The Right One

Thirty

The first thing that registered as Hope pried her heavy lids open was the unmistakable smell of disinfectant or whatever it was hospitals smelt like. The next was that her head ached, and she figured she'd probably been asleep for a while. The next was the hopeful voice calling her name.

"Hope . . . Hope!"

Her mum's hands that had been wrapped around hers all along squeezed hard and as she tried to sit up while focusing on her mum's face through her grogginess, she realized her mum was shedding silent tears even though her face was split into a wide smile.

"Mum . . . "

"You this child . . . " Her mum seemed incapable of further words as she buried her face between her laps.

They stayed like that for a while, her mum full on sobbing into her lap while Hope could do nothing but pat her gently as guilt consumed her as she imagined what she'd put her mum through for the last couple hours.

"H-How could you do this to me?" Her mum sobbed, voice breaking. "How could you have kept such a secret from me for years, Hope? Years!"

"I'm so sorry, mummy," Hope whispered, her throat clogging up with all the words she had to say but couldn't put into words. "I'm really sorry."

"How could I not have known?" Her mum continued, almost as if she was in her own world. "I call myself your mother, but I had no idea you were going through all that by yourself. I'm such a bad mother!"

"Mummy, please don't say that," Hope pleaded, her eyes filling with tears. "It's not your fault that you didn't know and it's over now. That's all that matters."

Her mum kept on sobbing, her hold on Hope's hand tightening until she could hardly feel her blood circulating anymore. Frustrated at being unable to console her mother, Hope's tears fell as well and they painted quite the picture, the mother and daughter weeping uncontrollably.

Hope lost track of how long they remained like that; both of them failing to console each other until the door opened and the rest of her family walked in. It wasn't hard for anyone to tell what was going on.

Sophie heaved out a huge sigh, one filled with relief and exasperation and walked up to her to wrap her arms around her. "It's okay, mummy. Hope is fine. You've cried enough. You don't want her to get sick crying so much because of you, do you?"

Relief swept through Hope when her mum's sobbing finally started to ease out, and she sent a grateful look to Sophie who nodded once before she coaxed her mum up and started leading her out. Her mum tried to protest but gave in when Sophie insisted Hope wasn't going to get any better if she kept making her cry like that. She had to pull herself together first.

With Sophie and her mum gone, that left her with Alex and Raymond. Alex walked up to her and he stared at her for the longest minute before patting her head gently and smiling.

Hope couldn't help but smile back even though she probably looked horrid with her face stained with dry tears.

"I'm glad you're alright, Hope."

She could only nod, unable to muster up the right words to say to him, or anyone for that matter.

He nodded back, understanding without words what she must be feeling. He spared a glance at his brother before motioning to the door. "I think it'll take more than Sophia to fully calm your mum down."

Hope chuckled, although she didn't feel very amused. Alex gave her another nod and pay before leaving as well.

Hope had kept herself from glancing at Raymond since the moment they'd walked in, not sure her heart could handle it. He, on the other hand had done nothing but stare at her, as if trying to commit the sight of her to memory all over again.