Hush, My Sweet Darling

Chapter 9: A Tremendous Treasure

Violet woke up from the bright ray of sunshine that abruptly fell on her face. She lifted her head drowsily and squinted her eyes to see her mother standing by the windows. She had just opened the curtains in her bedroom.

"Rise and shine, sweetheart, it's almost ten o'clock," Marion Struan chirped, happy to see her daughter back at home.

Marion was born to a British father and a Chinese mother. She had attractive, prominent facial features, and with just one look, you could see that she was the kind of woman who took great care of herself. She was almost in her mid-fifties but was always mistaken to be in her mid-forties.

She walked toward the bed, where her half-asleep daughter was still lying, and sat down next to her, leaning her back on the upholstered panel headboard. "Good morning, sunshine. Wake up now, wash up, and come downstairs for breakfast." She kissed her daughter's head and cuddled her lovingly.

"Morning, Mom," Violet said back in a groggy voice as she reached up to kiss her mom's cheek. She rose to sit beside her, flashing her sweet yet drowsy smile. She then looked around the room and asked, "Where's Kiko?"

Marion chuckled. "She left very early this morning. She said she had to go to the hospital for her clerkship. Goodness gracious... Are all medical students that busy that she had to go to the hospital on the weekends too?"

"Yes Mom, they are. Especially when they start their clinical training in year four and above, like Kiko. Sometimes, she's required to come on the weekends," Violet explained.

"I hope she's at least eating well." Marion's voice was full of concern. Having watched Kiko grow up together with Violet, she had always treated Kiko with the heart of a mom. "What about you? How was your first mid-semester examination? Yesterday was the last one, right?"

"Mhmm." Violet nodded. "It was difficult, but I think I did pretty well." She smiled, making a V sign to her mom. "I'm glad I have a week break now. I was planning to fill it with some voluntary courses to get more credits, but I want to spend it at home now."

"Good plan, sweetheart. Resting is important, too. You hadn't returned home for several weeks, and we missed you." Marion ran her hand through her daughter's hair and smiled lovingly at her.

"Mom, you make it sound like you haven't seen me for weeks," Violet laughed, leaning back in her mom's embrace. "Even though I hadn't come home for a while, we talked on the phone every day. In addition to that, you drop by my dorm regularly. Dad also calls me often, and I have lunch with him in his office every week—okay, maybe not in the past two weeks, but that's because he's on a business trip in Singapore."

"I know, sweetheart, but it's still different," Marion said as she tightened her hug on her daughter. "I know you couldn't come home for a while because everything about school is still new for you. You've been busy finding your feet, but this was the longest we'd been away from you ever since you were born."

She adored her two children evenly. Jared was a dependable young man, and he had always been so since he was a little boy.

But Violet... They almost lost her twice.

Marion still remembered her little daughter's piercing shrill as they inserted a hollow needle into her hip bone to remove her bone marrow for a biopsy when they suspected that she had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

She was only three years old.

When Marion was first told about the diagnosis, she felt numb and confused. Did she hear the doctor correctly? What did it mean exactly? Then came the fear and denial. Would her child suffer? Was her child going to die? But she was only so little. The diagnosis must have been wrong—she needed a second opinion.

But it was pointless.

Five pediatric oncologists from three different hospitals had confirmed the dreadful illness. Subsequently, her precious child had to endure another painful experience—a lumbar puncture on her spinal cord to determine if the leukemia cells had spread.

Then followed years filled with hurtful but necessary procedures to treat her cancer. The treatment was working for a while until the illness relapsed after two years of remission. Violet was then seven years old. She had to continue another series of treatments for another several-year.

Fortunately, the second series of treatments were successful. And afterward, Violet was in remission for a full ten years—with no relapses—before she was finally declared cancer-free at nineteen years old.

Violet might be healthy now, but they had only declared her entirely cancer-free three years ago. For a good part of the last two decades, Marion had always been on tenterhooks, having little certainty about her daughter's fate. There had always been a possibility for another relapse or for secondary cancer to develop. Therefore, to say that she treasured this daughter tremendously was perhaps an understatement.

Marion noticed how sluggish her daughter looked and remarked, "You must have been exhausted. You were already deep asleep when I got back last night, and it wasn't even nine o'clock. You've been sleeping for over twelve hours, and you still look tired. You shouldn't have done the volunteer work if you were already this exhausted from the exams..."

Violet froze at her mom's words. They reminded her of what happened last night, and she felt a pang of remorse.

Marion noticed her daughter's reddened ears, but before she could say anything, Violet had already hugged her neck and buried her face in her shoulder. "Mom, I have something I have to tell you..."

"Alright, what have you been hiding?" Marion asked. Her voice remained gentle, but her tone was firm.

Violet then told her mother everything.

Marion patiently listened to her daughter timidly confessing about having a boyfriend and what really had happened last night. She let out a long sigh. "So how are you feeling now...?"

Violet bit her lip, carefully looking at her mother. "Aren't you mad that I lied?"

Marion shook her head and gave her daughter a tender smile. "No, sweetheart, I'm not mad. Although in my mind and my heart, you'll always be my little sweetheart, you're a grown-up now. I understand why you felt the need to hide it from us. You could've continued concealing it, but you decided to share it with me now. I'm happy that you did."

"How are you feeling now?" Marion repeated her question. This was her precious daughter's first relationship, and it had just ended. Much more than feeling upset about her hiding it from her, she was—first and foremost—worried about her.

"I..." Violet hesitated. "I'm okay, Mom. It's just that...he's such a good guy. I wanted to make it work, but it doesn't seem possible," she said, taking in a sharp breath.

Her daughter's forlorn expression and slumped shoulders put a little twinge in Marion's heart. She extended a hand to tuck a lock of Violet's thick and luscious hair behind her ear. "It's not your fault. Pieces that don't fit simply can't be forced together. They'll both break if you insist on doing that."

She then spread her arms wide and pulled her daughter in her embrace. Patting her back gently, she told her, "Someday, sweetheart... someone will enter your heart, and you'll see why it would never work out with anyone else."

♡──── ❝ Author's Note ❞ ────♡

Remember that last line? 😉

You might wonder why I introduced Violet's mother as Marion Struan and not Marion Lee. In some East Asian cultures, including Chinese and Korean, women don't change their surnames after getting married. Hence, Marion retains her maiden name as her legal and official name. However, people would use the title Mrs. Lee when addressing or referring to her.

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Thank you so much for reading!

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