“Mom…” Her little daughter’s voice was almost gone as she repeatedly called her. Ericka couldn’t take a look at her daughter. She was sick and the nurse was currently taking a blood sample.

She was crying but there was nothing that she could do.

Her little girl was not feeling well for how many days now and she had no choice but to take her to the hospital.

Ericka’s heart was breaking into pieces while she was hearing her child’s voice. The little girl was crying so hard and begging for the nurse to stop from what she was doing.

“Mom, please,” the little girl continued to utter.

Ericka had no choice but to bring her daughter to the hospital. She had an on and off fever. She was scared that Rica might have a serious condition. Just thinking about it already made her knees weak.

Aside from being worried about her daughter’s condition, she also had no money for her daughter’s medication. There was no one that she could lean on when it comes to finances.

She took a deep breath when she noticed that the nurse already got the blood that was needed for Rica’s blood test.

“See, it’s just like an ant bite, right? It’s already done,” Ericka said and then she kissed her daughter’s forehead. Though deep inside her, she wished that she was just the one who got sick.

“Mom, are you not going to work?” The little girl asked. Rica looked so pale and she’s a bit hot.

She shook her head. “No, baby. I am afraid not for today. I will be just here with you until you get better,” Ericka said and forced a smile on her lips.

“B--- but mom, how about our food? Where are you going to get money to buy food for us?” Ericka felt a pinching sensation inside her chest when she heard what her little girl said. She was sick and yet she was worried about their food.

“Shh… Don’t think so much, baby. I have money here to buy food for us,” her daughter was smart. She knew that she couldn’t hide anything from her. Her little girl was aware that they struggled financially unlike the kids in their neighborhood. The parents of those kids could provide everything they needed unlike her to Rica.

Ericka was glad that her daughter was very understanding. Though it was a pain for her as a mother to fail in providing what she needed just like now.

She couldn’t tell where she would get the money to pay the hospital bills.

“Ms. Ericka, the test results of your daughter have already come out. We found out that your little girl has leukemia. She’s on her first stage,” the doctor said without beating around the bush.

Ericka felt like her knees wobbled. She was thankful that there was a chair near her because she felt no strength to stand.

What did she do wrong?

Why had it had to be her precious child? How could fate be so cruel to her and this had to happen to her after all the things that she had already been through in life. She was the only one that she had.

There were a lot of questions inside her mind that popped up. But she tried to calm herself. She had to be strong for her little girl.

Ericka realized that she had to find a way on how her child could be cured. She had to find ways by any means even if she had to kneel in front of her family.

“Doc, wh--- what should we do?” She asked while trying not to be emotional.

She was shocked beyond words. This was what she had already feared before she brought Rica at the hospital. Though her little girl was born normal. She knew that she was also lacking when it comes to all that she needed. And her daughter looked so pale recently and she had always felt dizzy.

“We need surgery. We need to have a transplant before this gets worse,” the doctor said while looking at her. “But you need a big amount of money and a match on her bone marrow. Even if you have the money but we don’t have a match then it would be useless,” the doctor added while looking intently at her.

Ericka left the doctor’s office and she felt weak. Why on earth did this have to happen to her daughter? Where would she get the money that would be needed for her daughter’s operation? There were a lot of why’s running inside her mind for what she just learned.

Her heart was so heavy and she felt like it would be crashing any moment.

Her daughter was her only family. Her heart was breaking into pieces. She was the only person who loved and cared for her. She was trying to do her best as her mother. She was trying to give the best that she could for her daughter. But in this situation, she couldn’t help but think if this was already the right time to kneel down and beg for help from the people to whom she turned her back and tried to forget for almost five years.

Just seeing her daughter getting weak while laid down on the hospital bed, she felt like she had no other choice but to go to the Ayala mansion.

She kissed her daughter’s forehead and then she turned around.

She saw a woman standing on the side of the door and looking at her. She could see the pity of the person for her and her child but that was the last thing that she needed at the moment.

She didn’t need any pity. She needed to have the cure for her child’s disease. That’s all she wanted to see and nothing else.

