The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

65

I FLEW BACK TO BEIJING right after the day of Mary's funeral. Cameron and Mason didn't even know. I didn't bother to tell them.

Adele was being treated at one of the best hospitals in the city, but best hospital or not, it was not anything to delay the coming of her death. She looked like a limp figure when I arrived in her hospital room, small and looking...almost dead.

Her face barely draws to that classic sharp smile of hers. "Awe, look who's here. You didn't have to cry for me, you know."

I laughed scarcely, sitting down on the chair that was set next to her bed. "It's not for you. Someone else died recently."

She turned slightly in her bed, trying to sit up. I settled my hands over her to stop her, but as Adele always did, she resisted and sat up at last. "Well that makes sense. You were always a pretty damn cold child growing up."

"Where is he?" I asked, seeming to be the second biggest question in my head.

She coughs for a long time, the sound sounding drastic and awful. "I don't know. I spent half of my life with that asshole, glad he's finally gone." She coughed some more, and I quickly grabbed a tissue for her. "Thank you."

"So you're...dying." The word sounded so weird, Adele dying? How? It never seemed possible to me that such a hard woman can be knocked out like that with that word labeled to her. Dying. Dead.

"Yep, and so are you. Just such a shame that I won't live to see it happen."

Her sarcasm manages to draw a grin on my face. But it fell when she coughed again, this time blood coming out. "What is it? How are you just suddenly...dying?"

"I don't fucking know! Ask the doctor, why won't you." She tilted her head on the pillow, trying to face the window. "It's probably the drinking and all the cigarettes though, that's what I know. I don't regret it." She retched up a bunch of red and clear substances, and even though I don't exactly love Adele, it was scaring me.

"Should I get the doctor?"

She lifts up a limp hand, hardly being able to call a wave. "I'm already dying, darling, it doesn't matter." She then smiled. "Do you think they'll broadcast this in the news or something like that? I am your 'mother' after all. I really liked that interview they did with you and me five years ago, wasn't that nice? Mother and daughter. Being famous must be nice. If I could go back in time, I would've made that choice. You made a good choice choosing this path."

I nodded even though I didn't totally agree with her. My hand was somehow holding hers. I don't know how that ended up happening.

"If they ask about Joseph, just say he's dead. I'm pretty sure he'll overdose sooner or later anyways with that addiction of his."

I nodded again, my hand starting to tighten in hers. "What are your last words you were going to say to me?"

She turned her head from the window to me, and then grinned. "Awe, you care?"

I swatted at her; "It's your last words, anyone's last words I'd hear."

"Well," I suddenly realized her head was balding, it was so unusual of Adele to be like that. But again, everything happening now was so unlike her. "I lied." When my eyes widened, she laughed. If you can call coughing and huffing a laugh. "Who knew how long this damn body of mine could hold? I had to think of something to make you come and see me as soon as possible. Anyways, even though it's not any last words, I did want to let you know something."

I sat a little intently, not that I was wanting to show I really cared, it was always that with me and Adele. I wanted to be above her, to be the one more powerful. I guess I finally got what I wanted.