Chapter_39
The tension in the room was suffocating. The air seemed heavy with unspoken fears, each of them dreading the reality of Naomi’s situation. The doctor had just left after delivering the grim prognosis: Naomi had fought through the immediate crisis, but without a bone marrow transplant or cord blood infusion, her future was uncertain.
Tyler stood at the edge of Naomi’s bed, his jaw clenched, silently processing the weight of the doctor’s words. Mrs. Jones, on the other hand, was clearly unraveling, her face streaked with tears and desperation.
Olivia, standing near the door, felt her heart race as she caught the tail end of the conversation. “W-What’s going on?” she asked, her voice shaking slightly.
Tyler’s eyes immediately shifted toward her, but he didn’t say anything right away. The room was thick with grief and tension, the kind that weighed on the chest and made it hard to breathe.
Then, in an instant, Mrs. Jones collapsed to her knees before Olivia. The sudden motion caught everyone off guard, especially Olivia, who took a step back in shock. “Save your sister, Olivia!” Mrs. Jones cried out, her voice breaking with an intensity that made Olivia’s stomach drop.
Tyler’s gaze grew colder, his eyes flickering with discomfort, but he stayed silent.
Mrs. Jones didn’t seem to care about anything except one thing—her daughter’s life. Grabbing Olivia’s clothes with trembling hands, she begged, “Naomi can’t wait any longer. Why don’t you do IVF? I know it’s torturous, but it’s the quickest option.”
Olivia froze, her mind spinning. IVF? What was she talking about? Her body felt heavy, her heart racing in her chest.
“No, Mom!” Naomi protested, her voice hoarse as she tried to sit up. “What are you saying? Olivia isn’t a tool for me. You can’t force her into this!”
But Mrs. Jones’s desperation only grew more intense. She shook Olivia, her fingers gripping her tighter. “The doctor said that cord blood could save Naomi too! I’m begging you, Olivia! Please!”
Naomi’s voice rose, her eyes filled with anguish. “You can’t ask her to do this! How young is she? How can you ask her to go through IVF—those needles, that pain? You can’t force this on her.”
The thought of it—the needles, the treatments, the uncertainty—it all seemed like a nightmare to Olivia. She stood there, speechless, her mind racing, unable to comprehend how this had escalated so quickly.
Mrs. Jones’s voice cracked as she sobbed, “But what else do we have now? She can’t get pregnant on her own. We need Olivia and Tyler to make this work. We need to speed things up!”
Olivia recoiled, feeling completely helpless in the face of her mother’s hysteria. She was being tugged and pulled in every direction, caught in the web of Naomi’s life-threatening condition, her own discomfort, and the suffocating weight of the family’s expectations.
Mrs. Jones suddenly seemed to have a new plan. She grabbed Olivia again, pulling her close, the madness of her words spilling out in a frantic rush. “Olivia, why don’t you move in with Tyler for a month? If you still can’t get pregnant by then, we’ll proceed with IVF.”
Olivia felt as if she were being dragged into a world she couldn’t control. Her breath hitched as Mrs. Jones continued to speak with an edge of hysteria in her voice. She felt the world closing in around her.
Meanwhile, Tyler stood there, his expression hardening as he watched the scene unfold. He said nothing at first, his face unreadable, but his clenched fists betrayed his internal struggle. He wanted to intervene, to stop his mother from pushing Olivia in such an impossible direction, but he couldn’t find the words. He wasn’t even sure if there were words that could undo this madness.
Then, Mrs. Jones turned toward Naomi, almost as if she needed her approval, her eyes wild with urgency. “What do you think, Naomi? Shouldn’t they live together? Maybe if they spend time together, Olivia can get pregnant before we have to go the IVF route.”
Naomi fell silent, her body shaking as the weight of the decision pressed down on her. Her eyes shifted toward Tyler, filled with a kind of helplessness. She knew this was absurd, but in the face of her own mortality, she felt powerless to stop it. Her tears welled up as she whispered, “Tyler… I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to force Olivia, but I don’t have any other choice. If she doesn’t do this, I might not make it.”
Tyler’s face grew pale, his emotions warring inside him. He turned toward Naomi with a mixture of disbelief and anger. “Do you not find this ridiculous, Naomi?”
Naomi met his gaze, her lips trembling. She knew exactly how ridiculous this all was, but she also knew that time was running out. She looked back at him for a long moment before finally whispering, “If you’re against it… we can try IVF.”
Tyler’s eyes burned with frustration, his voice icy as he spat out her name, “Naomi!” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. This wasn’t how he had imagined helping Naomi.
But Naomi’s face was streaked with tears, her body trembling with fear. She had no other option but to ask for something she knew was wrong. “I’m sorry, Tyler,” she whispered, barely able to get the words out.
In that moment, Tyler felt like the walls were closing in on him. No matter how much he cared about Naomi, this wasn’t the way. And no matter how much he wanted to fix everything, he couldn’t help but feel that in doing so, they were all losing themselves in the process.