From Neglected Wife to CEO’s Obsession novel Chapter 18

Mrs. Johns showed up with a school administrator, both of them looking way too serious as they asked me to go see the doctor with them. Something important needed to be discussed, they said.

The doctor didn’t sugarcoat it. “Her blood oxygen is down to thirty-five, even with the ventilator. She can’t breathe on her own anymore. To put it simply, if we take her off oxygen, she’ll pass away immediately. There’s nothing we can do to save her. Even if we keep her on the ventilator, she might only make it until tomorrow. The choice is yours. Do you want to keep her like this, or let her go peacefully? It’s up to the family. We can’t make the decision for you.”

The school administrator turned to me and gently suggested we let her go now. If she passed away more than forty-eight hours after the incident, it wouldn’t count as a work injury.

I understood what he meant. He was thinking of my future.

But this was my mom. She was all I had left in the world. I couldn’t let her go—not yet.

Even just one more second with her meant I still had a mom.

This decision was impossible.

I pressed against the glass wall, straining to see Mom’s face one last time, but all I saw was the cold plastic of her oxygen mask.

Remy’s voice was soft behind me. “Avery, do you remember what your mom used to say?”

Mom had told me so many times—if she ever got so sick she didn’t know anyone, she wanted to go with dignity, not dragged through endless suffering.

“Remy, what do I do? I don’t have a mom anymore. I’ll never have a mom again.”

He pulled me into his arms, holding me tight. His eyes were red, tears threatening to spill. “Mike will be here soon to stay with you, okay? I have to handle something for a bit. Be strong, Avery.”

Mike got there in no time. Remy said a few words to him, then slipped out.

When Remy came back, he wasn’t alone. Two people followed him, their arms full of things.

In the biggest bundle was something I recognized immediately—Mom’s burial gown. She’d picked them out herself.

She must have known for a while, but she kept it from me. She’d made all her own preparations, quietly, by herself.

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