Chapter 39 Agonizing Pain

Under Eva's insistence, the doctor could do nothing but let Christian go.

Right now, the mother and son duo were walking out of the hospital, but they both had different expressions, while Christian was smiling in his new wheelchair, Eva had a rather stiff smile, while sadness was reflected in her eyes.

"By the way... where are my siblings mom?" asked Christian as he realized that the little unruly ones were not with her "Are they with big sister?"

"No..." Whispered Eva with a bit of difficulty "I left them with Sara and Jayden, they were making cookies when I came over"

"Oh, so big sister is working?"

"No... she's resting"

"That's good, she can't work that hard or it'll do her body harm" Christian replied, looking curiously at the direction they were headed.

"Why are we going to the parking lot?"

"I have a surprise..."

"Oh" With confusion, Christian nodded.

After walking for a few minutes, Eva stops in front of a vehicle.

"This is our new car" Eva smiled proudly, as she looked expectantly at Christian.

'2005 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT' Christian instantly recognized the vehicle, in his past life he was a big fan of all types of vehicles, not this specific type, but he did know about it.

"This beautiful mom" Smiled Christian, knowing that, with his financial situation, having a vehicle, is something to celebrate.

The vehicle looked a bit worn, the top was a bit faded from the sun's rays, while the sides had small scratches in its gray paint, but leaving that aside, the car looked pretty good,

Approaching the car, Eva tapped the hood proudly "I called it 'Grey Mobile'"

"That name... it's perfect" Christian smiled stiffly, as he tried not to laugh at his mother's strange sense of the name.

"Isn't it great? That bitch Sara wouldn't stop laughing when I told her" Eva replied with annoyance.

"Yeah... it's great."

"Well, let me take you up, I have to take you to see something..." Spoke Eva with a conflicted expression, then walked over to Christian and pulled him up in the passenger seat, while the wheelchair placed her in the back seats.

...

"Where are we going, mom?"

"..."

"Mom?" Uncomfortable with the silence, Christian looked down the road, remembering with sparkling eyes the sign they passed along the way, a sign that read 'mile 8'.

"Wait a bit, we're coming..." With a serious look on her face, Eva drove a little faster towards her unknown destination.

A few minutes later, they were at a place that puzzled Christian.

"Woodlawn Cemetery? What are we doing in a cemetery?"

"..."

With an awkward silence in the air, Eva pulled over and stopped the car, then got out and pulled out the wheelchair. Leaving Christian on the chair, Eva silently wheeled him toward the cemetery.

"Mom? What are we doing in this place?" asked Christian with a frown, feeling his chest tighten for some reason.

"When you fell asleep a lot of things happened..." Eva whispered as she walked quietly through the cemetery.

"..."

"I was planning to just hide everything from you, but Sara and Jayden made me understand that you would find out sooner or later, you are a genius after all..."

"..."

"Your father, no, Brayan... Brayan had been hospitalized, his nose was broken and he had lost a tooth, but other than that, he was fine... a month later he tried to take your custody of you from me while asking for alimony in the process, but they registered your injuries as aggression from him, even your little brothers had to testify... after that, the lawsuit didn't get very far, I ended up winning custody with no problems"

"..."

"The last I heard from Brayan is that he went to live with his grandfather...the old man is a good man, he'll be fine...the important thing is that he won't be in our life anymore."

"..." Hearing Brayan's fate, Christian for some reason felt bad, as if a knot formed in his heart, but not wanting to think more about the subject, he continued listening to Eva.

"You didn't sleep just one day Christian... you were in a coma for 3 months."

"...!" Opening his eyes wide, Christian turns to his mother, with bewilderment in his gaze.

"Don't look at me like that... you were seriously injured Christian... I... I thought I would lose you f-forever" Eva murmured with reddened eyes "The doctors told me that you would never wake up again... they recommended me to disconnect you, to prevent you from suffering the c-confinement in your own body... to l-let you go, that you should f-follow your way to heaven..."

"B-but... I-I didn't want to *Sniff* I didn't want to let my little boy go" With her voice cracking, Eva continued speaking "I couldn't accept that my child would never w-wake up again *Sniff*"

"But here you are, smiling at me again *Sniff*" Eva whispered, as a smile formed on her face "The very thought of what would happen if I accepted the doctors' opinion..."

Taking a deep breath to calm his turbulent emotions, Christian turns to his mother and smiles softly "Calm down mom... I will never leave you, I promise"

"And even if you want me to, I won't leave you" Eva smiled slightly, quickly wiping away the tears she let escape her eyes.

"But that wasn't all..." Eva whispered, looking up painfully, then turning her chair and stopping in front of a particular grave "We arrived..."

The grave was simple, it had a cross of about 30 centimeters on a tombstone, where a name quite familiar to Christian was written.

"No..." With eyes quickly reddening, Christian quickly shook his head and turned to his mother in disgust "What a joke this is!"

"Christian..."

"I don't want to listen to you, let's get out of here!"

"My boy..." With her face twisted in pain, Eva bent down to Christian's height, gently touching his cheeks "Stop acting, let your emotions out!"

"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Closing his eyes tightly, Christian shouted "I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE, LET'S GO!!!"

"Christian... it's reality... your father is gone..... Ashley died"

"N-no... Ashley is fine... I know she's fine... she wasn't sick" Christian whispered in a daze, as he slowly shook his head.

"Christian, look me in the eyes..." Whispered Eva, cupping Christian's face with both hands, staring into Christian's eyes "Your sister.... m-my daughter... is d-dead."

With those words hitting him hard, Christian trembled, as his eyes quickly became blurry with falling tears.

