Chapter 103 Chapter 103
Lee's Pov
I woke up to the insistent beeping of a monitor and a faint smell of disinfectant. The room was quiet except for that incessant sound and the quiet rustling of movement far away. My eyelids creaked apart, the fluorescent light hanging over my head blazing a harsh glare on the white ceiling. I blinked, groggy and having no clue where I was.
Then I remembered. The hospital. I remembered the pain and grandma's worried face.
My body felt weak, like I'd been hit with a heavy object and my arms were pinned beneath a tangle of tubes and wires. My mouth was as dry as cotton. I moved a little, and a gentle gasp slipped from me.
"Lee?" A voice called out. It wasn't grandma. It was deeper. Softer, but uncertain and trembling.
I turned my head around, and I saw a man. The same man that made mummy cry. He sat by the window, his body leaned over his knees, elbows propped there with his eyes focused on me as if I was the key to all prayers he ever made.
It was him.
"Why are you here? Where's grandma?" My voice was a rasp, hardly more than a whisper. He rose slowly, almost too carefully, as if any sudden movement would shatter something fragile.
"My name is Dominic," he said. "I'm…"
"I know who you are, mummy told me." I cut in.
His eyes grew wide and something bloomed across his face for a moment before I said, "You're the man who made my mama cry."
That look disappeared as quickly as it came and he took a step back like something had slapped him.
"Lee, I…" he began, voice catching in his throat.
I shook my head, turning my face away from him. "I don't want to talk to you."
"I just want to be your friend."
"I don't want to be your friend," I growled. My voice was stronger this time, full of venom and anger I didn't fully understand. "I don't like you."
There was a soft, shattered breath, as if he'd tbeat him in his belly and then his voice came once more, even softer this time. "Okay. I understand."
I clamped my eyes shut and tried to will him out of existence. A few seconds passed. Then I heard the sound of footsteps receding and the squeak of the door.
I sat up and I saw Mama, her eyes welling over with tears. She walked in and sat down beside my bed, gently sweeping a strand of hair from my forehead.
"Sweetheart," she whispered, "he didn't mean to hurt you."
I rolled away, teeth clenched. I didn't care.
Mama sighed. "I just wanted you to know he daved you. He gave you his blood. He didn't have to but he did without even complaining."
I didn't answer.
A nurse knocked and came in. She smiled tightly at Mama and adjusted something on the drip. I stared at the ceiling, my chest tightening. He didn't want my mummy so he didn't want me too. Why should I want him now?
The silence suspended between us until I whispered, "Why did he come now?"
Mama didn't answer. She squeezed my hand instead. "Because I called him. Because he'syour father and I think he cares.."
That was what I wanted to believe. Really, I did. But I could only think of all the times he hadn't been there. Not when I learned to ride my bike, not when I got sick that time in nursery school, nor even when I won the spelling bee.
Now, when I couldn't even stand, he decided to show up. I faced the window.
Dominic's Pov
I stood in the hallway, fists clenched and heart beating fast. The air was chilled, sterile and too bright. All of the walls were seeming to shut in.
I leaned against the wall and shut my eyes, trying to find strength.
She hated me and although she was still a child, I could see it in her eyes. Whatever it is Liana has said to her, it stuck.
I had not even assumed my first real encounter with my daughter would be this way. I don't know why but I had just hadn’t thought that she would be frightened. Maybe just shy, but kids where different these days. I had not anticipated rejection nor had I though it would be a stark reminder of all that I had missed.
But I could not fault her. How could I?
I thought giving my blood will do some healing, make it better but obviously, giving my blood hadn't captured her heart. Maybe something else.
Liana slid out quietly, her eyes red. She came to stand beside me.
"She'll come around," she said even though I knew she was just trying to be nice because I gave them blood.
I laughed roughly, a tiny, bitter noise. "She said she didn't want to be my friend."
Liana flashed me a guilty look. "She's a child. And she's scared."
I nodded, swallowing hard. “Maybe if her mother had told her something good about me, she would have shown the slightest excitement. But judging by the Liana I know there's no way you would have done that.”
“Don't play that card Dominic. Irresponsibility is a choice and you made it. Anything Lee thinks of you is of her own accord. To think I was actually soliciting for you in there. You think I want you here? You think if you hadn't saved my child you would have had the right to stand beside me? Oh please Dominic… take your L and don't drag me into it.”
I stood stunned, just staring. There you go. I wasn't wrong afterall, she was only feeling indepted because I helped. I tried to form words, anything at all but nothing came so I just stood straight, kept a straight face and turned to leave.
I paused and looked back when I got to the door. “Maybe this would have turned out differently Liana. Maybe.”
And then I disappeared down the hallway, my footsteps growing faint like a broken vow. Outside, I looked at the clouds and allowed one tear to trickle down my face.
Court was the only option. Now that I had seen Lee and heard what she thought of me, there was no stopping.
“See you in court, Liana.” I wispered into the darkness.