Chapter 131
Lake:
“Jade, don’t worry about that. The nurses will…”NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.
“Nonsense, Lake! I can’t leave your welfare to the nurses. I have been doing it for two weeks since you couldn’t see me. It doesn’t matter that I continue now that you can.” Jade replied stubbornly, picking the plates from the tray in front of me and setting it on the cabinet. She pulled out a towel from her back pocket and gently wiped my lips with it.
She was wrong about one thing though. I had seen her take care of me, time and time again. The only difference between now and then was that I did not have the power or strength to stop her then, but I did now. She was the one who led me to bath, who laundered and pressed my clothes, she supervised my meals and even my glucose injections.
She sat by me on late nights and early mornings. When I so much as moved a finger, she would rush to me and call the doctor. When I sneezed, she would rush to me and call the doctor. She had been nothing but extremely nice to me in the past few weeks. If one who did not know the history of our relationship saw her, he or she would tell me I would be a fool to let her go.
However, her kindness did nothing but evoke guilt and slight irritation from me. Guilt because I knew I did not need or deserve her care. Irritation because I wished she would just… leave me alone.
Soon, the door opened and my father stepped into the room. Jade rose on seeing him. I watched as she rushed to pick up the tray, she bowed to him before she stepped out the room, just in time to turn around and smile at me. I felt myself flinch, honestly.
My father turned toward the door, shook his head and turned back to me.
“It’s a shame you do not know what you have, Lake.”
Here he was again. I still waited for the day my father and I would see eye to eye on something, anything at all.
“I’ll rather not, father,” I added. I watched as he stepped further into the room. He leaned on the wall and slipped his hands into his pocket.
“You have to marry her, Lake. You do not have a choice at this point. She has been with you, and would forever continue to be with you. You must see past your ego and whatever other thing you have and see that she is ideal for you, son.” My father added. If I did not know better, I would have thought he was genuinely worried about me.
I shrugged and looked away from him.
“I would only consider being with anyone when I have found my mother. Besides…” I could not believe I was about to say this to my father, but I was going to.
“… there is someone I need to apologize to.” Our eyes met each other’s. He arched his right brow as he leered at me, I returned it with full and equal intensity.
“I do hope, for your sake more than mine, that you are not referring to that… stripper girl.”
The words, “stripper girl”, left his tongue in such a condescending manner. I sat up straight and sneered at my father. The man seemed very displeased and far from surprised. It was very obvious that he knew something, something I had not expected him to know.
“How do you know of the stripper female, father?” I snickered.
He opened his mouth to speak, but the voice of my rage and anger were louder.
“Hold on, father. You must also add the reason you have been keeping tabs on me and spying on me like I am a little boy. Why are you insistent on forcing your way into my life? Why are you so obsessed with controlling me?” The more I thought about it, the more my heart squeezed in my chest, and the faster my anger boiled at the pit of my stomach.
My father was going to speak again. It was very typical of my father to have words to use in his defense, all the time.
“You are my son, Lake. And I would only do what is best for…”
No! He could hit me with any other one of his bullshit lines and I would gladly swallow his deceit for the sole reason that it as his sperm that birthed me, but not this lie.
“Yourself, father! You have only always done what was best for yourself! What your ego and pride requested of you! Tell me, tell me just one reason you believed sending my mother away from me was going to be for my good. You grew up with your mother. Hell, father! She is still here for you, even till now. But you stole that away from me, and the only thing you thought about then, was your bruised ego!” I could tell I was raising my voice. My back and the back of my head hurt badly, but I did not care.
My father was beyond furious. He leaned out of the wall and his hands were now rolled into tight fists beside him.
I turned my eyes away from him. I did not want to see him, not right now.
“You’ll have to excuse me, father.”
Amidst his anger, he managed to speak to me.
“Lake…”
“I’ll leave if you do not.” I spat out. I made sure both my bitterness and anger were evident in my tone.
I saw his shoulders fall, while he turned around to exit the room. Once he walked out, Jade followed the door, into the room. She stood in the middle of the room and turned her gaze to me.
“Is everything alright?” She asked, in her ever calm tone. At first glance, you would never believe such a person had the ability to be all shades of crazy, but I saw past her act like it was a net-like veil.
I heaved a sigh and adjusted myself in my bed.
“Look, Jade. My father has not been completely honest with you, but I am going to be, because you are a caring person, and you… everyone deserves the truth.”
She shook her head and walked to me. She knew what I was about to say, but wished I would not say it.
“I do not see myself spending the rest of my life with you, Jade.” There. I dropped it as bluntly as I could. There was no way my sentence could be misunderstood.
She froze on the spot. I noticed her whole body crumble to the ground, even though she still stood on her feet.
“You’re…” She sniffed back invisible tears.
“You’re rejecting me again.” She muttered, but loud enough for me to hear.
“No, Jade. I am giving you a chance at a better life, a life where you can be genuinely loved. I know what I have put you through, I understand the pain of rejection just as much as you do. At first, I was looking out for you, but now, I do not want to have to treat you like my father treated my mother.”
She arched a brow at me, I could sense she was visibly angry. It was more than obvious from the emptiness in her eyes.
“I do not know if you know about them, but my mother suffered gravely because my father did not love her. She was miserable, so she left. And? I was left to live with the pain of not having a mother beside me for more than twenty-five years. I would never love you the way you deserve and the way you should be loved; the way every woman should be loved. I do not want you to end up like my mother. I do not want that for you, Jade.”