He awoke in the morning to a still unconscious Lali being returned from the ICU covered in casts and bandages with a neck and head brace. Jean shut his eyes hard, unable to fully comprehend the sight in front of him. Rubbing his hands through his hair, he slowly opened his eyes and scanned her appearance. He moved his chair as close to her bed as he could and leaned on the handrails. Staring deeply at her bandaged, puffy face, he did not realize Dr. Isha had walked in.

“It was a good surgery”, Dr. Isha stated. Jean jumped at the sudden disturbance. “We managed to successfully remove all the glass and fix everything else in one go.”

“No one deserves this”, Jean uttered, “no matter how headstrong of a woman she is, there cannot be any good reason for this.”

“That is the logical, sensible thought”, Dr. Isha said, “but hate is often illogical.”

“I’ll find out the truth”, Jean determined.

“Don’t do anything rash, Jean”, Dr. Isha warned, “We walk a fine line given that we’re only half Caucasian. Don’t give them any reason to act against us and our full-blooded Asian brethren.”

“Do you ever stop protecting your own ass for one moment to see how fucked up this is?”, Jean snarled, “I guarantee you had we not been a moneyed, “useful” family we’d be right there in the camps with them, uncle.”

There was a deep silence between the men.

“I have to stop home for a bit”, Jean said as he stood and stretched, “If she wakes before I return, have her eat the dinner I left in the fridge.”

Dr. Isha nodded as Jean made his way to the door. He went home to shower and change. On his way back to the hospital, he stopped to pick up some clothes for Lali to make a trade for the return of his. As he reached her hospital room, he noticed a change. He wrinkled his brow as to rack his brain for what was different.

“We had to give her an endotracheal. The nurse found her breathing was stopping for long periods of time. She may be having difficulty with the anesthesia”, Dr. Isha said, interrupting Jean’s thoughts.

“Which could explain why she’s not awake yet”, Jean mumbled.

“Her vitals are good otherwise, so I’m not worried yet.”

Jean simply nodded at the information.

“Ah, I spoke to your mother-”

“You didn’t-”, Jean interrupted.

“She’ll be making a visit at some point this week. Most likely today, if we truly know the same woman.”

Jean sighed heavily and flopped into the chair next to the bed. The thought of his mother visiting only seemed to complicate the situation further. It was easy to brush off his father without the potential of causing a familial crisis, but his mother was not so easy. Dr. Isha uncomfortably cleared his throat. Jean cut his eyes at him, obviously beyond upset at his meddling.

“Well I hope you’re happy. You get to see your beloved sister”, Jean growled, “Leave.”

Dr. Isha pinched his lips and made a hasty retreat out of the room. Jean took several deep breaths to calm himself. He blankly stared at Lali. She was as still as ever.

“Why does it seem you’re the only one here able to rest easy despite being the one in the worst condition?”, he asked as he placed a large, warm hand on her stomach.

He rhythmically and gently patted her stomach, while keeping his eyes fixated on her face as though to stare her awake. Suddenly, his hand tensed and laid to rest on her stomach. He arched his head slightly to listen towards the door. A familiar, telltale clicking of designer heels was approaching. The ill begotten calm on his face turned to dread as he knew who those heels belonged to. He tried to regain his composure and act as though he did not notice that they stopped in front of the other side of the door. Without so much as a knock, a stately middle-aged woman walked in. Her clothes were ill-fitting of a hospital, looking as though she was on her way to meet political royalty for tea, but made a wrong turn.

“Jean-chan!”, she said with such euphoria, Jean jumped several inches. His eyes grew wide trying to recompose himself before turning to greet her.

He pinched his lips and turned with an uncomfortable smile, “Hello, mother”, he mustered.

“My darling! What horrible things has your father gotten you into this time? This is your father’s doing, right? I feel like it is.”, she walked over and cradled his head in her arms.

“I take it he has yet to tell you”, Jean pried himself from her small, freshly manicured hands.

“Tell me what? I rushed over here when Howard said you were here and may have gotten yourself into some trouble, so I was worried. As for your father, I saw him all but two days ago. He sent me a text this morning saying he had some sort of surprise. I texted him back to just tell me now, but he just ignored me.”

