Chapter One: The Diagnosis

Her phone's ringtone snapped her out of her thoughts, the name on the screen, 'Doctor Byrne' made her heart skip. She immediately grabbed it and held it close to her ear in a tight grip.

 "Please come to the hospital," his voice sounded through the speaker.

 "Is my Mum okay?How is she?", she wanted so badly to know what was wrong, something was off with his voice.

 "Miss Richards, I'll tell you everything once you're here" 'Everything?'

 Dropping her phone on their only chair, she slipped on a gown, grabbed her phone, and ran out of their house.

 'Life and Hope' hospital didn't seem so far anymore. she ran as fast as her legs could carry her. The doctor was not in his office, she ran to her mother's ward to check on her, Doctor Byrne was there; he had been waiting for her.

 "How is she?" she was in no mood to exchange greetings. The doctor signalled for them to go to his office to avoid being listened to by Mrs Richards, and Sophie was grateful to him for that, whatever it was, she wanted to hear it first.

 "Miss Richards, I will go straight to the point. Your Mother's kidneys are failing--we've reached the final stage. If she consistently gets dialysis, it can be managed before she gets a transplant. Now this dialysis will only help her manage it for a certain period of time and not cure it entirely, she will need a kidney transplant for that".

 Her knees grew weak and could not hold her up any more; they buckled, if she hadn't reached the chair in time, she would have collapsed on the floor.

 "How much does it cost?"

 "She needs three dialysis per week, and that's 750 dollars, and she needs it for as long as possible, if she does not get the transplant immediately. The transplant costs 40,000 dollars"

 She did not know why most doctors were mean, not even a 'sorry'...nothing. Her vision was blurry with tears, she heard things faintly.

 "Miss Richards?" 

 She looked up but only had a blurry image of a person in a white medical coat. She quietly stood up and walked, she didn't know where she was going, she just walked aimlessly.

 The view of the hospital's name made her snort, 'Life and hope?' she had none, her Mum is her life, her only family.

 She walked with shaky legs, constantly leaning on the street pillars to support her weak body and save up energy.

 The building she walked into was an old church, she'd never been there before but was moved to go inside, the sun was scorching and from how tired she was, she needed somewhere to rest; she was shocked to find someone there, knelt in prayer, head bowed, the front of the church was covered in dark shadows and so she couldn't see who it was. When the person stood up, she made to get up in a hurry but fell back to the chair--she was too weak to hide, she felt like she didn't belong there.

 It was a lady, middle-aged, she dressed elegantly in a turquoise blue suit and skirt, with a hat dangling from her hand which was draped in net gloves of a similar colour, her white hair made her look sophisticated.

 As she approached her, Sophie suddenly stood up again and tried to leave, but was stopped when a warm palm met her arm in a soft but firm grip.

 She looked at the woman with mixed feelings 'What does she want?'

 "Hi, I hope you're not leaving because of me?" The woman's voice was very calm and motherly, it made her want to cry to her, but she answered instead, "N-no ma'am, I'm just pressed", she lied.

 "Alright then, I'll take my leave now", the lady walked elegantly, Sophie following quietly behind her, she immediately took a left turn heading towards her house.

 She was lost in her thoughts when a luxurious looking car splashed dirty pothole water on her; she was frustrated already and now this? clenching her fist, she hurled insults at the driver, and even stood stubbornly when the car came to a halt.

 The man driving came down and went to her, "Miss, my boss wants to see you", she bluntly refused.

"Who do you think you are, huh? you think just because you have the money you can treat everyone like scum?!"

 The 'boss' seemed to have sensed what was going on, and decided to investigate it.

 Sophie was shocked to see the same woman from the church, she walked towards Sophie in a calm pace.

 "Hey again," her voice was as calm as ever, "I would like to have a little chat with you"

 Sophie looked around at the busy road. The woman seemed to read her mind because she added, "We could go to that cafe over there" she gestured toward a cafe at the end of the road. and Sophie agreed.

 On entering the car, she marvelled at the interior, it even had a television, she'd never seen anything like it before.

 The cafe was a high-end cafe, where only rich people trooped, because of how expensive their meals were.

 They entered and sat down close to the window while the driver remained in the car.

 "Let's order something", the woman said, it came more like a question, Sophie wanted to turn her down but her stomach growled loudly, and the woman obviously heard it because she smiled lightly, so she reluctantly agreed, mostly because she hadn't had anything to eat all day. She was busy saving up to pay for her mother's hospital bill, she ordered for a croissant and a cup of coffee, and felt slightly ashamed when the woman only ordered for a cup of tea.

 "Thank you very much ma'am" she said shyly after she'd cleared her meal.

 "Oh please, call me Mrs Ken"

 "Okay ma-Mrs Ken, I'm Sophie" Sophie smiled.

