I was puzzled. “Why not? Summer is his biological daughter. How is that possible?”
“It turns out they have different blood types, so it doesn’t matter that Jared is Summer’s biological father. If we perform the surgery anyway, it’ll be like a bad organ transplant, which will make Summer’s condition worse,” Cameron tried to explain the situation to me in her limited medical terms.
My mind went momentarily blank. I had hoped that in the scenario where their bone marrows didn’t match, he could at least donate his kidney to Summer. But now, it seemed that my last hope was also squashed.
As though being sucked out of all energy, I slumped into a chair and was lost in thoughts.
It wasn’t until the doctor came out from Summer’s ward that I snapped out from my daze when he said, “Can we all please proceed to my office?”
As Cameron helped me up, I noticed that Zachary’s expression was rather grim and appeared deep in thought.
As we all took a seat in the doctor’s office, Cameron asked anxiously, “Doctor, what are we going to do now that we can’t find suitable bone marrow for Summer?”
He looked at us and slowly explained, “Bone marrow transplant is a major operation, therefore it’s imperative that we find a compatible donor, or we will risk dangerous level of organ rejection post-operation. There are increasing numbers of acute leukemia patients for the past two years, but suitable bone marrow donors are still very rare. I can understand your concerns, however, the only thing we can do for Summer right now is to continue her chemotherapy. In the meantime, we will keep searching for matching bone marrow.”
Zachary asked, “Let’s say we have no luck in finding her a suitable donor, how long does she have?”
The doctor was a little rattled by the stone-faced Zachary and had chosen his words carefully when he replied, “If we stick to our current treatment plan, her prognosis is actually quite positive. She will have at least three more years.”
“Alright. I understand.” Zachary nodded before he stood up abruptly and left the room without uttering another word.
Cameron was panic-stricken and she quickly turned to me. “Letty, quick! You have to stop your father. We haven’t gotten to that stage yet!”
Despite being puzzled by what she said, considering the urgency in her tone, I stood up and hurried after him. Zachary was dialling on his phone as he waited in front of an elevator.
I called after him, “Dad, what’s going on? Where are you going?”
He turned to me with a self-reproach look on his face. “Scarlett, I know you can’t forgive us for what we did to your baby years ago. But don’t you worry now. I won’t let anything happen to another child of yours. I’ll do whatever it takes to save Summer.”
I was still as a loss of what he was planning to do as he was about to take off in a grave manner.
I grabbed onto his arm before he could leave. “Dad, hold on for a second. Ashton is already working on ways to save Summer too. Don’t you worry, she’ll be okay.”
Nonetheless, my words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Just then, the elevator door opened. Zachary stepped into the elevator and stopped me from following suit. “Stay here and look after your mother. I’m just going to look for a better doctor and I’ll be back soon.”
Right after the elevator door was shut before me, Cameron hurried over and her expression grew more desperate when she didn’t see Zachary. “Scarlett, where’s your father? You should have stopped him. He’s onto something dangerous!”
“He said he was going to look for another doctor and asked me to stay back.”
Cameron was frantically pressing at the elevator button and her voice was choking up as she said, “If he really was looking for another doctor, couldn’t he just do it through the phone? I can’t let him do this, not after he’s finally decided to settle down and live a normal life with us. If we let him do this, there’ll be no turning back for all of us.”
Sensing that something was off, I looked at her and my jaw was tightening. “Mom, there’s no way I can catch up to him now. But I’ll get Ashton to stop him. While I’m on the phone, you’re gonna have to get yourself together, and then tell me what really is going on, okay?”
With tears rolling down her cheeks, she finally nodded. After I contacted Ashton and told him to get in touch with Zachary, I helped Cameron sit down on a bench in the corridor.
After the woman finally collected herself, she slowly spoke, “My dear, have you heard of organ trading?
I was stunned by her revelation as cold sweats started to form on my forehead. Shaking my head, I continued to ask, “Mom, what’s going on?”
Wiping the tears away from her eyes, the woman slowly explained, “Scarlett, there’s nothing in this world you can’t buy with enough money and power, including human organs. Your father started thinking about it when Summer started falling sick. He used to work with mafia, so he knows his way around this black market. I tried to talk him out of this, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Now that our lives are finally back to normal, and you are expecting another child, it’s just too much risk to involve both our families in this business.”
I took a few moments to calm my racing heart. “Mom, has Dad found one?”
