Chapter 6

Two hours later, Alex appeared at the end of the hospital corridor, his hair a mess from the wind, following Ryan and Ryan's girlfriend.

Alex brushed past me and pushed open the door to the hospital room.

Yuri was awake, propped up against the headboard. She froze for a second when she saw him walk in, then managed a smile. "Uncle Alex? Why are you here?"

Alex stood by the bed, and I saw his eyes were red. "Kid, why do you always try to handle everything by yourself?"

Alex dragged me out of the room.

Out in the hallway, he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. His hand was trembling.

Taking a long drag, he muttered, his head lowered, "There are some things I've never told you. A few years back, Ryan wanted to go to a joint university, but the tuition was high."

He looked up at the ceiling. "Your sister-in-law and I run a clothing store in a small town. We barely make tens of thousands of dollars a year. There was no way we could come up with that kind of money."

I had no idea why he was telling me all this.

"Ryan told me that Yuri said she could lend him the money." Alex's cigarette ash fell, but he didn't bother to flick it off. "I thought she was being polite. She was still in school herself. Where would she get that kind of money?"

He turned to look at me. "But she actually came up with the money."

My eyes went wide in disbelief.

"She hadn't even finished college yet," Alex said. "She picked up tutoring gigs and scraped together money for more than half a year. Later, I found out she even got her boss to pay her ahead of time."

I pressed myself against the wall, my palms slick with sweat.

"She supported Ryan all four years he was in college." Alex stubbed out his cigarette and looked at me. "She said she hoped that if her mom ever needed help, we'd be there for her, too."

My eyes filled with tears again.

His voice dropped. "Yuri said her mom had a tough life. She married a monster, and nobody ever stood up for her."

I covered my mouth, trying not to let out a sob.

"She said," Alex paused, "she didn't expect you to get a divorce, or to change. She wanted you to have a way out if you ever couldn't take it anymore."

I looked up and peered through the glass window on the hospital room door.

*****

After that, Ryan and his girlfriend Sophie Chapman kept coming to the hospital.

Sophie was studying medicine, and she pulled every string she could to find specialists, carrying Yuri's medical records everywhere and asking around wherever she could.

That day, Ryan pulled me aside into the hallway.

He took an envelope out of his pocket and pressed it into my hand. "Aunt, this is for Yuri. Hold onto it for now and use it to pay for her surgery."

I glanced down. The envelope was thick, packed with a wad of cash.

"Where did you get all this money?" I asked.

He scratched his head, giving me an embarrassed smile.

"We were saving up for our wedding," he said. "Sophie and I talked it over. The wedding can wait, but Yuri's illness can't."

I stared at him, stunned by how serious he looked. "Weren't you two about to get married?"

He said, "It's fine if we wait a bit. Sophie already talked to her parents, and they're okay with it. If it weren't for Yuri, I wouldn't have even been able to go to college."

I stood there in the hallway, clutching the envelope, not moving for a long time.

He'd only been working for a couple of years. It couldn't have been easy for him to save up that much.

Besides, he was the only kid in the family. Getting married was a major event for him. But he stuffed the envelope into my hand and took off, not even giving me a chance to say no.

Alex called every single day. He kept checking in on Yuri, asking if we had enough money and what the doctors said.

He'd always been the type to pinch every penny, but he was saying on the phone, "If it comes to it, I'll sell the shop and pull together whatever Yuri needs."

I told him not to.

He said, "Nothing matters more to this family than Yuri right now."

I couldn't remember the last time I heard him say "this family".

Ever since I married David Rivers, ever since he pointed at my folks and said, "You poor relatives, stay away from us," it felt like I lost my family.

Alex was ready to close up the shop. Ryan was willing to postpone his wedding, and Sophie, who wasn't even officially part of the family yet, was running around the hospital every day, pulling strings for us.

They were all trying to figure out ways to help Yuri.

It was Yuri who, little by little, pieced my lost family back together for me.

I stood in the hallway, gripping that wad of cash, and my tears started flowing again.

It finally hit me. David wasn't the only one I could rely on in this world.

I decided that after Ethan finished his high school application, I'd finally bring everything to a close.