She Thinks I'm Broken

55: Regrets and Remorse

Elizabeth rushed past the receptionist after she directed her to the waiting room, she met Steven and Tim, and beside her was Christopher who had ridden with her and Olivia.

Steven started by explaining how he got shot according to what Tim said to him. Steve swallowed down the lump in his throat before he proceeded to talk to her about the next problem.

"Mum and Father." He cleared his throat and adjusted himself in his seat, his both parents peered up at him with gazes ranging from emerald to oak.

"You both know Oliver had a hole in his heart from a tender age and the doctor said it was getting better as he grew up. And one time he had surgery to seal the hole he was just three which led to you sending him to this institution like a burden school which was a sort of rehab. Well, I found out about his report a few months ago. It was terrible he needed an urgent heart transplant, the hole had expanded and for him to survive longer he needed a new heart. But Oliver didn't agree with changing his heart immediately, he postponed it and I kept pestering him about it. He finally decided to have the surgery after his birthday. He was on pills and would often shut down, just collapse. Yesterday he called me and said, 'Steven I'm getting heart surgery, would you come over so you can help me explain everything to mother?' and I accepted. I just got a call about the incident and I was shaken by the call. He was so close, and I believed he would make it." Steven ran a distressed hand through his hair.

Elizabeth had sucked her teeth to keep her sobs in. She couldn't imagine her baby was in pain all those while but he managed to plaster a smile when he saw her and tried his hardest to be happy around her. As usual, he hid it from her. She recalled Evelyn telling him, Oliver does all he does to spare her the hurt.

Christopher looked crossed, "why did you let him take all those decisions? He is just a child, heck! He isn't twenty yet! And you let him take that decision of his life? Why didn't you tell me? Or your mother. I can trust her with getting him to do that damn surgery. Now we're going to lose him to his stupid decision."

Steve sighed heavily, "This is why he didn't want you people to know, particularly you father. You're always controlling his choices and you always refuse to hear him out. When was the last time you nodded positively to what Oliver said? When was the last time you allowed him to have a say?" Steven questioned.

"No, never. And this is why he wanted you to know nothing. He told me once that he didn't want Mother to be anxious and he wanted to do it in his space." Steven held his mother's hand affectionately.

"This is absurd! I tell you what he must survive, that's all!" Christopher shot up and excited the waiting room.

"That's his way to express regrets and sadness, he suppresses them and acts cold. I couldn't live with such a complex." She whispered with a little sniff.

"He would be fine. He can't give up all that. He needs to manage the family business because none of us can manage it. God, when I think of all the time my kid brother had to be an adult it breaks my heart. He is too young to leave us, too young to go. There are a lot of things he has to do." Steven murmured and Elizabeth hugged him just crying on his shoulders.

Christopher was outside under the cold morning before dawn, he pulled out a cigar which he lit, then slowly began dragging on it, and as he did so he moped. How could he be so careless about Oliver's health that he almost forgot about the damn hole in his heart, and many times he had asked and Oliver had lied to him, 'I'm fine, everything is okay, as long as I keep building our empire' he would say. Nothing was ever wrong with him, he was always fine when Christopher would ask. He didn't get the hint that his son wasn't telling, he had never sat with the kid not once to have a conversation, he was mainly talking and the boy responded with a 'yes sir.' And the job was done. He neglected anything else, Oliver was his pride and comfort. But he failed to cherish him in the right way. He didn't spoil him like he should have done, rather he caged him, and made him a golden cell.