"Love... grandfather, is a fucking illusion people created in their heads. A trap that fades faster than ink dries on paper. You care for someone one moment and the next you're planning their destruction, it can be bought with the right figures. When you have a heavy bank balance, the whole world automatically falls in love with you."
Elder Sterling looked at his grandson speechlessly, he could argue on and on with the boy, but he knew Andrew would never back down on the topic. It was a belief rooted deep within him.
"Arrogant punk!" Elder Sterling muttered with a resigned sigh.
This wasn't the first time they'd argued about this topic, and his brat of a grandson always rendered him speechless, there was no point to keep arguing all over again over this.
"It's not arrogance, Grandpa, it's being realistic. Look at my brothers and look at me, if I wasn't as realistic as I am, I would never be where I am today. I know my achievements aren't a favor given to me by the universe, but a fruit of my hard work, my final goal is being the CEO of this company and just like every goal I've conquered, this one will be mine too."
Even if Andrew Sterling didn't say a word, the confidence with which he carried himself would translate the arrogance rooted within him. He believed strongly in himself and his own capabilities, it was almost narcissistic.
Elder Sterling had raised his grandsons strictly, they couldn't get everything they wanted just because they were born as a Sterling. Each one of them worked hard and proved themselves.
Elder Sterling had been strictly brutal, accessing each one's abilities. It was the very reason why Andrew became his favorite grandson, even though they didn't agree on most things.
Love doesn't exist, the boy said.
Elder Sterling turned his gaze towards his wall where the picture of a mature, beautiful woman was hung. She looked to be in her late forties, yet she stood with a deeply rooted grace.
'I still wonder, if you were here... would our grandsons be...' Elder Sterling's thoughts trailed off, feeling a heaviness in his heart.
If love didn't exist, then the deep, unbreakable passion he'd shared with his Kaitlin would have been nothing, but twenty years of love had been taken away from him when his wife died years ago, even before their grandsons had grown, he'd been left to raise the boys on his own.
He knew exactly what type of man she would have wanted her grandsons to be. She would have wanted them to believe in love, have faith, and seek the kind of love both of them had experienced.
'Do not worry, Katie, even if you're not here anymore, I know what you would have done. And I will make sure our grandson Andrew will definitely swallow his own words.'
Elder Sterling took his eyes off his late wife's picture and gazed sideways at his grandson's rigid face.
Whoever looked at the young man would see this frightening, unbeatable, and successful man, but Elder Sterling saw a boy.
A memory suddenly took over his mind.
A cold, rainy day. Elder Sterling looked much younger, his features still as rigidly stern as he held an umbrella, standing in the rain. A young boy was next to him. Unlike kids his age, this young boy had a detached and stoic expression on his face, but contrary to the look in his shiny black eyes, his little hand held on tightly to Elder Sterling's pant leg like a lifeline he didn't want to let go of.
To the world, Andrew Sterling was handsome... women flocked after him. He was wealthy and enviable to men his age, to Elder Sterling he was that boy... that young boy who'd stood with him in the rain.
That boy whose very soul was shattered to a million tiny pieces.
Elder Sterling knew nothing broken could be fixed to the way it was before, but it would surely be mended.
A plan had brewed in the old man's heart. Something money couldn't buy.
He chuckled to himself.
When Andrew heard his grandfather's low laugh, he looked at the older man with a raised brow. "What's so funny, Grandpa?"
The old man patted his shoulder and mysteriously said, "Nothing, my dear boy, nothing at all."
He turned around and left the young man still standing by the windows while he continued to laugh to himself as he thought about his plan, the sound echoing within the vast space of the office.
This old man... what was cooking in his mind? Andrew couldn't help but wonder.
==========
"Please remember everything the doctor said, don't skip meals, and take your medicines on time. We can't have our newest member at the office falling sick, okay?"
As Anne stared at the angelic woman who reminded her with a caring voice, she couldn't help but feel like she truly was an angel sent from heaven.
"I'll keep it in mind, I'm so sorry for the inconvenience... you had to drive me the whole way here."
"Don't say that, it was my pleasure. I'll drive you home too, let's go."
"Actually, I have to go somewhere else, so..."
"Ah, that's alright. I'll see you at the office tomorrow."
"Thank you again."
Anne watched Clara leave with a warm smile on her face. It was extremely rare to find such wonderful people these days. She hoped Clara would continue to be as kind as she is now.
Anne had stayed back because she wanted to see Kristen. Coincidentally, Clara drove her to the Verizon City Hospital, she decided to see her brother before going back home.
When she walked into his ward, she swallowed the lump of pain that always arose whenever she came here.
As usual, she sat by her brother's bed and spoke to him about her day like she usually did.
"Miss Anne, I didn't expect to find you here." Doctor Steve walked in on her all of a sudden. He'd been assigned to Kristen's case all along.
"Hello, Doctor Steve. I was thinking of coming to see you after this," Anne greeted the man with a smile.
The doctor came along with a nurse as they did the routine check on her brother for the night.
"Oh, that's my exact intention. I had something important to talk to you about too, I asked Nurse Ellen to let me know when next you came in."
"Is it about Kristen? Is something wrong with him?" Anne panicked, asking in one breath.
The doctor sighed and asked her to join him in his office, that always meant a serious conversation.
Anne sent one last lingering look to her brother before following the doctor into his office.
"What did you want to speak to me about, Doctor Steve?"
The man sighed. "I know this might come too sudden and it might startle you, but... this is for your own good and for Kristen to get the rest he deserves."
Anne felt her heart thump with a strange intensity, but she kept her expression neutral.
"Rest? What do you mean by Kristen getting rest?"
She hated that word, ever since those nasty bunch of people had sent in flowers to Kristen's ward with the words: RIP, rest in peace dear Kristen.
That day Anne had been beyond furious, she'd torn the flowers to shreds and forbade them from ever getting access to enter Kristen's ward again.
Those people were nothing to her now, those damned people who called themselves relatives.
In this world, it was only her and Kristen, and she would do anything to protect him.
"Listen, Anne, as Kristen's doctor, it's my job to do what's best for him. In all honesty, that surgery has been dragged for far too long. His brain is seventy-five percent dead. At this point, even if he has the surgery, there is statistically fifteen percent chance for him to survive. All the money you'd pay for the surgery would be gone."
Anne's heart sunk to the bottom of her stomach. Her eyes involuntarily filled with tears and her lower lip trembled.
"I know it's going to be really hard, but I hope you'll have no regrets. Whatever happens is what has been meant to be. Forcefully keeping Kristen in coma is making him suffer, he can't live and he can't die. And you, as his only family, will be suffering too." The doctor waited for his words to sink in before he continued.
"Our priority is to save our patients' lives at all costs, but it is also our job to advise the patient's family accordingly. Many blame us for not warning beforehand if things go wrong, that's why I'm obligated to tell you this... rather than watching your brother slowly rot away, half alive and half dead, I think the best course of action is to take him off life support."
The words hit Anne like a dagger jabbed into her chest and she struggled to breathe.
Let Kristen die?