~NOBODY'S POV
Madeline raised the cup to her mouth with graceful precision when the house keeper came over to her and handed her the telephone. She took it with her other free hand and pressed it to her ear.
"Hello!" She greeted, casually.
"We're sorry but..."
The voice on the other end faded.
Her eyes grew wide, her lips trembled and the cup fell from her hand, the glass shattering on impact.
The house keeper's shocked scream rang out but all that kept ringing loudly in Madeline's ear were the two words uttered by the stranger over the phone...
"He's dead."
She shook her head, not wanting to believe what she had just been told and stood up.
"Where is he?"
Her grip around the telephone was tight and her face was hard. "I'll be there in a few minutes."
Footsteps, rushed and commanding, with the clicking sound of heels reverberating through the pristine white hallway as it hit the tiles were all that could be heard.
Madeline's heart raced as she walked briskly over to the hospital's morgue.
A man clad in white coat with huge round glasses sitting on his face stood at the entrance of a steely door.
His face was drawn together and almost regretful.
Madeline stopped in front of him. "Where is he?" She asked, her voice steely as she tried to remain strong.
"In here." The doctor gestured to the room and slowly pushed the door open, walking in ahead of her into it.
Madeline's feet were heavy and her hands trembled with force. Her hands tightly wrap around the hand of her bag which is pressed against her stomach in a bid to calm herself.
It's not him. It's not my son. He's okay.
She kept chanting in her mind to try to dispel the horrible thoughts that had taken root in her mind since the call earlier that night.
The doctor stopped in front of a large steel table where something—a human being lay—underneath a pristine white sheet.
His head hung low and the expression on his face was not one that Madeline was ready to accept. She got to the table and stood there for some good minutes, her mind and heart racing.
She slowly lifted her hand and pursed her lips tightly unwilling to open the sheets up.
"Just brace yourself." The doctor whispered, noting her suspended hand mid-air...her hesitation.
Madeline closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
"It's not my son." She muttered as she slowly lifted the sheets over the face of the human being.
It was a male.
His body was white and extremely pale, as though the blood were drained. His lips had also turned dry and white and had the purple hue indication of dried blood.
That moment, Madeline felt her soul shift from her body which trembled like a leaf succumbing to the wind on a windy day. Her jaw dropped and her mouth trembled. Her limbs immediately felt weak. They gave way and she collapsed to the ground.
The doctor ran over to her to help her up and wrapped his arms around her shoulders to give her comfort.
"I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear, "we did all we could."
Madeline turned to him, her advanced yet visibly beautiful face slowly contorting into something horrid. She visibly ages in that instant as tears glistened in her eyes.
"That's not my son." She whimpered, shaking her head as tears began to pool out of her eyes.
"It's not him!" She suddenly cried out.
The doctor shook his head, moved by the scene. He has seen it almost all the time in his years as a doctor and still couldn't get used to it...that moment when a mother chooses to cling onto the fickle imagination that her child was alive when that was not the case.
The same was the case with Madeline.
She stood up from the ground abruptly and threw herself over the lifeless body of her son, her shoulders racking with each sob that left her mouth.
She stayed there for minutes crying and resisting the doctor's attempts to pull her away from the already stiff body.
She pushed him off and stared at him with steely red rimmed eyes, "my son is not dead you worthless piece of trash." She affirmed through gritted teeth.
These insults were not new to the doctor who simply remained calm.
Madeline sniffed back her tears, reached into her bag and pulled out her phone and dialed a few digits.
Then she turned to the doctor, "I'll have my men move the body tonight."
She turned to leave when she suddenly stopped and looked back at the doctor, her face hard and aggrieved, "not a word about this must get out." She warmed sternly.
Then she straightened her back and in a more formal and put together tone said, "I'll double your pay if I must but the press must never know anything. He's alive but greatly unwell, that's all they should know."
The doctor pursed his lips in understanding and nodded firmly in affirmation.
She acknowledged his response and walked out.
In a matter of an hour, men dressed in black suits with eyes shielded behind black shades came by with Madeline in tow.
The doctor watched as they moved the body out of the morgue and straight to their car through the back.
Madeline got in her car and led the way to a lab facility which was sponsored by her family. Her heart raced with anticipation as soon as the cars screeched to a halt beside a flight of huge stairs leading to the glass door entrance of a sky scraper.
The head guard came over to her and held the door open for her to step out.
"Take the body to the lab's basement area." She whispered to the guard who nodded affirmatively.
Then she walked to the entrance where a man with grey hairs stood. A warm smile was plastered on his face as he stretched his hand and wrapped them warmly around her shoulders.
"I was shocked that you called."
She forced her lips to stretch into a smile in response but it was nowhere near her eyes.
He politely stretched his hand forward, "Walk with me."
"Dr. He's in the lab waiting." She said with a forlorn expression as they walked down the hallway.
His head fell as he drew in a long sigh in exasperation and then turned to her, "He's dead, Madeline. There's nothing I can do about it."
Her face hardened. "That's my only son. The heir to an empire of fortunes whom I had very late." She paused, her eyes narrowing in bewilderment. "And you expect me to just let him die like that?"
"What you're asking me to do..."
"I am not asking." She snapped, cutting his words short, "I am demanding it."
His brows knitted loosely in worry. "But... it's never been done."
"Well there's always a first time." She reached into her bag and pulled out a brown envelope which she handed over to him. "That's proof that something can be done and unless you want to keep your job and certificate, you'll do what you must."
He caught her threat and took the document from her, eyeing it skeptically. He pulled the documents out with caution and read them.
His brows shot up, jaw dropping with shock.
He looked at her. "But it wasn't successful... someone died."
Madeline shut her eyes and inhaled sharply, her irritation and impatience cutting through the space.
Her eyes were hard and determined when she opened them back to look at him. "I'm not asking you to take a life, I'm asking you to save one."
He shook his head. "You're asking me to bring the dead back to life."
She raised her chin. "He's not dead and you'll make sure of that."
With that, she spun on her heels and stormed off leaving the aged doctor mentally conflicted.