“Please take care of her. If there’s anything that happens or you need, please call me. Here’s the money. Use it for anything that the doctor wants you to buy for her medicine and your food. I promise that I will be back as soon as I can,” she said to the woman who was looking at her and her child. “I will go now.”

“Yes, Ms. Ericka. Don’t worry. I will take care of your daughter. Go and don’t think so much.”

She just smiled. How she wished that was easy for her not to think about their situation. It was easier said than done, especially knowing that her child’s life was in danger. She had to move fast before it got too late for her and Rica.

“Thank you, Nimfa. I know that you will do that’s why I trust you,” she hugged the woman and then immediately left.

Ericka was determined to do what was running inside her mind. She quickly hailed a taxi as soon as she got out of the hospital building.

She gave the address going to the Ayala’s mansion. Even if it was the last place she wanted to go to, at this point of time, she had no choice but to go there. It was the only place that she could think of that would give her a solution to her problem. She was willing to do anything to extend Rica’s life. She was so young to experience this kind of life.

Her daughter was still young and innocent.

It didn’t take her an hour to be at her destination. She got out of the taxi and then she knocked a couple of times on the tall steel gate which was just next to the guard house.

“M--- Ms. Ericka?” The guard immediately went out of the guard house as soon as he saw her standing in front of the gate. She could see the shock in his face. It was as if the man couldn’t believe that she was the woman that he was seeing and standing in front of him.

She saw when he blinked his eyes to make sure that he called her right.

She could see the surprise in his face as he walked towards her.

“How are you, Arnold?” She asked the man who was already in front of her.

“I am good, ma’am. It has been a long time and I am glad that you finally came back home. Your dad has been waiting for you to come back since the day that you left.”

“Really? Isn't that what he and his mistress wanted me to do? They want me out of their sight,” she couldn’t help but respond with a pain in her heart. She saw when the guard bowed his head as if he regretted what he had said to her.

“It’s okay, Arnold,” she said and then patted the shoulder of the man who had been working for their family since she was a teenager.

“Is he there?” She asked again to the man who was still sorry for what he had said.

He nodded.

“Yes, Ms. Ericka.”

“How about his mistress and that bitch?” She couldn’t help herself feel angry whenever she thought about those two people.

“They are out of the country.”

After Ericka had heard what the man answered, hope was inside her heart. She silently prayed that she could talk to her father personally and no one could hear them.

“Thank you, Arnold,” she said and then she turned around and headed to the house. From the main gate she passed by the bog green lawn and then as she went further, she could see the gazebo.

Nothing changed at the place. It was there where she used to stay and spend her time especially when she was still studying. It was surrounded with different kinds of flowers. It was the same place where she and Shawn played when they were still young.

Ericka felt like there was a blade buried in her heart. She just remembered the name of the man; it already had pain inside her chest. Pain and hatred mixed up inside of her.

She took a deep breath as she tried to remove the memories of the past. She was here for the sake of her daughter and not because of anything else. If it was not for her little girl, she wouldn’t set her feet again in this place. A place that she had forgotten in her life for a very long time.

She reached the main door and without any hesitation, she entered the house. She could tell that nothing had changed even inside of it. It was still the same house that she had left a couple of years ago.

She roamed around her eyes to the mansion that was built even before she was born. She really loved the color combination for the interior. These were earth colors that bring a different kind of relaxation inside her mind.

The living room still had the same wall glass where the morning sunshine could pass through it and give a natural light inside the house.

On the right side was the grand staircase going to the second floor of the house where they could find the bedrooms and the master bedroom that her father and her mother occupied before.

Ericka almost had a perfect life. A perfect family.

It seemed like it was just yesterday when her mother was sitting in the living room while she was waiting for her to come back home from school. Her memories were still clear to her. She would walk inside of their house and the sound of the cutlery in the dining room could be heard. It was the place where they would be having breakfast as family. It used to be filled with the sounds of their laughter which was a deafening silence. She saw an old man in less than fifties sitting all alone at the dining table and having his breakfast. Suddenly, she felt pity inside her heart.

He felt like her heart was torn into two to see her father alone.