"Aviona come quick!" Donna called on her from the backseat of Martin's car. Marga and Sophie brought her there while Donna followed Martin earlier for, she had some feelings that the latter was going to do something not good and her suspicions did not fail her.

"Donna, can't you see Aviona is not well?" Marga try to shove her off. Aviona herself was motionless as she curved herself on one side, sobbing quietly.

​​

"Melvin is hurt, they had called an ambulance for him!" Donna reported in a hurry and Aviona instantly turned her head to her with a questioning look.

"What?" Aviona asked as if she missed something from Donna's words.

"Martin went to confront him, but Melvin suddenly collapse," Donna relayed, "I don't know if it was because Martin punched him or it's something else. He seemed not well. This bad Aviona, you must go and see,"

"Did Martin hurt him?" Aviona worriedly asked. She was so drowned onto her emotions that she missed the fact that Martin was mad with what happened and his possible plans of assaulting Melvin.

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Marga sighed and pressed the bridge of her nose, "Aviona that's why he asked us to bring you here. Obviously, he had other plans far more important that comforting you and that is to get revenge. Have you never thought of that? Like seriously?"

"O my God!" Aviona hollered, her beautiful face held an expression of regret, "Why did you not tell me earlier,"

"Because you were being overly dramatic," Sophie rolled an eye at her.

"Quick Aviona, you must go!" Donna alerted her, "You must go to the hospital with him,"

Aviona did not wait for any more words, she stepped out the car hurriedly and ran as fast as she could.

What the heck was happening?

***

Melvin was lying idly in his usual room in Feather HealthCare hospital. Since he was sickly since he was a child, Dr. Miles had already set aside a private room for him. This morning, his attention was called because Melvin suffered an attack of his illness and that was the reason why he fainted and not because Martin had punched him.

Aviona's tears already ran dry when she stood next to Dr. Miles, watching Melvin as he sleeps soundly. Because of what happened, Dr. Miles cannot anymore deny and hid his son's illness to Aviona and so he had informed her right then. Of course, Aviona's reaction to it wasn't good but she tried to be composed as she can. Right then, she understood why Melvin had to reject her.

"I'll go and get you something to drink," Martin said and went away voluntarily. He came in the ambulance with Aviona as he was worried for her and regretful of what he did. He knew Aviona needed time to process all the revelation and that she and Dr. Miles needed some private space, so he excused himself.

"I'm really sorry dear," Dr. Miles tapped her shoulder. "Melvin grow up with this illness. It was a rare one and all these years his mother and I looked for a cure, but all our attempts were hopeless. Melvin saw our struggle back then and on his sixteenth birthday, he asked for a specific gift and that was, for me and my wife to stop looking for the cure. He said he would rather want us to continue helping other people than wasting our lives looking for something impossible. It was a request we failed to refuse…"

Aviona turned to look at the old doctor beside him, "You did your best Dr. Miles and I'm sure for Melvin that was more than enough,"

"…he is not going to live for long. He had already accepted the fact that he will be dying soon and was just basically enjoying the last moments of his life—with school, with research, with the children in the orphanage and now with you,"

Dr. Miles words hit something in Aviona's heart, and she felt guilty suddenly for misunderstanding him, "I'm sorry I made this hard for him,"

"No, you shouldn't be sorry," Dr. Miles gave the girl a tight smile, "You had given him something wonderful. You have given much happiness even as his sun was about to set and for that, I cannot be more thankful,"

"Dr. Miles I don't know if I can…" Aviona suddenly felt afraid for the first time. Something came to her that she couldn't understand but it was something painful.

"Aviona my dear," Dr. Miles tried to keep her calm, "Melvin don't want to drag you to this kind of misery, and he will understand if you walk away. He already knows at the beginning that you have to, that you should move on,"

"I don't think I can walk away from him," Aviona honestly confessed, "I love him far too much that I cannot anymore walk away from all of this,"

"Oh dear," Dr. Miles saw the genuineness in the girl's eyes, and he felt nothing but pity for her, "You are so young Aviona, there will be a lot of good things waiting for you outside these walls,"

"They are all nothing if I cannot be at his side," Aviona's voice contained nothing but regrets. Regrets for not meeting Melvin soon, regrets for spending all her life with all the passing things that she missed to find the man who managed to turn his life upside down.

"This is something I cannot decide for you," Dr. Miles told her, "You can stay if you wish but if your decided to walk away, it's alright"

*

Dr. Miles had gone through a hell lot of pain knowing that even how great he was as a doctor, he cannot cure his own son. Melvin's disease didn't go easy on them, and Dr. Miles as much as possible, wanted to spare Aviona from the pain. She's just young and she might not probably be able to cope up well. But such decisions, he acknowledged, wasn't something he can choose. Everything was up to Aviona.

It was her choice.

She can either leave and spare herself from misery or stay and suffer seeing Melvin fade away.