Thalia’s Pov
He probably couldn’t believe I’d come up with a possible cure for his awful condition. He was so emotional, and tears kept rolling down his pale face. Since meeting him, he had changed my life in ways I could never imagine and I was only retaining the favor. But I kept my fingers crossed and created a m*ntal checklist of everything that could go wrong, but all he did was laugh.
I didn’t think he realized how grave serious my position was. If something went wrong, I’d blame myself and live with the consequences for the rest of my life, while he’d be dead on my table.
Nestor had brought everything in and set it up just how I wanted it. All that remained were the medical aspect and a lot of liters of blood that we needed for which we required doctors on standby. Doctors who were well-versed in his condition. I knew they’d trash my machine as every other professor had, but if Brandon was willing to be my test subject, he’d be the voice that I needed.
We sat on the bed waiting for Nestor who had gone to the city to get Dr. Willson and his team. I had my hand clutched into his hand. He was very nervous and shaking. I guess he had given up on life and my last-minute solution was like the unexpected lifeline he did not expect.
He had stopped crying, I could only assume that he was overwhelmed and still processing the fact that he was going to live if the machine worked.
“You know I always assumed your father paid your lecturers at Harvard, you are just too dumb to have graduated from Harvard,” he broke the silence. I only rolled my eyes, on another day I would have hit him.
“Well, now you know I’m not dumb,” I replied. “I really have brain cells after all,” I added and I laughed out loud.
He smiled, “You know if this machine of yours works, it will be a game-changer in the cancer world. You would be filthy rich, richer than me or Mandel and Gentex combined.”
I chuckled and told him to shut up, I needed his answer. “I won’t be rich if you do not volunteer,” I pointed out.
He turned to face me and inquired if I remembered the promise I made to him. My mind had been through a lot and to be honest, I could not remember where I put my bra in the morning.
“Let me jog your memory,” he volunteered. “if I make it to see the baby you and I are f*cking. What’s funny is that you have been working your butt out just to f*ck me,” he said.
Out of nowhere, saliva caught up in my throat and I felt like I was choking. I quickly got my fat a*s and ran to the kitchen. Brandon was the biggest idiot in the world, I felt like hitting him, very useless, I risked my health and that of the baby to save his sorry a8s but all he had on his s*upid mind was screwing me. I breathed in hard and got myself a glass of water before walking back to the room.
“A pregnant woman behaving like a virgin,” he laughed out.
“Shut up and give me an answer?”
“I choose sex,” he replied. “We will give the baby to Nestor for babysitting for two days”
“Brandon, this is serious!” I yelled at him. He stared at me quietly like he was choosing which words to use.
“That’s the problem with you, you are giving me this beautiful solution but sounding like you are taking me to my death sentence!” he replied in a soft tone. “I was only trying to brighten up the mood before you scare me out of not agreeing to get h*oked to that machine,” he added and looked away.
He was right, I was sounding like a sales lady who had had a bad day and was trying to get rid of a customer in order to avoid paperwork.
“Well, I just wanted you to know what you were getting yourself into. Or in what position I am putting myself into,” I reminded him.
“Thalia, I am dying either way and I understand that you do not want to be the one to pull the plug but please be assured that what you created? What you made for me is a miracle and I will forever be thankful until my last breath.
I never gave you money to fund your project but out of the allowances you earned coupled with my shirt mood you created something that all the idiots I paid billions to could not” he said. “My solution was not about money but commitment.”
I wiped a tear that was forming from the corner of my eye. I did not know what to say or do. He tapped at the bed and I took a seat. “I named you my Destiny, guess this was it,” he added.
“But what if you die?” I asked
“I’m not a monkey?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The monkeys are the ones you are injecting my infection with and they are dying but I have lived it with two years,”
“But!”
“Stop it, Nestor is here,” he said and the door opened. Nestor and a group of doctors walked in. “Are we set,” he asked.
“Wait a minute we need to understand how this machine works,” Dr. Wilson announced. The man only looked in my direction once and pretended like I was not in the room. I understood I outdid him, he was the one that was given the entire Mandel fortune but twice he failed to find a solution. While on the other hand, I created something with nothing but an allowance.
“Wilson your job here is not to validate her machine so stick to medicine,” Brandon yelled at him.
“But sir I have to make sure…”
“That’s my order, can we get to business,” Brandon urged and looked in my direction. I was more nervous than a kindergarten kid. He was back to being serious and I never liked a serious Brandon. He was so intimidating.
I needed a second opinion even though I knew the doctor was going to go against my invention. Maybe he would spot something valid that I missed. New minds were always sharp, but if he did, it would lead to more debates and rescheduling.
Nestor noticed I had begun self-doubting and moved closer to me. He requested me to breathe, “everything is going to be fine, I trust you and Brandon trusts you that’s all we need to care about. We are the only people in this room whose opinion should matter.” he said. I nodded my head, the time to be second-guessing and being emotional was over.
I needed to show confidence, they needed to know that I knew what I was doing. Without confidence, no one in the room was going to take me seriously. I cleared my throat and introduced myself to them. They were still unsure of what I was doing or invented. I introduced the machine to them and explained how it worked and how their presence was needed.
After which I asked if they had questions but Brandon cut me off. At that particular moment, their questions were irrelevant according to him but I needed to know if they understood how the machine worked. “Thalia we are only going to put more doubt In you, Just put the thing on me,” he requested.
“Sir I think this machine is risky, especially that it had not been tested,” Dr. Wilson spoke up.
“Your opinion is irrelevant,” Brandon yelled at him.
The room became quiet, Nestor being versed in how I operated the machine moved over to Brandon and began preparing him.
“What’s the name of the machine?” one of Dr. Wilson’s assistants asked.
I stared in Brandon’s direction, a name never occurred to me. I was always interested in making sure it worked rather than naming it. “FRASER200i,” I replied with a smile. The name popped up out of nowhere and I was very sure he was going to love naming the machine after him. FRASER202i,” he corrected. “The year we met,” he added with a smile. I returned the smile, he was still full of himself even on his deathbed.
“Is this the flower? The girl that gave you months? Your destiny?” the doctor asked while looking at my belly. He finally had the guts to acknowledge my presence and it looked like Brandon had been telling him about me.
Brandon nodded and the doctor only raised his eyebrows and for the first time, he shut his mouth and allowed me to work. We moved Brandon to the other bed and without hesitation, I began the setup and ran over. When it was time to insert the machine I stopped and looked him into the eyes.
“Do not worry, this is the reason why we met,” he said and asked me not to worry. I smiled and plugged the machine in, took a breather, and pressed the on button. I stepped back a bit, all the vitals looked normal but my eyes were on the timer. After exactly five minutes I connected the transfusion packs.
The process began and we could see the blood going into the machine to be filtered while the new blood was joining back into his system. The machine worked, I never had doubt about that but was he going to survive, or was the machine fast enough for the mutating cells. Nestor moved to where I was standing and held me, I looked up at him as he smiled.