"H-how?" whispered Christian haltingly, as his mind was rapidly crumbling and all the emotional stability he achieved these past few hours, instantly vanished.

"She... she was sick" Eva answered with difficulty after a few seconds.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!!!" Christian shouted, instantly knowing that his mother was lying, as tears leaked uncontrollably from his eyes.

"..." Opening her eyes wide, Eva looked painfully and conflictedly at Christian, then sighed and spoke "She... S-she... she... s-suicided."

Trembling at her words, Christian's eyes widened in disbelief. He had expected different reasons, an accident, a murder, he even wanted to think it was all-natural, but suicide...it's something that never crossed his mind.

Unable to muster a rational thought, Christian stammered, "H-how? No... W-why?"

"She was going through a lot Christian... after you were left in the hospital and she found out about your coma, she was very depressed... I think she was blaming herself for everything... I... I didn't have the time to comfort her or ask her what was wrong... I was too busy with all the medical stuff and adding Brayan's lawsuit, I just neglected her... it was all my fault... if I had d-dedicated time to her, s-she wouldn't have done t-that *Sniff*"

*cough* *cough* *cough*

No longer able to bear the pain that assaulted his heart, Christian coughed violently, as blood splattered his clothes and at the same time, Eva's face.

Opening her eyes wide with horror and concern, Eva exclaimed "Christian, what's wrong with you!?"

*cough* *cough* *cough* *cough*

But unable to answer, Christian kept coughing more and more, as his vision rapidly blurred, memories and recollections began to well up, and a feeling of helplessness and guilt tormented his conscious self.

"L-let's *cough* go *cough* home *cough*" With those last words created by his instinctive intelligence, Christian passed out, leaving his mother in a mess of blood and tears of worry.

"Christian!?" Shaking her son's shoulders tightly, Eva exclaimed with concern, "CHRISTIAN!? My Goddess, not again please, I won't be able to endure the same, not without my boy!"

...

"Because..."

staring dazedly up at the unfamiliar ceiling, Christian mumbled in a daze.

A few minutes ago he woke up with a terrible pain all over his body, but his mind is so numb, the pain is somewhat laughable by now.

"Why did I have to act so stupidly...if I hadn't attacked Brayan...I wouldn't have been in a coma or hospitalized, mom would have fixed everything and I could spend time with Ashley.... so she.... wouldn't have s-suicided...it's all...my fault"

"If only I'd thought a little more... if only I hadn't let myself get carried away with emotions... if only I'd shut Brayan up before he said that shit to Ashley... if only I'd been a little more helpful *Sniff*"

With tears sliding down his eyes, Christian wailed, as memories of Ashley constantly floated through his mind.

"Why...? W-why does it have to be so painful to love people? *Sniff* if only I hadn't been born into a family, I wouldn't have to endure this pain *Sniff*"

Closing his eyes tightly, Christian looks up at the ceiling and sighs with a smile "What was that dream? Hahaha~"

Laughing at the weird and stupid dream he had, Christian rests his head on the bed, remembering exactly everything that happened in his dream "How stupid, Ashley would never leave us... she loves us so much... she wouldn't do that... would she?"

"No... it can't be, Ashley is alive, it's impossible for her to leave us" Shaking his head strongly, Christian slowly got up from the bed, while the pain assaulted his whole body, but without caring he got up with his last healthy leg "I have to go find her..... I'm sure she's waiting for me somewhere... she must be very sad... yeah... I'm going to look for her."

*Thud*

With difficulty, Christian advanced with his good leg, but when he stepped, the lack of strength in it unbalanced him, causing him to fall heavily on the ground on his arm, while a strong pain assaulted his left arm.

But uncaring of the pain, Christian crawled towards the wall, lifting himself with difficulty on it, then walking towards the door of the room and opening it with his foot, taking advantage of the fact that the door was not completely closed.

Slowly walking out of the room, Christian moves forward with the wall as his support, while his misty eyes mingled with his soft smile, looking down the hallway to his left.

Following the hallway, Christian speaks softly "Sister? Where are you? I had a very sad dream"

Slowly walking down the hallway, Christian reaches its end, where he can see a staircase leading down.

"Are you downstairs sister? I'll come and get you, don't worry, I won't let you be sad and alone... I'll be with you... we'll play, we'll laugh... everything will be fine"

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Author's thoughts:

I'll be honest, I'm very dissatisfied with this chapter. I'm trying to move the story forward, to get to the plot as soon as possible, but that means my whole idea of the novel has to be modified and adapted, something I'm not prepared for. Many may not be pleased with Ashley's death, but I want to make it clear that every action has a reaction. A person with depression can't just sit there after listening to her father/mother tell her that she is the biggest pain in the ass and that he hates her for being born. Her death was planned from before, only in my plan, it was to leave more scenes to her, so that everyone gets attached to her. In the next 2 chapters, everything will be summarized, so giving a small time jump of months. Sorry for the drop in writing quality, but I'm a big newbie in time jumps, I can't adapt well in that. And to those of you who are upset about the loss, believe me, it hurts me more than it hurts you. You don't know the tears I shed while writing these chapters, since I lived a similar experience with someone important.

I apologize again for the drop in quality, at least I'm not satisfied, but everything will be for the better. Thanks for everyone's support, and I'm sorry I haven't uploaded chapters these days, the new year and my work left me without time. Now I will upload a second chapter and maybe I will upload the third one, which I owe for the 100 gems. If I don't upload the third one tonight, I will upload it tomorrow. The important thing is that I will always give what I owe you, if one day I don't upload a chapter, I will catch up.