The Recipe To A Millionaire's Heart | ✓

27.

C H R I S T I N E

It has been a couple of days since the thanksgiving dinner and I have yet to come down from that high. Jenny and I were smiling constantly, our moods has significantly lightened up after that amazing dinner. Maybe it was the food or maybe it was the way Matthew treated me that made that night all that memorable. I felt special and not once out of place as Leia and Max welcomed us into their home with open arms and soft smiles. It's so refreshing to see especially after know how Matthew's step sister and mother are. I'm still over the moon about all of this.

But today I had this gut-wrenching feeling that something terribly awful is about to happen to me but I didn't want to dwell on it and ruin my mood.

I unlocked my front door as I entered our apartment. A cold chill caused me to shiver. It is so unlike mom to not turn the heater on especially in the middle of November.

"Mom?" I called out but got nothing in response but eerie silence. Dread and fear crept up on me which caused my heart to drop yet beat faster.

The living room and the kitchen looked untouched since I left this morning. No dirty dishes, the television wasn't on and the couch looked like and pristine. Negative thoughts attacked my brain. I was scared, terrified of the horrible, deafening silence that consumed that whole apartment. When common sense finally hit me, I rushed towards my mom's room hurriedly.

I banged on the door not so gently and when no answer was all I got, my brain went into a frenzy and I nearly broke the door open.

My breath caught in my throat as the world stopped. Everything seemed so still even my breathing. Goosebumps covered my body as a dread settled upon my spine and I fought the urge to vomit everything I had for the past few hours. It seemed as air left my body and the room was suddenly ten times colder yet hotter at the same time. My stomach turned, clenched and unclenched as I stared at my mother's body that laid on the floor.

"Mom?" I breathed out. I knelt quickly and scratched my knees in the process. I shook her lightly but she didn't wake up. I grabbed her wrist and checked for her pulse. It was barely there.

"Oh God." Tears welled up in my eyes as a surge of overwhelming emotions went through my entire system.

When common sense finally hit me, I grabbed my phone and called 911. I spoke quickly, and I hoped coherently, towards the emergency personnel.

After what felt like an eternity, the emergency personnel busted through my door. A girl, around my age, wrapped her arms around me and helped me to my feet. She made me stand far enough to let them work comfortably on my mom. After checking her vitals, they loaded her into a gurney and ushered her to the ambulance. I rode in the back and never left my mom's hand the whole drive to the hospital.

My whole world seemed to be stuck in that moment where I found my mom laying cold on the floor like a corpse. My mind kept replaying it in a loop. The idea of her being gone was slowly suffocating me and grabbing me in a vice grip, but I couldn't think that way. She's still here with me, she's still breathing, barely, but she's still fighting.

"Mom, please, hold on for me. I can't do this without you." I kissed her knuckled and felt her cold skin underneath my lips.

"Oh God." I stared up at the ceiling of the moving vehicle and sent a silent prayer as tears gathered in my eyes again.

God, help us through this please.

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"I'm sorry." His voice was low and soft, he spoke clearly yet carefully, knowing what his words would do to me.

"There was nothing we could have done." He kept on speaking but I heard nothing. I stood still, numb. No words reached my ears and everything I saw was blurred. The floor beneath me was breaking while the white walls where crumbling. The world was spinning around and all I could think of was my mom. How she took her last breath, how she closed her eyes, how she slipped away and how she left me completely alone and vulnerable. The doctor kept on speaking and calling my name but I paid him no attention as I slowly walked to the room where my mom laid in.

I barged in, hoping that somehow the noise would wake her up but it didn't. I ran to her side and held her hand tightly. I shivered at how cold and lifeless they felt. Her chest wasn't moving up and down instead it was still, like a rock. She looked paler than usual and her eyes were completely shut. Everything was wrong, she shouldn't be still like that. She should be smiling lightly and holding my hand back. She should have been comforting me and telling me that everything is fine but she wasn't.

"You promised..." My voice cracked as I spoke. Hot tears could be felt on my cheeks.

"You promised that you are getting better, you promised that we will go to California. You said you were okay!! Why would you lie to me?!" I cried out loud. I shook her hand hoping that it would wake her up but it didn't.

"Mom..." I whispered ever so lightly.

"Wake up." I said but she didn't. I cried, I cried everything out. I let everything out with my tears. I felt unbearable pain as I sobbed. It felt someone placed a rock on my chest and made hard to breath. It made it hard to speak.

I sat on the ground as I felt everything around me fall apart. She can't be dead. She can't do that to me. Maybe it's all a big heartbreaking nightmare. It could not be true. It can't. She can't be dead. She's supposed to stay with me till I get married. She's supposed to see her grandchildren.

She can't be dead.

I let out a strangled cry as I banged my fists against my head. I can't breathe. No oxygen was entering my lungs and black spots started covering my vision, but I didn't care. Maybe if I let the darkness consume me then I would wake up and mom would be okay. My left arm started tingling and hurting as my rib cage collapsed on itself. I gasped at the sensation as I felt my heart tear apart in my chest. I felt as someone set fire inside of my chest.

I wanted to scream out and ask for help but my throat was closing on, on itself and my soul felt as it's being ripped away from my body.

Then everything went black in an instant.