Guy for rent

Chapter 30

Most of the drive was pretty silent when Adrien was driving towards the Grand Palace Hotel with Marinette beside him in the passenger seat and Luka and Chloe in the back seat.

Marinette wanted to talk to Adrien privately later tonight but Chloe decided to cut the ice. She said "Your mother is cool... and nice, it's a shame I didn't get to meet her earlier"

Marinette smiled and said "that she is"

That brought a little smile to Adrien's face "she's always been like that... She's way too good at socializing and when comfortable with someone, she can be blunt too..."

Luka laughed "but this is the first time she acted this way you know, with Marinette. She never tried to set up Adrien like this... ever"

Marinette looked at Luka, eyes wide and surprised "really?"

"Yes..." Luka replied "but then again, she has always been too fast to catch on to things, especially in his case... that makes we wonder how he managed to hide his job for so lo-"

Luka stopped himself from completing that sentence, he lost track while speaking.

"She..." Adrien slowly started "she has had her suspicion but I managed to dodge the questions as efficiently as I could. I don't even want to imagine what would happen if she ever found out"

The fear in his voice while saying it could be felt by everyone in the car. Now they can't imagine either.

Chloe finally decided to ask the question she wanted to ask "what happened to her?"

Adrien took a deep breath "her kidney is failing... one has already been failed but now another one is also..." he trailed off.

"What?" Marinette said almost in a whisper.

"Her- her kidney is failing? So why didn't you go for a kidney transplant?" Chloe asked with the basic solution.

"It's not that easy in her case" Adrien's said in a strained voice.

"Why not?" Chloe asked but more softly this time after hearing him.

Luka answered it for them "because she has the rarest blood type... Rh-null"

"Oh my god... is that the reason why kidney transplant is not possible?" Marinette asked.

"Yes..." Luka said "the donor's blood type should be compatible with her's and unluckily, Rh-null is compatible with itself only"

"She has been alive on that stupid machines only... only if my blood type was the same as hers..." Adrien said, his voice becoming even more strained.

It was difficult for Adrien to talk about it but he was trying and Marinette couldn't even imagine how he have been handling all of this for years, alone. He had no one by his side, except for his mother. It just only makes sense how desperate he was to save Emilie.

"But..." Adrien started again "there's finally hope after years"

Luka perked up and leaned forward from his seat "what do you mean?"

"There's a patient in New York who has been admitted in the hospital 3 days ago. He was in an accident, have some major brain injuries... his blood type turns out to be Rh-null"

Everyone held their breath in the car as Adrien continued speaking "the chances of his surviving are really low, according to the doctors who are trying to save his life... but if he doesn't survive then his organs will be donated after his death... it was his wish"

None of them knew if they should be happy that there was a chance to save Emilie or sad about the man.

Adrien sighed at the torturous silence that fell in the car and said "I know what it seems like and trust me, I am not liking this either"