14: I Failed Her. He Failed Her.

Eve

"Where's my mother!!!"

I screamed at the security guards trailing me while I ran down the spiral stairs again after checking her room only to find out she wasn't there... This was her quarters... why wasn't she having the baby here?

"Ma'am, she's in the emergency ward, third floor of the clinic building on the left," one of the security guards finally disclosed just as I flew past the front entrance.

So much has changed here in the one year I've been away. Now there's a home hospital? 

I didn't have time to be intrigued, so I rushed into the building, ignoring whoever was occupying the front desk and dashing into the elevator.

A minute was all it took me to catch my breath. As soon as the doors slid open, I was back, chasing after a voice... a cry that wasn't there but I believed it to be.

I haven't really been close to my mother. She always looked detached and somewhat cold, and whenever I looked into her eyes I always knew I reminded her of the horror she passed through. Was it guilt? Was it disappointment? Was it irritation for the child she conceived from a shame? I didn't know. I may never know.

I know that my birth traumatized her to the point of detaching from everyone and everything, even Keaton... That was why Father and Mother hadn't had a child after me... It was because of me.

That was why I was actually nervous... very anxious when the news of her pregnancy broke out... Finally I can have a mother.

Right now I wasn't thinking about my heirship... right now that didn't matter...

It was all in my head anyway. Daddy had made it public, officially... but...

No, this doesn't matter now.

The security on this floor was tight. I stopped before two women in suits guarding a door, a room... Mother's labour room.

"Let me in," I said.

They shared meaningful glances without actually moving out of the way. Did they just doubt me?

"Eve Waldorf... My mother's in there. Let me in."

The cry of a child caused an alarm in my head, flaring my eyes wider... Andrew, my little brother, is here...

"I said let me in," I ordered again, my voice lower and calmer as I rolled up the sleeves of my cardigan.

"Ma'am, we know you... however, we've been instructed not to let you in."

"By whom!"

"Ms. Cavendish."

She calls me here then orders the guards not to let me through? Yeah, bullshit.

Two minutes after beating the two stubborn guards out of my way, I barged in... The first colourful thing that blinded my eyes was blood. A lot of blood pooling on the bed, the bed my own mother lay on.

I couldn't be bothered to recognise the other faces in the room. My own mother's face was brighter... no, paler.

My heart skipped a beat when the nurses took off her oxygen pipe. I gasped, looking for words that never came out.

My eyes tingled and I almost staggered when they disconnected the machines, wires... everything hooked on her body at that moment detached.

Mom, why are you sleeping right now?

As soon as a white material was draped over her body, covering her face, I snapped... cold sweat running down my back.

"Mommy!!!"

The first time that word left my lips so comfortably in a while.

But why... why wasn't she responding... why wasn't she calling me sweetheart?

My eyes searched the room full of doctors and nurses until they landed on Danielle... the midwife... She was holding Andrew.

"What happened to my mother... why are you all suffocating her!!!"

My voice grew thicker and louder the more I yelled. They were all startled, staring at me with evident disappointment.

"Answer me!!!"

"Eve, I'm sorry... we did all we could."

All of a sudden I was the one being told sorry?

I stared at the bloody child in Danielle's arms... wailing at the peak of his tiny voice.

"Ms. Eve, you'll have to leave... we have to clean up the body," a voice piped from the side, probably one of the nurses.

"Body! Body?" I rolled my eyes to the bed, trying to see my mother, but the white clothes were stained in her belly area.... blood red.

"Where's daddy?"

I murmured. For some reason, I cradled the baby in my arms.

Does he know?

Does he know my mother had left him to be with death?

Does he know my brother has killed our mother with his presence?

The pressure to squeeze him didn't let me hold him longer. I shoved him back into Danielle's arms...

"Take him... Take him away... All of you leave!... Leave us... I want to talk to my mother now."

No one said a word with their mouths, but the glances they shared amongst themselves was clear... they thought I was going mad. I was.

I uncovered my mother's face... and the tears that I'd been holding in for a long time... for years... finally let loose.

The drops wetted her face as I leaned in, pressing my lips on her forehead.

"You..."

The words hung in my throat. What's the point of lamenting now?

What difference would it make if I confess how much I hate her? What difference would it make if I told her I love her... If she's not awake to hear me.

What difference did it fucking make that she sacrificed herself?

"Thank you, mom... for all you've done."

Slowly, I lay beside her on the bloody bed, cuddling with my head resting on her chest... It was a different feeling decades ago... It was warmer when we cuddled like this. Her heart was beating. Everything was peaceful then... just me and her.

Just me and...

"Eve."

I pinched my eyes shut further at the low, deep voice calling out to me.

"Eve."

His aged voice was shaky... too raspy.

Was he crying? Tears of joy maybe?

My eyes shot open when I felt the bed quake.

He weighed down on her right side, cuddling close.

I had stopped crying but he was just starting for the first time.

He lost a wife but gained a son. Those tears must be tears of joy.

For a while we laid by her side, stained by her blood, the evidence that we both failed her yet again.