Chapter 8
Linda frowned, her brows drawing together. "Hold on, I'll check for you."
When Emily got home, she noticed a pair of men's shoes by the door.
She pushed the door open and saw Frank sitting in the living room with a middle-aged man she'd never seen before.
There were a couple of teacups and a file on the coffee table.
Frank stood up when he saw her. "Emily, this is Dr. Julian White, Sophia's attending physician."
Julian stood up and nodded at Emily. "Mrs. Sanders."
Emily slipped into her slippers and headed over to the sofa, choosing to remain standing.
"Dr. White, what brings you here?" she asked.
Frank glanced at Julian, who cleared his throat. He replied, "Mrs. Sanders, to be honest, Sophia's condition has become unstable, and the chemotherapy hasn't been as effective as we expected.
"We need to move forward with a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there isn't a suitable match in the registry right now."
Emily looked at Julian. "So?'
Julian glanced at Frank, who gave his elbow a gentle nudge.
Julian continued, "Mrs. Sanders, you're two months pregnant right now. There's a possibility your baby could be a compatible donor for Sophia.
"If you're open to it, we'd like to do an amniocentesis when you reach four months, just to see if the baby is a match."
Emily's gaze shifted from Julian to Frank. "So you actually brought her doctor over just so he could tell me this face-to-face?"
Frank swallowed hard. "Emily, I know this is coming out of nowhere, but Sophia's situation is really urgent.
"If she doesn't get the transplant, she might only have up to six months left. There's some risk to the baby with the amniocentesis, but honestly, it's really low.
"I'm not keeping anything from you. I wanted you to hear it straight from Dr. White."
Emily looked down at the document lying on the coffee table.
It was an informed consent form. Her name and ID number were already filled in, printed right on the page.
She picked it up and skimmed through.
At the very bottom, it said: [I voluntarily consent to undergo amniocentesis between the 16th and 18th week of pregnancy for the purpose of bone marrow matching with Sophia Quinn.]
"Who filled this out?" Emily asked.
"That was me. I went ahead and filled it out earlier," Julian replied. "Figured it'd save us some time."
Emily set the consent form back down on the coffee table. "Dr. White, did you ever discuss with Sophia the idea of matching her with a fetus from a pregnant woman? How did she react?"
Julian opened his mouth, but then closed it again.
Emily turned to Frank. "When did you give the hospital my ID number?"
Frank had his hands in his pockets, his thumb nervously rubbing back and forth along the seam of his pants.
He replied, "Emily, hear me out before you get upset."
"I asked you when you gave the hospital my ID number," Emily pressed.
"Last week," Frank admitted.
"Did you even ask for my permission?" Emily shot back.
"I was planning to discuss it with you today," Frank said.
"Discuss? You already had the consent form printed out. Is that what you call discussing it?" Emily retorted.
Her voice was low and flat, every word calm and emotionless.
Julian, lingering awkwardly at the side, started making his way toward the door. "Uh, I'll leave you two to talk."
As he was about to leave, Emily called out to him, "Dr. White."
Julian turned around.
"This consent form isn't valid unless I sign it, right?" Emily asked.
"Yes," Julian replied.
"Alright. I understand. You can go now," Emily said.
Julian made a beeline for the door, looking like he couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Now, only Emily and Frank were left in the living room.
Frank stepped forward, reaching out to take Emily's hand. "Emily, I know I messed up. But Sophia is really running out of time.
"Please, treat it as doing her a favor. After the amniocentesis, whether it works or not, I'll be indebted to you for life."
Emily pulled her hand away from his. "Frank, what you owe me goes way beyond this."
With that, she walked into the bedroom and locked the door behind her.
Leaning against the door, she pulled out her phone. The recording app had been running for a full thirty-eight minutes.
From the moment Julian walked in until he left, every single word was captured, crystal clear.
The date for Sophia's surgery had been set.
Emily found out about it by listening in on Frank's conversation with Helen.
That night, Frank thought she was asleep and spent twenty minutes talking on the balcony.
Emily left her bedroom window slightly open, letting every word drift in from outside.
Frank said, "Mom, Julian said the transplant can be done on the eighteenth of next month, but only if the amniocentesis results come back and the match is successful.
"I'll try to work something out with Emily."
"What are you going to do? If she doesn't sign, how are you going to get the amniocentesis done?" Helen asked.
"I'll try to talk her into it," Frank replied.
Helen aded, "Talk her into it? Do you really think that'll work? You're too soft-hearted.
"If you hadn't tried to play the hero outside that mall, you never would've gotten mixed up with a woman like her."
Frank stayed quiet, not saying a word.
"Listen to me." Helen's voice sharpened. "Sophia is the one who's truly right for you. You two were perfect together back in college.
"If she hadn't gone abroad for those two years and you'd stayed in touch, Emily never would've had a chance.
"Now that Sophia's sick, you have to save her. Once the baby's born and the cord blood is used for Sophia, you divorce Emily. You've already transferred all the assets, right?"