Les Laches

51.

Tian stared at the body lying on the VIP ward bed with a faint look. His body wanted to catch up with his two younger siblings who had run ahead of him to head for the bed, but his knees betrayed him and made Tian slump to the floor quickly. Tears were flowing to blur his sight.

“Pa-papa?” Stammered Tian tried to call out to the father who was lying motionless there, as if hoping the figure is just taking a nap on the bed and will immediately answer his call with a wide smile full of affection as usual.

However, nothing happened. Not because his voice was too weak compared to the hysterical roar of the two little boys he had brought, but because his father's condition did not allow him to immediately wake up from his coma. Yes, the figure who usually looks dashing and invincible is now lying helplessly on his bed with a condition without consciousness.

Bella holds her eldest daughter's arm to help her get up and guide her to walk closer to her father. Tian's chest was getting crowded looking at his father's state up close. Almost half of his father's face and right side of his body were covered with burns. The head of the father who is usually covered with thick hair is now shaved because of the surgery he had to undergo due to the fatal accident. The only thing that allowed Tian to recognize the figure as his father was just a big birthmark on his left shoulder.

“Ma. This why? Why can papa like gini?” tian asked in a stinging voice. Before flying to Sweden, Tian did hear about the accident, but Bella did not tell him the details on the phone.

Bella's face doesn't look better than her three daughters. His eyes were unusually sloppy and his face was paler than the color of the ceramic walls of the room occupied by the Adler. Without even asking, Tian had known that the mother had not slept since she called Tian yesterday afternoon. Bella hasn't even budged off her husband's side since he left the operating room.

“Papa you are involved in a consecutive accident when you get home from a business meeting with his client. Police say your papa is a little tired so you can't avoid it when an overloaded truck goes off course while trying to break through a red light. The driver of his truck died on the spot.” Bella delivered the last sentence in a suffocating voice, as if imagining that her husband could be in the position of having to lose his life.

“There are other victims?” ask Tian. 

He understands his mother's feelings. Therefore, he tried to distract the mother. 

Bella nodded. “There are two other cars involved, one of which only experienced a mild impact because it had avoided, and the other condition is not much better than your papa. Mama should have been there with your papa. All this because my mom didn't come to the meeting. If there is a mother, your father can not be tired like that and can be more concentrated on the road. All this because of mama.”

Tian grabbed Bella's tightly clenched hand and rubbed it gently. 

“Don't beat yourself up Mama. Mama must have a reason why Mama can't come, right? Where's marcela?” tian asked as he circulated a glance throughout the room. He only realized that he had not seen the little girl since arriving at his father's room.

“Marcela in another room. He has a high fever since a few days ago and changing weather conditions make his physical endurance decreases. Yesterday the day after tomorrow, when my mom checked in, there were symptoms of typhoid. Therefore, mama should nemenin him opname here,” explained Bella with tears that are increasingly flowing. He almost lost his sanity to see the two dearly loved ones lying helplessly on the hospital bed. One of them is at the crossroads between life and death.

Bella almost apologized once more when the door of the room opened violently. The four pairs of eyes belonging to the occupants of the room were staring simultaneously at a woman in her 60s who was now stepping quickly towards Bella. Zaira Oberon, the mother of Adler.

Bella and Tian got up from their sitting positions and prepared to welcome, but a loud slap landed on Bella's left cheek before she could say anything. Reflexes, Tian pulled the body of his mother that was shaking violently into his arms while staring naggingly at Zaira.

“Butcher shit!” maki the old woman while throwing a sharp look towards Bella and Tian. 

“Keep you guys from here. The devil's carrier of disease!” he snapped while throwing the two small bodies away from his son's body.

Tian almost reacted violently when he saw his two younger siblings being treated like that, but Bella held back her eldest daughter's arm. He threw a pleading glance at Tian as his daughter tried to rebel. Eventually, Tian was forced to budge and signal Lydia and Joan to get closer to him.

“Since the beginning I have been against Adler's desire to marry a woman who does not have a clear family background like you. Not to mention the widow with three children. I don't know what you've done to make my son so infatuated with you. If it's any other man, I can guess that maybe they're after your face and body. But my son grew up well and not only saw women from the physical side.” 

“And finally my question was answered today. You are a cunning woman. You got my son here because of an accident due to exhaustion. You've planned a lot of things turned out!”

“Planning?!” Tian who could no longer help himself heard the way Zaira lowered her mother said in a shrill voice. “This madman says what, Ma?”

“Shh, Tian!” reprimand Bella who did not expect the sentence came out of the lips of her daughter who was soft-tempered. Zaira herself did not suspect that the adopted grandson she considered obedient was in fact to have such a side.

“Why weren't you with Adler when the accident happened? By accident? Or because you know that Adler is very tired and will definitely be involved in an accident during the trip?” asked Zaira with her cynical smile.

“Marcela hurts. He's in the other room. THAT's what makes mama can not nemenin papa yesterday,” said Tian firmly.

“Sick? You sure it wasn't because it hurt your mama?”

“You psychopath?! Which mother would do all that to her own daughter?” tanya Tian was furious.

“Just your psychopathic mother! Psychopaths are good at acting. See how your mother behaved weakly and let you defend her when she should have explained why my son had to go through all this? Why isn't he the one who's dying and lying here? That way, maybe I can slightly assume the existence of him next to my son is meaningless.” Zaira's tears trickled down and her face flushed red as she said all that. “I've been expecting a terrible disaster since Adler brought your mother home.”

Tian was at a loss for words to hear all of Zaira's words. “Fill your head really terrible.”

Zaira almost opened her mouth again when a male entered Adler's room and stopped right in front of Bella and her daughters. 

“Go back to Indonesia now!” the man ordered in a cold voice.