Chapter 11

As long as we were together in the ambiance of that hospital room, everyone behaved nonchalant, Rou was shocked at first but he started acting accordingly, mother and father had a very distant feeling to them. They surely were not home like, they felt as if they were my step parents.

Rou slept after chatting a bit and we all started to step out of the room. When we all did get out of there, my mother held me by my upper arm and turned me towards her, she uttered in a quiet yet authoritative voice "We need to talk."

I could feel the changed air, more tensed than I had ever felt it to be. We went down, into the hospital garden and there she started speaking

"So, my dear daughter, would you mind explaining what is all this?"

I wasn't aware of the relationship I had with them but by the way she talked to me it was made clear that we surely were not a happy loving family. How come they never once came to check on their own daughter, never once called or I never heard anything from them and now when Rou was injured they emerged out of the blues. I didn't know how to respond. I was scared. Still I took a deep breath and muttered,

"What... do you.... mean.... Ma?"

Ma was the word that naturally rolled out of my tongue to address her, as if I had called her Ma forever.

"Oh.. don't you pretend now and pour honey on me, there is no one who knows you better then me and your dad. I heard you lost your memory?" She talked as though I was lying.

My head had started to ache and there were images that were flashing through my brain but all were blurred, I couldn't comprehend anything.

*******************flashes********************

"Lili, meet Jake..."

"Lili you should date him..."

"Lili he's... a. .... good guy"

"Lili..... Lili..... Lili....."

**********************************************

My vision got blurry and all I remember is Jack's voice calling out my name and I was swallowed by darkness.

-----------------------------------------

Jake was on his way to the meeting and he couldn't stop thinking about Lili. While driving his heart skipped a beat but It wasn't a indication of love but an alarming moment of heart. Lili's image flashed through his mind and he reversed his car and immediately left for the hospital.

He rushed to where she was and as the doors of the elevator opened, he saw two figures and the female was angrily yelling at Lili.

He could see that Lili's body was trembling and it seemed that she was about to faint, so he yelled "Lili.... Lili..." while he scurried to her and caught her in his arms before her head could hit the floor.

He tried to wake her up but she didn't respond, he was worried. He carried her in his arms and called for the doctors. The doctors came and seeing Lili fainted they hurriedly took her for check up.

Jack was now looking at the new characters who had entered the story, they said they were her parents but the way they behaved and talked of her was nowhere near a parent would behave or talk of their child.

Jack had left Lili inside the room where the doctor examined her while he waited outside.

"Who are you? Oh, No.. I see, you are her lover, her new toy, I knew she would get bored with Rou at one point, but I didn't know it would last this long for them. So now she's pretending to lose her memory so that she can be with you... interesting.... I didn't know I gave birth to such a girl... " The old woman kept spewing nonsense and her assumptions.

Though I had not know Lili that long but something in me knew all about her and what her mother was saying, came nowhere near who my soul knew to be Lili.

The evening had fallen over, the blue sky, bright was now dark, and I had to say something, I wasn't angry because I was aware of who Lili was, I was not offended because the said assumption was not for my woman, I was bot upset because the woman who had spoken unruly words was not the true mother of my lover, yes indeed in name she was or could've been but a mother, a true mother would be their to love their child no matter what, see their pleas of unspoken struggle and be there for them but this woman in from of me was not that, had not done that.

"I do not know, who you are but I must tell you that the Lili you knew does not exist anymore and it would not be right if you treated the woman present now as if she was someone you knew, someone you had treated with harsh words. You say you are her mother than I would expect you to behave as one. As far as my relationship with her concerns, it is not something you should be worried about or try to unravel. Lili is the woman I love and live sees no boundaries." I said and with that, the mother had a shocked and confused and angry look on her face.

Her father was there too but he spoke nothing until he asked me to come with him to the garden

I went with him. It was a nice evening, cold breeze in the heat of summer, even the air carried the smell of the woman I loved so much in such a short time.

When I was growing up, my parents were always fighting about things, and when those fights didn't seem to die down, they both started avoiding each other's company, presence.

I was 11 when I saw my mother with another man, and 12 when my father brought a different woman other than my mother. They both knew the marriage had already ended the moment they decided to not listen to each other and stopped trying to make amends.

They stayed together for my sake for the next 6 years. When I turned 18, I told them that I knew what was going on between them, that I knew what I shouldn't have known, I reassured them that it was okay if they wanted a divorce, they didn't have to live together for the sake of me.

They were shocked at first but did what they should've years ago. The thing was they kept living with each other, and never once tried to make things work, that meant that option was gone way before they decided to pretend to be good parents. And when you know that you are not in love anymore with the person you married and have kids with, you are left in this maze of life where one way leads to freedom and one to the happiness of your child and my parents chose the later.

I was grateful because they loved me more than I could ever ask for. Taking their example I believed that you couldn't possibly love one person for the rest of your life. But What I felt for Lili screamed, I couldn't live a day without her.

I was brought to present when her father spoke, "I am Lili's father, Richard Mason. Nice to meet you....."

His incomplete sentence was an indication of him asking for my name and I answered

"Hello, Mr. Mason, I am Jack Lumon."

"Are you the Jack Lumon of Lumon enterprises?"

"Yes I believe I am."

"Jack, you don't know Lili, Lili has been a difficult child since birth, what she is behaving to be seems to be nothing like her, and I must say that can be because she's tired of her husband and wants a different man and what better man than a rich, handsome such as yourself. How long has it been for you to be together?"

"It's been a few weeks."

"That's the thing about Lili, once you stand in her presence you start admiring her but when you are swallowed by her presence, it all becomes hard to handle and you want to run away. You've only been here for a week. I and her mother, Tria, have had to deal with her for years."

"She doesn't remember her past, she tried but she doesn't remember anything and now that I see you and her mother, I think it is better that she doesn't remember anything. I know her presence is striking but that's not why I am with her, there is this inner string that won't let me be with anyone else now that I have met her. I have spend enough time with her to know that she's all that I ever wanted. I do not know of the girl you are talking about, for the woman I know is nothing like her, and even if she were to be like her I am sure I would still have lived her and let her presence swallow me whole so I could have been stuck to loving her forever." I said all of it without even realizing I had.

Richard was a bit taken aback.

"You seem like a good man Jack but what about Rou? Rou is her legal husband, your relationship with my daughter is illegal. and believe me you would be leaving her and if you don't than you'll become like Rou, deceived and cheated on." He said.