The nurse urged me to make the payment.
Emily emptied every bill she had on her, but against the towering surgery costs, it was nothing.
Clutching a few thousand dollars I had left, I knelt on the cold hospital floor and pleaded.
“I beg you—please, save her!”
“I will have the money, I swear. Just give me one more day. Tomorrow, I’ll pay in full.”
The medical staff exchanged glances, feeling torn.
“It’s not that we don’t want to help, Miss Perez, but...”
One of them hesitated before sighing, “Your mother has been surviving on money alone for too long. This isn’t a real solution.”
“She... she has almost no chance of making it.”
I knew that. But hearing it out loud still crushed me.
Wiping my tears away, I stumbled back into my mother’s hospital room.
Emily, sobbing, came to support me.
And then, as if by some final miracle, my mother was awake—sitting up, waiting for me.
Her face was pale, yet she smiled warmly. “Yvonne, come sit with Mom.”
Summoning the last of my strength, I forced a smile and sat by her bedside, clutching her frail hand.
“I knew you’d get better,” I choked out.
She reached up to wipe the tears from my face, tucking a stray lock of my hair behind my ear.