“I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Phoenix, but the patient is dead from multiple complications resulting from her fatal burn injury. We did our best to save her, but we couldn’t, despite trying. I’m really sorry,” the doctor announced, and the couple felt as though the world had collapsed beneath their feet.
“No! No!” Sophia sobbed. Her hysterical cries filled the hallway of the hospital. “This can’t be happening, Philip! This can’t be!” She screamed while tears endlessly fell down her cheeks like waterfalls.
Philip swallowed hard. Despite the pain, he forced himself to be strong for his wife. Without a word, he wrapped her in his arms and quietly shared her grief.
After a brief nod to Philip, the doctor left to give them some privacy.
“I can’t believe we lost our daughter. It took us twenty-four years to find her, only to see her dead now,” Sophia cried. The last of her strength faded, and she collapsed on her feet, but Philip caught her in time before she slumped to the floor. Carefully, he carried her to a nearby chair and let her sit down.
“We did our best to find her, Sophia. God knows we never stopped looking for her. The only regret we have now is not seeing her alive, but at least we found her.” Philip forced the words out of his lips. Lilibeth’s sudden and unexpected death was shattering. He didn’t know if they would ever recover from the pain.
He held Sophia in his arms while she sobbed. Her wretched cries filled his ears, shattering his heart into a million pieces. His hard resolve melted. For the first time in years, he cried, too.
Losing Lilibeth as a baby had destroyed their lives, and it took them years to rebuild again. Hoping that she was still alive had kept them strong all these years. But today, all the hopes they had to see her alive burned to ashes. He had no idea how to start all over again, knowing their only daughter had helplessly died in a fire that had almost claimed her life as a baby.
“Be strong, Sophia. It’s the only favor we could do for Lilibeth,” Philip consoled his wife, even though he was totally broken inside.
“I couldn’t, Philip. It’s hard for me to be strong after seeing her body like that. It feels like I died with her too.” Sophia pulled away from him and buried her face in her palms. Philip just watched her, knowing she needed time to herself before fully accepting the truth.
Philip’s chest felt heavier because he knew exactly how Sophia felt now. He was much stronger than her, but after he saw Lilibeth’s unconscious and badly burned body being pulled from the building, he felt as though he had died too. The traumatic scene would haunt him for the rest of his life. He knew Sophia’s pain was much worse than his. After all, she had carried Lilibeth for nine months in her womb and given birth to her. A mother’s grief is immeasurable after losing her own daughter.
Unable to watch his wife any longer, he looked away. He was in pain inside because there was nothing he could do or say that would make her feel better. If only he could take all the pain she felt and keep it as his own so she wouldn’t suffer.
He heaved a deep sigh and turned to the door when it opened. A uniformed personnel pushed the stretcher containing the dead body to take her to the morgue.
Sophia abruptly rose to her feet. Her expression shattered even more as she eyed the body, covered by only a white cloth. Tears began to fall from her cheeks once more.
“Where’s Lily?” A man’s voice thundered into the hallway, instantly drawing Sophia and Philip’s attention in his direction. As they both looked up, they recognized the man as Grey Bradford, their daughter’s husband.
A dangerous scowl was plastered on the man’s face. He looked at the hospital personnel with murder in his eyes.
The nurse emerged from the door, and his eyes shifted to her. “Where is Lily De Silva?” The man asked in a dangerously calm whisper.
“I’m sorry, sir, but she’s dead. We need to take her now to the morgue,” the nurse formally explained.
The man paled under his skin, and his gaze drifted to the stretcher where the dead body lay.
“No!” He gasped in horror and touched the body with trembling hands. The nurse informed him of how she died, and he instantly went blank in shock.
“We must take her now to the morgue, sir.” The nurse didn’t wait for his reply and signaled the personnel to follow her.
Philip clenched his fists at his sides as he quietly watched Grey Bradford. He took a step toward his direction, but Sophia stopped him upon seeing the anger flare in his eyes.
“If it weren’t for him, Lilibeth should have been alive. The man abandoned her,” Philip hissed under his breath as he shot Grey a piercing glare. If looks could kill, the younger man should have been on his way to hell by now. But Grey still stood frozen, shock and disbelief evident on his face while completely unaware of the couple’s presence in the hallway.
“I want to go home now,” Sophia told Philip as an excuse to leave the place. If they stayed longer, Philip knew he might end up beating the hell out of the Bradford heir. He took Sophia’s hand and quietly left.
“I don’t know how I will tell Mother about the news,” Sophia whispered distraughtly when they reached the car and settled inside. Tears pooled in her puffy eyes once more, and she used her handkerchief to wipe them.
“Don’t worry, I will do it for you,” he assured her, even though he didn’t know how to break the news to his mother-in-law without breaking her heart.
“I wish this were just a dream.” Sophia rested her head on the chair and closed her eyes. Even with her eyes closed, tears still flowed from the corners of her eyes.
I wish this were just a dream too, Philip replied silently, but he kept his thoughts to himself, knowing there was no way this day could have been a dream for them.
***
Sophia and Philip stayed for a week until Lilibeth’s burial. They quietly attended the ceremony without anyone noticing them. Only a few people attended the burial, including Lilibeth’s friend Celine and her workmate, Lia. There was also Grey. He was the last one to leave the cemetery. When he was gone, they made sure no one was around to see them and approached their daughter’s grave to say goodbye.
Lilibeth was laid to rest beside her brother’s grave. They were finally together in heaven now, Sophia thought with tears in her eyes. She laid a bouquet of white roses on her daughter’s grave while Philip lit the white candles. Together, they prayed for their daughter’s peace.
They left the cemetery an hour later and immediately booked a plane ticket back home, where they would be announcing the bad news to the family with heavy hearts.
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Billionaire's Pregnant Ex-wife
Romance[COMPLETED] Lily De Silva had been married to the devilishly handsome CEO of Bradford Enterprises for four years, but their marriage came to an abrupt end when he asked for a divorce due to her inability to bear him another son. Reluctantly, she let...