 "Sophie..you looked troubled at the church, and you look naturally soft-spoken, which was why I was shocked when you reacted the way you did back there. I mean... I know my driver was wrong, which was why I had him come down to call you, so we could apologize, it was never my intention to belittle you so I'm very sorry"

 Sophie looked down at her fidgeting hands, utterly baffled, she'd never been apologized to like this before now.

 "Have I been forgiven?" Mrs Ken asked 

 "Yes, Mrs Ken" She smiled, the thought of her Mother in a hospital bed, however. made her sad again, this mood shift didn't go unnoticed by Mrs Ken.

 "So Sophie, what's wrong, if you don't mind telling me?"

 She sounded deeply concerned, and so, Sophie couldn't resist this time, She narrated everything to her, crying when it got to the point of the diagnosis.

 Mrs Ken quickly paid for their meal and led her out if the cafe, into the car.

 "Which hospital is that?" She inquired after Sophie finished.

 "Life and hope hospital" Sophie replied between sobs.

 Mrs Ken knew she'd heard about that hospital before, and so she made a mental note to check it out, she collected Sophie's number and promised to contact her.

 The driver, with Sophie's direction, dropped her off at her house and wheeled away.

 Sophie, made up her mind to go to her estranged father's house, she remembered that he once had a business deal with one of the shareholders of life and hope hospital, there was no way she could forget, after all he came to flaunt it in her mother's face.

 Mr. Richards, Sophie's father had married her mother only for her family wealth, however, her grandma was only her grandfather's mistress, and since they weren't legally married, all his properties were willed to his legitimate wife and children, when Mr Richards, got to know about this, he filed for a divorce and remarried her mother's best friend, Bethany, who was rich.

 Mr Richards' house was very big, flowerpots littered the compound, different cars parked in a corner.

 Bethany Richards saw Sophie from the gate cam, and secretly ordered the gateman to let her in, she wanted to spite her.

 Sophie was surprised to see Bethany at the entrance door.

 "What do you want?" Bethany asked with a look of disgust on her face.

 "I want to see my father" She regretted those words as soon as they left her mouth, what father abandoned his daughter?.

 "Well, he doesn't want to see you, so you'd better take your filthy self out of this compound" 

 She'd heard of Sophie's mother's condition, because she saw Sophie at the family hospital and personally sought to find out why she was there and so she knew why Sophie was here, she also knew that Sophie wouldn't leave that easily, and was determined to humiliate her to her satisfaction.

 Sophie remained adamant, asking to see her father. 

 "If you really want to see your father, kneel down and wash my feet" Bethany's words brought tears to Sophie's eyes.

"Bethany, pl--"

"Do you want to see my husband or not?!" Bethany asked, arms folded as she stared at Sophie in disdain.

'if I don't do this, I might lose mum'. Sophie's heart ached as she slowly nodded, tears streaming down her face.

 Bethany ordered the gateman to get a bucket of water and it was handed over to Sophie who knelt down in front of Bethany, washing her feet as tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably.

 When she was done, Bethany held her by the hair and dragged her out of the compound.

"Please Bethany!" 

"Stop!"

 Bethany turned around to find her husband there with the man he'd been in a meeting with.

 Steven Richards walked over to where his wife stood, and whispered, "How dumb can you be? what do you want Mr Jerome to think of us? you'd better let this girl go now"

 Bethany was quite displeased, but she didn't want Jerome to think ill of them, he was about to be her husband's business partner and they must not lose him, after all, he was The Jerome Ken, the youngest billionaire in the whole of X City.

 She let Sophie go and glanced at Mr Jerome, who looked back with lazy, uncaring eyes, he looked at Sophie's retreating figure and back at Mr Richards, who spoke with a shaky voice, "Mr Ken, you know how it is with all this poor people, she came here begging and tried to steal that was why my wife dragged her out like that"

 Mr Ken's voice came calm, but firm, and a bossy tone to it, "Weren't we both in a meeting? how come you know all this?"

 Steven suddenly felt hot "Um, you know-"

 "Mr Ken, my husband owns an iPad that gives him access to all the surveillance cameras in the compound" Bethany interrupted Steven.

 Jerome squinted his brows, he hadn't seen Steven with any iPads during their meeting, he saw through their lie, "Whatever" He replied and strode towards his car.

 "Mr, Ken, my daughter, Shelagh could accompany you" Bethany had been trying to matchmake her daughter and Jerome for a very long time.

 "No need" Jerome replied entering his car.

 "Ryan", he called his driver

 "Sir?" 

 "Find out why they treated that girl like that" he replied 

 "Okay sir"

 He was about to make Mr Richards his business partner, and he was already lying to him? unacceptable.

 They drove out of the compound leaving Mrs Richards red-faced, he had bluntly turned down her shameless offer.