Chapter 497
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Chapter 497
The medical team didn’t step forward to interrupt the family’s brief goodbye.
Except for Olivia, who had only arrived a few days ago, everyone here had been with Rishie since the day he was born. They had watched him grow up, and they had grown deeply attached to him.
They knew there were countless brave children in the world, children suffering just as much as Richie, and some who had not even made it to his age.
But Richie was the one they had watched grow up day by day. To them, he felt no different from one of their own.
They had seen every bit of pain he had endured, and their hearts ached for him.
Even they, as outsiders, could barely stand it. For his parents, it had to be so much worse.
Before they witnessed Winter’s love as a mother, they had already been shaken by Chris’s love as a father. It was hard to put into words, but it moved them and broke their hearts. It also made them understand just how hard it had been for this family of three.
Richie seemed to understand Winter’s words. Through the protective suit, his little palm gently rubbed against her face. He tried hard to lift his head, as if he wanted to touch her.
Winter immediately understood. She quickly lowered her head and touched her forehead to his.
Then she heard his soft, babyish voice.
“Mommy… Daddy p>
He turned his head and reached out his little hand.
Chris gently wrapped Richie’s thin little fingers in his palm. Looking into his eyes, he said softly, “Mommy and Daddy will wait for you together. And there are a lot of people waiting for you to get better and come back safe p>
One little hand was pressed against Mommy’s face.
The other was held in Daddy’s palm.
Two different kinds of warmth flowed from his tiny hands into his heart. Richie seemed to understand, yet not quite. He simply smiled at them, his dark eyes curving.
Winter took out a red good-luck knot that had been sterilized and sealed inside a medical-grade sterile bag.
She held it up for Richie to see.
“This is a good-luck charm Uncle William learned to make for you. He said the pattern is called an auspicious knot, and it’s supposed to keep you safe and healthy p>
William, clumsy as he was, had finally learned how to make one.
When he heard that Richie was about to begin treatment, he immediately flew to St. Gabriel’s Chapel. On the flight there, he made the knot himself. Then he prayed with it before the altar.
Someone had told him St. Gabriel’s Chapel was especially known for healing prayers.
So he prayed there for Richie the entire night.
Only this morning had he brought the good-luck knot back to Liono City, insisting that Winter give it to Richie herself.
The man who had once sworn he believed in nothing but science had made an exception for Richte
The two of them had never even met, yet somehow, their band already ran deeper than blood
Chapter 49
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Richie grabbed the sterile bag right away. He stared at the red good-luck knot inside, opening and closing his little hand around it again and again.
Chris, who had once looked down on William’s flashy little gestures, gently folded Richie’s fingers around it.
“Hold on to what Uncle William gave you. Daddy will thank him for you p>
The ICU doors closed.
Winter stood there, staring at the heavy doors. William and Wendy stayed by her side.
Dominic was there. So was Zac. Even Chris’s grandfather had come.
Mr. White looked worn down. He clearly hadn’t been sleeping much lately either.
He walked over to Winter and said hoarsely, “He’ll get better p>
Winter nodded.
He would.
He had to.
Before this, Richie had been kept alive by the team’s most advanced medical care. Beyond his own will to survive, it had also taken millions of dollars a day to support his treatment.
That was why the pre-transplant chemotherapy stage could be shortened to three days.
Winter finally understood what it meant for every second to feel like a year.
She would wait for Richie.
She wanted to see Richie healthy.
And she wanted Richie to see a healthy mommy too.
So she followed every instruction. She ate when she was supposed to eat. She slept when she was supposed to sleep.
But time seemed to have stopped.
Why was it moving so slowly?
On the first night, she couldn’t sleep.
After William and Wendy had fallen asleep sometime after midnight, she quietly opened her hospital room door.
Chris’s people were stationed throughout the hospital, inside and out.
She couldn’t get out.
And the people who wanted to hurt her couldn’t get in.
Florence
A passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.