The One He Gave Up On Was His Own Mother

It was evening when I ripped open the just-delivered medical report. The words "mild cerebral infarction" leapt off the page like a bright red warning, and I panicked instantly. My voice shook so badly I could barely get the words out. "Honey, look at Mom's test results. What are we gonna do?" My husband gave the report a quick once-over. His face clouded over, and he let out a long, heavy sigh after a beat of silence. "Aria, this is a chronic condition. No amount of money we throw at it will cure her." Tears burned my eyes and spilled over before I could stop them. "Even if I have to borrow every last cent, even if I sell everything we own, we have to treat her." He paused, his brow furrowing into a deep scowl. "I can't drag our whole family through hell just for Hazel." I froze, stunned, but Kian kept talking, cold and matter-of-fact. "Our son still needs to go to school, and we have bills to pay. If one of my own relatives got this diagnosis, I'd still choose to give up treatment immediately. Aria, you can't be this selfish." Staring at those features I knew so well, the face I'd woken up next to for years, he felt like a total stranger. My lips moved for a second before I found my voice. "Fine. Then we won't treat her." But Kian had gotten one thing very, very wrong. This wasn't Hazel's medical report. It was Eliza's. ***** Eliza had been complaining lately about constant weakness in her hands and dizzy spells. Kian had been worried sick, so he'd specifically told me to take her in for a checkup. Hazel had been under the weather a few days prior, so I'd just brought both of them to the appointment together. The second I saw the diagnosis, a bone-deep chill spread from my fingertips all the way up my arms. I crumpled the paper in my fist, fighting as hard as I could to hold back the tears burning behind my eyes, but my shaking hands gave away how shaken I was. I knocked on the study door. Kian's gaze flicked quickly to the report in my hand, then to my red, puffy eyes. He seemed to jump to a conclusion right away, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and sighing quietly. My voice was thick with guilt. "If I'd paid more attention to her symptoms, I would've caught this so much earlier. She wouldn't have had to suffer this long. Hurry up and get all our savings out. I'm taking her to the hospital tomorrow to get admitted!" Kian patted my back in what was supposed to be a soothing gesture. "Aria, they're old. Getting sick is just part of life at their age. We all have to make peace with the fact that sickness and death are just part of getting older. That's how life works." I lifted my head, staring at him through a blur of tears. "Stop saying that. Just go get the money. This disease is totally treatable, I know it." Kian grabbed my shoulders to hold me still, picking his words carefully before he spoke. "Aria, let's not treat her, okay?" Tears burst out of me full force, and I shook my head frantically. "No! It's only in the early stages right now! If we start treatment and intervention immediately, we can definitely stabilize her condition. She can still live a good few more years! How can you even say we shouldn't treat her?" He held my hand tighter, his voice hard and firm. "Do you have any idea how much this treatment is gonna cost? We'd be pouring tens of thousands down a black hole with no end in sight. We can't blow every last penny we have on a disease that can't be cured." I stared right back at him, unwavering. "Don't worry about the money. We'll use all the savings we've built up over the years, and if that's not enough, I'll borrow the rest. I'll sell every last thing we own if I have to, whatever it takes to get her treated. We can work extra hard later to pay off the debt. It's no big deal." "We can't ruin our entire family just for Hazel!" Those words hit me like a slap to the face. I froze stock-still, my mind going completely blank. "What did you just say?" "Aria, you have to understand where I'm coming from. We have a son to raise. He's gonna need money for school, for getting married later. Every step of his life costs money. Our savings are limited. We can't pour every last penny into a treatment that's doomed to go nowhere. Instead of dragging the whole family down—me, the kid, all of us—we need to cut our losses now." "Even if it was Eliza who got this diagnosis, I'd pull the plug right away. It's the only call we can make." It dawned on me all at once: he hadn't even glanced at the name on the report. He thought the sick person was Hazel. I stared at him, frozen, and slowly blinked back the tears pooling in my eyes. My chest went ice-cold, stiff as a brick, and every last scrap of love I'd ever felt for him shattered along with it. I yanked my hand back on instinct, my voice thick and gravelly. "Fine. We'll do it your way. No treatment." At that, the tension drained straight out of Kian's face. A flicker of satisfaction crossed his eyes, like he'd finally talked some sense into a stubborn, unreasonable kid. "Aria, it's not that I care about the money. I'm doing this for our little family, for you and our son's future. This condition's a death sentence anyway. No point in flushing our entire life savings down the drain for no reason. I know you're all heart, but we've got to keep our priorities straight. If we spend all the money and still can't save her, you'll only hurt more later. Give yourself some time to process, and you'll see I'm right." I cut him off sharply, staring at him with a look he couldn't quite parse, sharp with unspoken meaning. "I get it. Stop talking. You're the one calling the shots here. As long as you're sure we're not treating her, I have nothing else to say."