"Oh my God Pamela, it was so horrible. We've been waiting out here for hours but no one's saying anything."

Anna rubbed her palms together while she pretended to not listen to Patricia's phone conversation, checking her wrist watch again for the umpteenth time and taking a deep breath after she did. Patricia was right.

Why wasn't any of the doctors coming to talk to them about Angelo's situation?

"I don't know Pamela. I'm dying of worry. I'm really scared."

Anna exhaled as Patricia got up slowly, now she was pacing. She took deep breaths as she felt her worry increase. No mater how much she tried to hide it, she really was anxious about what was going on and pacing Patricia wasn't making it any better.

She had a lot of questions but the first one was , How on earth was Angelo?

"Mrs Trusk?"

Anna had never been so happy to hear someone call her that before. She got up quickly even before the doctor got close, a faint dash of hope in her eyes as she stared into his eyes, waiting for him to say something.

Patricia hurried behind her.

The doctor tried so hard to hide the look on his face, the scared look. He was really bad at it. Anna could smell the stench of anxiety that filled the room as soon as he walked in. Something was definitely up

"Doctor-" Anna felt a hard bump on her shoulder as Patricia brushed hers against Anna's while she tried to find her way closer to the doctor.

"How is he?" She cut in before Anna could even say anything, staring anxiously into the doctor's eyes while he stared back with only one question in his head,

Who on earth was that woman ?

"I'm really sorry miss-"

He started as he pulled his glasses down his nose, trying to sound as polite as he could.

"I'm only allowed to disclose matters concerning the patient's health to members of his family, members of the Trusk family."

Patricia held her breath and her other words,

"Hospital's policy." He added.

"It's okay doctor."
Anna cut in. The back and forth was getting really tiring and she knew there was no way Patricia was ever going to give in to some hospital policy as far as Angelo was concerned. She of all people knew how much Angelo meant to her. She was never going to just walk away.

"She can stay. She's like family."

"I am his family."
Patricia corrected not taking her eyes off the doctor while he had his curious look on Anna, his eyes dying to ask her the question "are you sure?"

He exhaled

"Well?" Patricia cut in. At this point, she just wanted to get his attention "how is he?"

"Asleep." The doctor said.
Anyone in the room at that time could literally hear Anna and Patricia's loud sighs of relief as they had their hands on their chests. Patricia walked back to the chair and sat on it, clasping her hands together while she said a silent prayer

"We've been able to stabilize him for now but we can't be sure he won't have another episode anytime soon."

Patricia looked up.

"Episode?"

Anna didn't understand what he meant.
The doctor exhaled. He didn't know how else he was supposed to break the rest of the news.

"Mrs Trusk," he went on. "your husband had a kidney failure earlier as a result of amyloidosis generated from his illness, and as a result of this he'd be needing a kidney transplant urgently."

Illness? Anna thought. What illness?
Angelo had an illness she had no idea about?

Anna couldn't have been more confused. She rubbed her temples gently, trying to take all that one after the other .

He could see that.

"What's this illness you are talking about doctor?" She looked at him, clueless about what was going on, She had to know

"FMF?" He explained, pulling his circular glasses up his nose bridge with a finger. "its um fami-"

"Familial Mediterranean fever." Patricia cut him off, keeping her gaze on her joined hands. They both turned to look at her while she tried to take calm breaths, her hands were shaking.

"Angelo was born with it."

Angelo had a disease? One he was born with? How on earth did she never know? How was it possible he never showed any symptoms up until that moment? A kidney failure? She felt all her energy leave her as her legs suddenly became so weak. She found strength to return her gaze back to the man in a white coat.

"How long does he have?" She had no idea when those words escaped her mouth.

"For now we can't tell. We could be talking about a few months or weeks . He needs to undergo a transplant as soon as he can. I already took it upon myself to add him to the list of patients waiting for donors but I'd advice not to wait on the hospital because these kinds of things take time. You should reach out to Angelo's family. I'm sure he should have a match among them. I mean who is more suitable to be a donor besides family? We could also try reaching out to the public just in case."

Anna tried to remain calm. Her entire soul was trembling. She was trembling.

"I'm really sorry Mrs Trusk but I'd have to excuse myself now. I have to attend to other patients. If there's anything you need feel free to let me or one of the nurses know."

He gently placed a hand on Anna's slender shoulders and squeezed them gently. Anna forced a smile on her pale face and gave him an agreement nod as she watched the doctor leave.

She was scared.

Angelo could not die yet. He was a major part of her plans. How was she going to stay in power without him?

"This is all your fault."

Anna's thoughts got cut short at the sound of Patricia's voice. She turned slowly as she watched Patricia walk up to her with tears clouding her eyes and the stench of fear all over her .

"You did this. He was fine. He was always fine before you walked into his life. He almost never had an episode. He always took his drugs, he never forgot and all of a sudden this? "

Patricia scoffed as she got closer

"Patricia-"
Anna had to at least say something, she could see the look in Patricia's eyes, the fear. At that point, Anna knew she had to defend herself. Having an argument with Patricia in the waiting room of a hospital wasn't exactly what she needed.

At least that was before Patricia slapped her .

"You did this!"

Patricia yelled . Now she was getting a lot of attention from the nurses. Thank God that was a private waiting room.

"I warned you didn't I? " Patricia's voice was calmer now. "I told you never to let this happen , I told you to die, to kill yourself before you ever thought of hurting him . I warned you, I told you I was never going to stay still,"

Anna exhaled .

She was going to ignore Patricia. She had to. She understood, she understood why she was being like that, she was probably going to act the same way if roles were reversed, besides, The last thing she needed was a fight with a human in the middle of the day at a hospital.

She slowly took her hand off her reddened face that had Patricia's fingerprints boldly printed on it. She took deep breaths and tucked her hair behind her ears. It was the only way she could at least try to stay calm.

She heard Patricia let out a really scary chuckle as she shook her head, her eyes still on focus.

"Better hope he gets through this alive Anna Storm or this would be the last of your problems, I don't know about anything else but I know about Angelo, and I know I won't sit still if he gets hurt. I would literally become your worst nightmare. I would destroy you Anna."

Anna scoffed lightly.

Everything happened so fast and it made her extremely speechless, too speechless to even defend herself. How was any of this even her fault?

She asked herself over and over again glaring back into Patricia's eyes.

Anna inhaled one more time.

Hold it in Anna, don't do what she wants, don't react like she wants you to, just let it go.

"Excuse me."

She walked away.