Chapter 24: Chapter 24
Emma woke up and decided to go for a run. It’s been days since she visited her brother, Raymond.
Richard had left early because one of his clients hearing was scheduled for today.
After her run for about an hour, Emma came back home all sweaty and exhausted. She decided to go upstairs and take a shower.
When she got into the room, she went straight to the closet, to pick out an outfit for the day. She heard her phone ring as soon as she walked out of the closet. She checked the caller ID and saw it was Dr. Steven calling, so she quickly picked up the call.
“Hello?”
She was on the call, when Anna walked in to drop some laundry.
“Emma, you need to come to the hospital right now.” Dr. Steven said at the other end of the phone.
Emma was scared because of the way Dr. Steven sounded on the phone. She tried her best to hide her fear, as Anna was still in the room.
“Okay. I’m on my way there.” She replied and hung up.
She collected her car keys in a hurry and was about to leave, when Anna spoke up.
“Tracy, where are you off to in a hurry? Aren’t you going to change into something else before leaving?” Anna asked, as she wanted to know why Tracy was in such a hurry to leave after the call she received.
Emma had totally forgotten about Anna’s presence in the room.
“Um, don’t worry about it. I’m fine this way. I’ll see you when I get back.” Emma replied before hurriedly leaving the room. She didn’t want Anna to ask her any more questions.
All she needed to know now, was why Dr. Steven called her, urgently seeking her presence.
She got to the hospital, after painfully slow minutes of driving and hurriedly ran to Dr. Steven’s office.
She didn’t find him in his office, when she got there, so she ran to her brother’s room.
Emma saw Dr. Steven and two other doctors which she didn’t recognize with a nurse in Raymond’s ward. The nurse was taking out the life support from the room.
“What’s going on?” she asked
They all turned and noticed her presence in the room.
“Why is she taking out the life support?” she asked, already afraid of the answer she’d get.
“Can someone please say something?” she impatiently asked, already in tears.
“Emma..” Dr. Steven began
“We tried all our best, but.. we couldn’t save him.”
“No, I don’t understand… What are you trying to say?”
“He was responding fine to treatment. We don’t know what went wrong… It seems he stopped responding to the treatment all of a sudden. We tried all we could, but it was no use… I’m sorry Emma, but we lost Raymond.”
“No! You’re lying!” Emma refused to believe, as she walked to Raymond’s body.
Dr. Steven gave no response to that, instead he looked at Emma with pity.
“Wake up, Ray. Please, wake up. I know what the doctor said is a lie. Please wake up, so they’ll know they are wrong.” She said as she shook Raymond’s body, to try to get him to wake up.
Dr. Steven went forward to stop her, but she pushed his hands away.
“You promised he’d get better after the surgery. You lied!” she said, glaring at him before starting to hit him on his chest. Dr. Steven held her hand, so she’d calm down.
Emma gave up after trying to thrash out of his grip and cried her eyes out.
Dr. Steven comforted her as she cried into his chest.
She didn’t want to look as her brother’s body was being taken to the morgue.
Emma eventually stopped crying and told the doctor that she was leaving.
“Are you sure you’re okay to leave now?” Dr. Steven asked.
“Yes, I’m fine now.”
“I’m really sorry.” Dr. Steven once again apologized. She only nodded in reply before leaving the hospital.
Emma couldn’t stop the tears from continuously pouring down her face.
She rushed into the house and went straight to the bedroom, fell on the bed and started sobbing all over again.
She couldn’t believe that she no longer had a family. She felt so alone.
She craved for comfort at this moment but at the same time wanted to be alone.
Anna had knocked severally on the door to find out if Tracy was okay, but she got no response. She didn’t want to persist and invade her privacy, so she let her be.