82: C82 Chapter 82

C82 Chapter 82

ILANA

"Ilana...you've come. I just took Reno to tour around our house!" My mother announced excitedly. It just marked traces of pain in my heart. "What do you think, Reno? Do you like the house?" A smile line stretched on Reno's face. A slight bow indicated both his liking and pity.

"Mom, you better rest."

"I already slept all night long. I will enjoy the sunrise from the balcony," we almost jumped. She had been ambling out before we had time to comment on what she said.

"Mom, where are you going?"

"I just want to sunbathe on our balcony." What she meant by balcony was mere a porch in front of her ward, with a long bench facing the open area. The sunshine penetrated through the foliage of the tress.

"Mom, this is not...," I complained.

"The sunrise is so beautiful. From above here, I could view plants, flowers with many butterflies flying around them." Reno was going crazy, I guessed. Not such things like he mentioned existed in the clearing before us. It was just an open space, not even a single plant grew there. "Sometimes, just to make your mother happy, to make her feel that she is not alone, it was okay for a white lie," Reno whispered. I strode away.

I let them enjoyed the sunshine or anything in their imagination. I observed from a distant place. They both looked thrilled, Reno was telling something, and then my mother burst out laughing. My mother sometimes pointed out the area ahead yet I could not figure out what sentences coming out of her lips.

Staying away from them, I waited in the Park where I usually did an exercise every morning before my mother woke up. With my routines of sitting here, I got accustomed to watching the patients roaming around, the nurses were busy handling them. The sun scorching me no longer concerned me. The tree might protect me yet the light from the sun still touched my skin. It had been almost one hour or more. I fell asleep, not knowing for how long. I experienced sleep deprivation lately.

"You're here." Reno was just some steps away. He proceeded toward the bench and landed on the seat beside me.

"Thank you for making my mom's day."

"Anytime. How could she get here?" I was a bit aghast. "Sorry, you can just ignore my question."

"It was a long story and I don't think I feel comfortable to tell you the story behind why she is here."

"I understand. It must be hard for you."

"Well, yeah!"

"About Angeline...."

"You don't owe me any explanation about her." I cut his sentences off.

"I don't have any special relationship with her. I just help her to get a house. Her father is in jail. She is homeless." I felt a little sad to hear that she lived such a terrible life. No matter how hard my school life was because of her, I had no intention to retaliate against what she had done to me.

"Has she gotten a house?" His bow had answered my question. "That is a relief. "

"You have such a good heart, Ilana. You even care for someone who had turned your teenage life into hell."

"You are exaggerating. You just never know my dark sides."

"That doesn't matter to me." I turned to him who at the same time scrutinized me. Our space was solely a few centimeters apart. We were being trapped in silence for a few minutes. "Can I come tomorrow?" His voice brought me to reality. My stillness confirmed my agreement.

He kept coming the next morning and the following day with a different bucket of flowers every day. He usually would have a long chat with my mother, accompany her to wander around the hospital area, or eat together. They both acted as if they were a mother and her son. I could not be happier that the doctor informed me, there was good progress on my mother's mental health. Her progress was much affected by Reno's coming into her life. I was perplexed that Reno meant a lot to my mother. I was her real daughter, yet my mother seemed closer to Reno.

A month flew like nothing, and Reno did not miss even a single day to visit my mother. We got closer despite not dating. He once asked me to go out, but I rejected him not because I did not want to, my mother needed me more.

"Are you busy tonight?" He began the talk when we had breakfast in the canteen.

"Not really, I could not leave my mother."

"What about taking your mother out for dinner?" That sounded like a great idea. It might speed her recovery.

"That's not a bad idea."

"Great! I'll pick you and your mother up tonight." We finished our breakfast. Like he always did in his previous visit, he directly joined my mother and interacted with her until ten o'clock. He had met that he waved goodbye to earlier.

My mother was crouching and daydreaming with her back on the pillar at the end of the bench. She sometimes did so when she was alone. I slowly had a seat next to her and held her hand softly. She whirled her head to me. Her mimic shifted. She looked calm.0

"Mom, do you still remember the time uncle took us to the restaurant? He celebrated aunt's birthday. He invited us to eat in the restaurant." I looked into her eyes deeply. "What about having dinner in the restaurant tonight?" She just nodded her head.

It did not take too long for the day to switch tonight. The light from the lantern above the corridor shone everything below. I helped my mother to get dress and put some make-up on her face. She did not protest at all. Ten minutes later, Reno came and picked us at one of the restaurants he did not reveal where it was.

It was Saturday night; the road was occupied by a lot of vehicles along the road. Struggling for about one hour, we got to the huge building with five floors. The restaurant was that magnificent. The glamorous design with a striking golden wall welcomed us. Someone parked Reno's car after Reno gave him the key.

We headed upstairs to the rooftop. My mother was following me, walking next to me with her eyes inspecting around. It was her first time to be in a luxurious place. She did not question nor comment.

The lift took us to the fifth floor and to get to the rooftop, we had to walk up. Reno held my mother to get to the top. She was a bit nervous. I did not feel anything. Reno was rich and having dinner in this kind of place was just normal for a person like him.

What I witnessed surprised me. The candles stood along the path toward the table where the food was. And there was a big heart made of pink roses on the other side. Not only that, the colorful lights roofed above us. All of sudden, Reno took my hand to one of the chairs near a seat where my mother had been sitting. He kneeled before me and said something I never imagined.

"Will you marry me?"

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