John eventually gave in to my pleas and promised to stop getting into fights with Nick.
Lydia was holding her child tightly as she stood by the window and stared worriedly into the ICU. She was so depressed that she didn’t even notice us coming.
Seeing how terrible she was feeling, I decided not to call out to her and simply stood quietly by her side.
Nick was dressed in an isolation gown as he sat beside Jackson’s bed. I could tell that he was saying something to him as I saw his lips moving, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. Nick had a gloomy look on his face, but Jackson showed no response whatsoever.
“He’ll wake up.” Lydia’s voice came from beside me all of a sudden.
I turned towards her and saw that her gaze was focused on Nick as she continued, “Jackson never told you why he wanted to leave the country so suddenly, did he?”
She didn’t have to look at me for me to know that question was meant for me. “No, he didn’t.”
“Jackson followed his mom when she remarried into their current family. He had an older brother, and although they were both boys, the treatment they received was very different. Jackson would be blamed for everything his brother did wrong. This child belongs to his brother as well, but that guy is about to get into a marriage of convenience soon, so Jackson was forced to raise the child instead.
I know he likes someone else, but he never talks about it. Every evening, I’d see him smoking a cigarette all by himself beneath the street lamp outside… I suppose we all yearn for the love of our family… He was planning on having the three of us visit you when we returned to the country, but something in him seemed to snap when he got to your doorstep and saw your guests…”
She was interrupted by the sound of the door opening, followed by Nick screaming anxiously, “Doctor! Doctor!”
Standing outside the ICU and watching the doctors and nurses desperately try to rescue someone produced a feeling of helplessness that could only be understood by those experiencing it firsthand.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: When There Is Nothing Left But Love novel (Ashton and Scarlett )