Chapter 176 She helped
_Rowena’s POV_
The nurses came fast once Elvira found her voice and called for them. Two came through the doors within a minute, and then a third one with a wheelchair.
Thomas was lifted carefully and taken through before I had fully straightened up from the floor. I stood and watched them go, I glanced down at my hands for a moment and then looked at Elvira who was standing very still in the middle of the waiting area with her phone forgotten and her face completely drained of the impatience it had been carrying a few minutes ago.
She looked young without it, younger than I expected.
I couldn’t still understand why she was always mad.
“He’ll be alright,” I said before I could stop myself, because she looked like someone who needed to hear something and that was the most honest thing I could offer right now.
She nodded once and didn’t say anything.
We waited there together, I was seated though.
The waiting area went quiet again with other people who were also here for emergency waiting patiently and impatiently.
I didn’t try to fill the silence by conversing with Elvira who never showed me respect to begin with.
Plus, I was never good at filling silence for other people’s comfort, I didn’t pretend to either.
About twenty minutes passed before the doors opened again, this time Elira came through first.
Kaelen’s mother looked exactly as I remembered her, she remained composed, well dressed, a woman who maintained her appearance even when the world wad falling.
She dressed well but didn’t talk well. Great fashion sense but has no words of her own.
A pathetic lifestyle if you ask me.
She stopped when she saw me and something crossed her face that I couldn’t fully read. Fear was part of it though.
Behind her came Grandmama Maelis, moving slowly. She already healed but looked like she had aged 50 years in advance. What exactly has been going on in that family?
Elvira stood up immediately and went to her mother, speaking quickly and explaining what had happened. I watched Elira’s face change as she listened, the fear settling in more.
Then Elvira said something about me and Elira looked at me.
She walked over slowly, like she was choosing each step, and stopped in front of me. I stood up because it was the right thing to do, we weren’t enemies anyways, and she was older.
“Marchioness,” she said, although her voice was steady, her hands weren’. “Elvira told me what you did.” She paused and continued. “Thank you for helping Thomas”
“He needed help,” I said simply.
She looked at me for a moment longer, like she wanted to say something else and wasn’t sure how to get there, and then the doctor came through the doors so we both turned toward him.
The doctor was careful with his words as he explained the situation.
“Thomas’s condition has been progressing for some time,” he said.
It turns out the omega wolf situation was something the family had been managing privately, which I already knew because Maelis had mentioned it once a long time ago.
Thomas’s wolf was weak from birth, it had always been fragile, and the past few months had made things worse.
“The wolf’s condition is deteriorating faster than we anticipated,” the doctor said, looking at Elira. “If it continues at this rate, there is a real possibility that the wolf doesn’t survive it. And if the wolf doesn’t survive.....”
He didn’t finish that sentence, he didn’t need to because we all understood what came after it.
Elira’s composure held on but only barely. Elvira had gone very still beside her.
I stood slightly apart from them and listened to the rest of what the doctor said, and while I was listening I was also thinking about Thomas’s face when he was sitting in that chair.
I shouldn’t care, they weren’t my problem. They were my ex family and I had already moved on. They showed me nothing but reasons to never help anyone blindly. Okay, I can help but not overdo.
But here I was, listening then taking out my phone.
I called Celeste and she answered on the second ring.
“I need you to arrange a transfer,” I said, keeping my voice low. “It’s a sick omega patient. I need the best specialist available for the omega wolf deterioration and I need them accessible within the next twenty four hours. Arrange the hospital and the doctor and send me the details.”
There was a brief pause on the other side and I arranged a reply for her before she could ask why, but she actually didn’t ask.
“I’ll have it within the hour,” she said, and hung up.
Shocking, but okay.
I turned back to the doctor. “Discharge him,” I said.
He looked at me. “Marchioness, the patient is currently.....”
“He needs a specialist, not a general ward,” I said. “I’m arranging a transfer. Discharge him and prepare his records for handover.”
The doctor looked at Elira, who looked at me, and I could see her processing my words. She hadn’t expected it, I guessed.
She opened her mouth to say something but closed it instead.
“Thank you.” Elvira said in a soft voice from beside her mother.
The Elvira I knew was no where to be found. The harsh always angry Elvira.
Elira nodded at the doctor. “Please proceed with the discharge.”
He bowed and left to handle it.
Elira and Elvira went together toward the front desk to deal with the paperwork, speaking quietly to each other as they walked, and I sat back down and sent a message to Celeste with Thomas’s full name and the pack hospital’s contact details.
The waiting area went quiet again with just one person here with me. Maelis.
She sat with her hands folded over her bag on her lap and looked straight ahead at the wall across from us for a moment without speaking. I didn’t look at her either because I didn’t need to.
I looked at my phone and waited for Celeste’s response.
The silence stretched out long enough that I thought she wasn’t going to say anything at all.
Then she cleared her throat. “How are you faring?” she asked.
I looked up from my phone to see she was looking at me, her expression arranged into something that was attempting neutrality and failing miserably.
I looked at her for a moment before answering. “That has nothing to do with you,” I said in a calm tone.
Maelis blinked in shock as if I’d visibly slapped her.
“I was only asking.....”
“I know,” I cut her short. “And I answered.”
I looked back down at my phone, ignoring her.
Celeste’s message had come through already with a hospital name, a doctor’s contact, and a confirmed appointment for the following morning.
I forwarded it to Elira’s number, which I still had from a long time ago that I had never deleted for no particular reason.
Maelis said nothing else, my reply was a dismissal that she understood perfectly.
I wasn’t here to make her comfortable, I wasn’t here to revisit anything or smooth over anything or give anyone the version of me that made old wounds easier to ignore.
I was here because my grandmother needed a checkup. Everything else could stay exactly where it was.