roused from her state, shot a glance at Fabian, then turned around and ran toward the doctor’s office nearby.
Kendrick too glanced at Fabian, then quickly chased after Niamh. “Nia, slow down.”
He was worried about her, but at the same time, he was also worried about Lillian.
‘No, there must be a mistake.
‘Lily has been fine all this while. How would she have leukemia?’
Kendrick kept denying this in his heart, as did Niamh.
When they reached the doctor’s office, Niamh pushed the door open. As the doctor was about to speak upon seeing Niamh and Kendrick, they heard Lillian calling out to Niamh lovably, “Mom.”
Niamh swiftly ran to Lillian and squatted in front of her. “Lily, Lily, tell me. Where does it hurt? Let me take a good look at you.”
Niamh asked incoherently. Tears fell down her cheeks as she spoke.
Fabian’s words just now were like a sharp sword cruelly piercing through her heart, which now felt like it was bleeding profusely.
“Nia, let’s calm down so that we don’t frighten Lily. Let’s ask the doctor first.” Kendrick walked over and gently patted Niamh’s shoulder, then handed Niamh a handkerchief to wipe the tears that were overflowing from her eyes.
Niamh recomposed herself, then turned toward the doctor.
“Doctor, we…”
“You’re Lillian’s parents?” the doctor asked instead.
Niamh and Kendrick nodded in tandem. “We’re her parents.”
“You’re just in time.” The doctor said and looked at Lillian in pity. “Your friend had sent your daughter over for a checkup. When I was examining the little one’s condition, I noticed that she was bleeding excessively. There could be something wrong with her blood clotting capability, that is why I suspect that she has leukemia.”
Upon hearing the doctor’s answer, Niamh’s mind went blank again.
“Nia, Nia, stay strong.” Kendrick held Niamh’s shoulder to comfort her.
In truth, his heart was also in great pain right now, as though it was being sliced to bits. However, as a man, as a husband, he could not let himself display his sadness and worry.
Although there was a raging storm in his heart, he had to hold out, holding up the umbrella amidst the tempest. For her, and for their children.
Niamh fought back her tears. She turned to look at Lillian who blinked her huge eyes, then felt waves of excruciating pain.
The child was barely five. Pure and bright, she was still young and ignorant, yet she had to endure this kind of pain.
Niamh suddenly felt exhausted. All she wanted was to have a peaceful life with her family, but such times always seemed out of her reach.
“You don’t have to worry for the time being. This is still merely my conjecture. We’ll have a concrete answer once we’ve completed a more comprehensive examination on the child.”
However, following the doctor’s hopeful words, Fabian’s cold voice drifted from the entrance of the doctor’s office.
“There’s no need to wait for the result.”
Niamh and Kendrick turned toward the voice and saw Fabian slowly walking into the office.
He gazed at the little one, who was standing at a side, blinking her clear, large eyes at him. He could not help but frown slightly.
“We basically could confirm that Lily has this disease,” Fabian answered with certainty. “I’ve already reminded you to be mentally prepared.”
“Fabian, how would you know that my daughter has this disease? Why did you find my daughter immediately after getting off the plane?” Kendrick questioned, feeling doubtful.
“Can’t I come back to see an old friend?” Fabian seemed to be downplaying his answer. He was even teasing the five-year-old Lillian as an old friend.
Niamh resisted waves of pain crashing against her as she turned back toward Lillian.
She had been so distressed earlier that she only just noticed the thick layer of gauze covering Lillian’s knee.
“Lily, what happened here?”
Lillian lowered her head and, for a few seconds, stared intensely at her knee. Although the little girl tried to speak, she still could not make a sound.
Suddenly, Niamh, dazed, felt the pain in her heart intensified.
How could she forget that her precious daughter could not say anything aside from “daddy” and “mommy”?
“I brought her to an amusement park, and she fell when I wasn’t paying attention,” Fabian explained from behind Niamh.
“You brought my daughter to an amusement park?” Kendrick’s confusion deepened further. He lowered his gaze and looked at his wife and daughter, then he looked askance at Fabian. “Come out for a moment. I have something to ask you.”
Fabian frowned. He seemed unwilling to comply, but in the end, he turned to follow Kendrick out of the doctor’s office.
“What do you want to talk to me about, Mr. Waldburg? My time is precious now.”
These words made Kendrick realize that he could no longer recognize this person.
“Fabian, could you tell me why you’ve been cutting off contact with us? When you had left, why did you go out of your way to meet with my daughter?”
After listening to Kendrick’s questions, Fabian momentarily seemed reticent. A while later, he removed a pack of exquisitely packaged cigarettes from his pocket, then he took out a cigarette, seemingly about to smoke.
“This is a hospital,” Kendrick reminded him.
Fabian paused briefly, but then quickly smiled. Nonchalantly, he turned and walked to the emergency staircase at the end of the corridor, then lit the cigarette.
He smoked and puffed away with expert ease.
A white cloud of smoke faintly floated past his face, obscuring his facial expression.
This was the first time Kendrick saw Fabian like this. Now, Kendrick was more certain that the Fabian before him and the Fabian he and Niamh had known were two different people.
“Do I need a reason to cut ties with you? I don’t have a special relationship with you guys anyway. It’s just that we used to get along.”
Fabian answered, his words were devoid of emotion as if he was talking to a stranger.
Kendrick could sense Fabian’s resolve in this, so he did not want to get tangled in this any further.
“Alright. Since you want to cut all ties with us and have even blocked Nia’s number and mine, why are you still contacting my daughter? You went to the kindergarten and took my daughter away the moment you got off the plane. You even brought her to the amusement park. Why are you so eager to curry favor with my daughter?”
“Why…”
Fabian repeated the word as if he was talking to himself. Suddenly, he laughed.
“No reason. I want to see her, so I did.”
Fabian answered matter-of-factly.
“That’s why you want to cut ties with us? It’s because you want to?”
“Uh-huh,” Fabian replied with a half-smile as he lit the cigarette. “If there’s anything else you want to ask, I can answer you now so that you two won’t keep contacting me through all sorts of channels.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.