CHAPTER NINE

JASON

Six weeks. It had been six weeks since Leila had a seizure and fell into a coma. No movement. Just steady breathing, like she was asleep. The monitor beside her bed shows a steady heartbeat. There was a ventilator attached to her mouth. The bandages on her arms were decreased. But she still needed to wear a neck brace. Her last leg was still in a cast.

The silence of the room was not helping to ease my anxieties. On the most recent CT scan, Dr David found new blood clots and broken blood vessels in the brain. Her brain injury worsened. Poor Leila.

The doctor suggested a brain surgery but I suggested that we get another MRI scan to show if her brain injury was healing. I thought it would be best to wait for her to wake up to clearly assess her injuries. The doctor agreed that the extent of her injuries would show on her motor skills. But it had already been six weeks and she was not waking up. So we decided to get her another MRI scan tomorrow to check if her brain injuries had healed.

Yes, I know. It was all my fault. Everyone blamed me, including my parents. I blamed myself. I was thinking back, why I pushed her to restore Emzitech's systems. I guess I couldn't take it that she was a lot smarter than me. A lot smarter than all our employees.

My Dad, on the other hand, saw the opportunity that Leila presents; a better Emzitech. More products to offer. Maintaining the top position in the IT world. Maybe expand. The possibilities are endless. It's just disturbing that we might become too dependent on her.

As it is right now, we need her. We need Leila.

So here I am, sitting on a chair in the ICU, staring at Leila's motionless body. For her age, she was small. Her thin body also made her look so frail and defenseless.

I do try to do some work on my laptop. My IT team found it easier to work on our programs after Leila removed some of the bugs. I've been working on my own personal websites while monitoring the different departments of Emzitech. Our shares were already down by thirty-six percent. Since it would take a while before all if our systems are fully restored, I tried to think of a way to cushion Emzitech's fall and how to prevent this kind of problem from repeating in the future.

My parents left and went back to Pennsylvania. I was adamant that I can take care of Leila alone. It's time I grow up. I'm planning to bring Leila to Pennsylvania as soon as the doctor gives the go signal. I can't leave her here. No one is going to take care of her. Even her Grandma went back to Michigan.

On impulse, I went beside her bed. I talked softly, just loud enough for her to hear. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for pressuring you to fix Emzitech's systems. I'm sorry for being heartless. I'm sorry for not trying to understand you. It's just that I envy you for being so smart. You were smarter than all of us. I wanted to be smarter than you. But I'm not. You are so smart. I have never met anyone as smart as you. You are a genius. You are so gifted. We need you. But you need us, too. I promise you, that if you wake up one more time, you won't regret being alive. You won't regret being part of my family. I can't change your circumstances. I can't bring your Dad back. I don't know why your mother hurt you. But your life doesn't have to end. Your life can be happy. You can have a happy future. My family will love you like you have always been part of my family."

"So please come back. I promise things will be better than before. I promise to give you the love…," I paused. That's too much, I think. I'm not ready to say that. "I promise I will always be your big brother who will protect you and take care of you. I promise Leila."

I looked at her. I looked at her face. Eyes still closed. Face motionless and without expression. I wonder if she heard what I said. "Please," I pleaded. "Please come back, Leila. Please come back."

I took her cold hand and covered it with my warm hands. I searched her face for any reaction to my heart-warming speech. Nothing. I sighed.

Then suddenly, there it was again. Tears. Tears were falling down her closed eyes. She was crying. I hugged her and whispered softly to her ears, "Thank you, Leila." I tried to comfort her. "Shhhh. It's going to be okay now. No need to worry. I will take care of you."

She continued crying. I informed the nurse and called the doctor. The doctor assured me we didn't need to give her tranquilizers because the monitor was not showing any stress. Her breathing remained slow and calm. It was tears of happiness.

Dr David still decided that she remains in the icu until she was fully conscious. Her tears were a positive sign that her condition was improving.

The next day, I decided to take a break from the hospital atmosphere and go around California.I went to the beach and worked on my suntan.

So I was there, lying on a towel draped on the sand trying to look cool with my sunglasses and trunks. Being alone invited some gorgeous ladies to eye me. I just ignored them. Ignoring gorgeous women is part of my cool, preppy image. I stared at the sea, full of people swimming and frolicking, children playing. Their laughter and chatter filled the air. I didn't mind. Being around them gave me the break I needed. Since the Emzitech systems crashed and dealing with Leila, I had been a nervous wreck. It was really too much for my teenage psyche.

When the sun became too warm on the summer sky, and I was starting to look like a lobster, I decided to look into the diamond stores in Los Angeles and give Leila a diamond pendant.

A beautiful, elegant store sales lady approached me as I was looking at the jewelries available. She eas sizing me up, trying to gauge my budget.

She smile, looking alluring. "How can I help you?"

"I want to buy a diamond pendant for my sister."

"How much is your budget?"

She asked pleasantly. "Come, follow me. Our diamond pendants are over here." She led him to a glass cabinet showing different necklaces and pendants with small diamonds.

"I'm really not sure how much my budget is. This is the first time I'm going to give jewelry for someone. Can you tell me the price of these necklaces?"

"This one over here,"she ponted to a heart -shaped pendant containing a single diamond. "that already cost $2,300 dollsrs. The one beside it cost four thousand, eight hundred and twelve."

"Are they not kind of cheap for jewelry? The diamonds on each of them are so small. And they don't look very white."

Jason looked around and saw a ring with an impressive two -carat diamond on display a few feet away. He said, "I want a diamond bigger than that. It's the first jewelry I'm going to give to her, so it's very important to me that she'll like it."

"How old is she?"

"Thirteen."

The sales lady started to look at me condescendingly. "The diamond on that ring you are pointing at is already more than two carats. It already cost two hundred and twelve thousand." She looked at me, expecting me to looked shocked at the price. But I just looked bored.

"Miss, what is your name?" I asked.

"Martha, Șir."

"Martha, I don't want to offend her by giving her jewelry with small diamonds. Do you have a pendant that haș a five carat diamond?"

Martha's eyes widened. "Șir, five carat diamonds normally cost more than half a million! And she's only thirteen years old."

I continued giving her a calm, bored facial expression. "That's alright. Do you have any five-carat diamond on stock that you can show me? Maybe I can just choose the diamond and you can just set it for me."

Martha looked at me with a stern look on her face. She obviously could not believe I would buy a five carat diamond. I guess I shouldn't have come here wearing a beach gear.

She told me to wait while she went inside a room. She came back acompanied by a man in his middle forties. His hair was combed back neatly and he clear shaven. He was wearing a business suite with polished black leather shoes.

When he saw me, his eyes widened. His face broke out into a smile. "Mister Ziegler, how can I assist you?"

I was taken aback that he knew me. I smiled at him and told him I wanted to buy a five-carat diamond pendant for my sister. "Would you have a diamond on stock with that size?"

"We have the best diamonds at our warehouse in Madrid. You can view them online and can just order it. It can be delivered within two weeks. Unfortunately, the biggest diamond that we have here at the moment is a three-carat diamond on a ring setting.

So I told him I will take a look at their online store