Chapter 168: There Might Be Another Way
Having heard the bickering, grandmother impatiently pushed Anthony away and walked to Michael, who was currently hospitalized.
Seeing Michael’s pale face and his chest bandaged because of the wound, she caressed his face with her trembling hands and said caringly, "What happened to you?"
Nobody answered it when Winnie asked the exact same question. However, Jake stepped forward upon hearing grandmother asking it and whispered, "Dad did it to himself."
"He did it to himself?" Grandmother was confused.
Jake then briefed grandmother on how it unfolded.
Grandmother asked in surprise, "Was Wendy injured too?"
Michael didn’t tell anyone in his family about the car accident as he knew that Winnie and Anthony couldn’t care less about the safety of Wendy and Jake. He also didn’t want grandmother to come to the hospital as grandmother was old and shouldn’t be bothered by the accident, especially how bad a situation Wendy was in at the moment.
However, someone had notified their grandmother about Michael’s injury, which prompted her to come to the hospital.
Having seen grandmother’s reaction, Jake realized that grandmother hadn’t learned of the accident and that he slipped out what happened. All he could do now was to nod in silence.
Grandmother stood up and said, "Let’s go check on Wendy."
Jake held grandmother’s hand and said, "My mom is still in the ICU. We can’t visit her at the moment."
Winnie immediately laughed after hearing what Jake said. "ICU? I guess Wendy Stewart finally got what she deserved! Hope she never wakes up from the coma."
Grandma stamped the floor with her crutch and glared at Winnie, and just as she was about to lecture her, Michael woke up because of all the bickering. He struggled to sit up on the bed, looked at Winnie, and said, "Why do you still hate Wendy so much, mom?"
"It’s not hatred! She’s just nothing but bad luck!" Winnie yelled. She had never wasted any chance to denigrate Wendy. "Would you have ended up in the hospital if it weren’t for her?"
Michael panted as he knew how opinionated his mother was. He then pointed at his chest and uttered word by word, "Do you know how I got the wound on my chest?"
"I owed someone my life, but to avenge Wendy, I stabbed myself with a knife to pay off the debt. Do you understand what really happened now, mom?"
Winnie was first dumbfounded by what Michael said, but after realizing what he meant, she got so shocked that she recoiled from his bed.
"Are you threatening me?" Winnie pointed at herself with her shaking hand. "Are you threatening your mother who birthed and raised you, Michael?"
"I know you’re here for me, mom, but my injury isn’t serious at all. Show yourself out."
Michael gave Winnie the boot as he toughened his voice.
"You probably want to leave him alone first, Winnie," grandmother echoed what Michael said.
Winnie didn’t understand why and when the entire Lucas family started to side with Wendy. ’Didn’t they all despise her at the beginning?’ Winnie thought.
She gazed at her son as she pursed her lips, and she felt like she was looking at a complete stranger.
She knew that she was in no power to confront Michael as she had lost the love and respect of both her husband and her own child, not to mention her husband’s mistress who was trying to replace her.
After weighing the pros and cons, she decided to head off.
As for Anthony, he only came here to make sure Michael was fine. Having seen that he was in good hands, he also left the hospital after a couple of exchanges with him.
***
Three days after staying in the ICU, Wendy was still in a coma.
After doing another full-body check on Wendy, her attending doctor sighed and told Michael, "Mr. Lucas, Mrs. Lucas getting slightly better, but it’s been three days since she got admitted into the emergency room. If Mrs. Lucas still can’t wake up today..."
The doctor didn’t finish his sentence, but Michael knew how it was going to end as the doctor had warned him when she was discharged from intensive care.
"Is there any other way to save her?" Michael couldn’t accept the impending reality even if he was told three days ago.
"There might be another way..." the doctor said. "We can’t transfer Mrs. Lucas to a general ward yet, but if someone can try talking to her, it might stimulate a ray of her consciousness."
"I’ll do it!" Michael, Jake and Mary said at the same time.
Todd wanted to volunteer as well, but having heard Michael offer to do so, he realized that he wasn’t in the place to do so.
Leah said with a shaking voice and her eyes swollen from all the crying, "Can I go in as well?"
The doctor glanced at all the people who wanted to help and said, "I’m sorry but we can’t allow so many people in. Mrs. Lucas is still in critical condition, and there might be a risk of bacterial infections, or I would’ve suggested it from the beginning."
"Then how many of us can go in?" Michael asked.
"Ideally, only one," the doctor replied. "This person must be a vital part of Mrs. Lucas. The more vital they are, the more likely they can wake up Mrs. Lucas. And besides, it’ll be better if the room is quiet, or all the crying and talking might be a distraction."
"Only one?" Michael took a deep breath and he looked toward Jake.
Michael wasn’t sure whether he was still the most important person to Wendy or not.
Since Wendy came back, Michael could tell she was still hating her. Although he had cleared up everything that happened five years ago, Wendy still insisted that she wanted to go back to Rheinsville City.
Before the car accident happened, Michael kept hounding Wendy hoping that she would change her mind and forgive him, but now, seeing Wendy lying on the bed unconsciously and having heard what the doctor said, he got butterflies.
He then turned around and looked at Todd as he wasn’t sure if Wendy had fallen in love with him or not. If she did, it might be Todd who fitted the profile that the doctor described.
Wendy was in very critical condition and based on the doctor’s diagnosis, she injured her brain in the car accident and the wound was far from being healed. If any bacterial infections happened, she would be in a coma forever.
Michael was certain that he was the man who loved Wendy the most, but now, he wasn’t so sure if the feelings were mutual.
It was dead silence outside Wendy’s room.
"Mr. Lucas, you’re Mrs. Lucas’s husband, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you head in?" The doctor could sense the awkwardness around him, but he knew that it would’ve been inappropriate for him to bring up anyone else.
"How could Mrs. Lucas love anyone more than she does Mr. Lucas?" the doctor thought.
Michael stood still for a long while, then he gasped and asked his son while looking down at the floor, "Jake, who do you think should go in, you or your Uncle Todd?"
Michael left his name out on purpose.
Todd, on the other hand, found it amusing. ’Does Michael still believe that there’s something going on between me and Wendy?’ he thought.
If that really was the case, why would Wendy come back here in the first place? Why didn’t Wendy just start a relationship with me then?
Jake was also surprised to hear his father asking that, so he raised his head and glimpsed at Todd, then looked at Mary, grandmother and Leah.