“That’s because you’ll have his head”, he mumbled.

“What?”, she asked

Jean cleared his throat, “Nothing, mother.”

“So, if it’s not you who’s hurt, why are we sitting here? Who is this mummy of a person?”, she questioned, then gasped, “perhaps”, she covered her mouth with an embroidered handkerchief, “Did you do this?! Or your father put this person in this state and have you dealing with it!?”

Jean shut his eyes. He knew that his mother was going to blow this out of proportion with her imagination and it was a headache to calm her down.

“I have to call the lawyer. This is a mess! A lawsuit of this caliber-”

“No. Mother. Stop. It’s not what you think”, he said firmly.

“Then what should I think?”

“If you stopped jumping to conclusions, I could tell you”, he said smoothly.

“Fine”, she said as she fixed her clothes, pulled up the doctor’s stool, and sat erect. She gestured to him to begin his story.

Jean hesitated. He glanced at Lali and swallowed heavily. His face looked as though he knew what his future held once this short-lived secret was out; and it was bleak. His lips seemed to be moving rapidly in curses towards his father, but no sound was escaping his mouth. There was a loud pounding rising in his ears as he felt his mother’s eyes bore deeper into his face.

“She’s—“, he breathed, “my wife”. He seemed to shrink while bracing for her reaction.

“What?”, she said.

“My wife”, he repeated.

“What?!”, she spoke again, her volume and pitch rising.

He rolled his jaw uncomfortably and repeated, “My wife.”

“What?!”, she shouted.

Her hand clasped her chest and her eyes grew wide. Her face filled with wrinkles that did not exist before. Her mind was racing as the future she imagined for her son came crashing down around her. She opened her mouth to speak, but she could not vocalize the word. She seemed to be stuttering in utter silence.

“w-w-w-w-w-w-w-wife?”, she stuttered. Her breathing rapidly increased into hyperventilation.

“Yes”, he confirmed.

“O-okay, well who is she? A-And when did you get married?! How could you get married without inviting your family?!”, she interrogated.

“Lalianna McCloud. Two days ago. It wasn’t exactly planned.”

“Oh, from the McCloud & Dawson Firm? One of Simon McCloud’s copious amounts of children?”, she nodded, “Okay, that’s fine. Of-of course I would have rather you had a more proper father-in-law; one with not so many— “loose” ends.” She seemed to be able to come to terms with this, “Of course I still would have preferred if you and —”

“Stop”, he snarled.

“But you were so perfect together. If only you could get over your differences.”

“It was more than just differences, mother, but I rather we not discuss this now or here”, he breathed, “And she’s not one of Simon’s daughters”, he corrected.

This reveal threw her back into a frenzy.

“W-w-what?! What do y-”

“If you could let me continue, you’d have the answers you seek.”, he said firmly.

She took a deep breath, “O-okay”.

“She’s from one of the reeducation camps. Father bought her and made her my wife.”

“Ca-ca-camp?!”, she stuttered.

“Basically, He arranged my marriage without your or my permission for that matter”, he said matter-of-factly.

“b-b-b-b-b-b-bought?!”, she stuttered again.

“Yes”, he confirmed, “she was already in bad shape when father brought her to me.”

“A-arranged?!”, she shouted holding her head, “Ca-call your father! Now!”

She looked as though she would faint. Every twist and turn in Jean’s story got worse for her; first, Lali was a lawsuit waiting to happen, then she was one of Simon McCloud’s illegitimate children, now she’s a released prisoner. The stress revealed her true age on her once porcelain face. Jean, unfazed by her reaction, called his father.

“He’s not answering”, he said.

She jumped up in anger, “Well, looks like I need to pay him a visit at work.”, she said while adjusting her clothing.

“Mother, don’t.”, Jean said.

“Don’t what? I-I am just going to speak to him t-that’s all”, she exhaled.

“I, of all people, know that’s not true”, he pointed out.

“Don’t worry, my darling, I’ll get you out of this horrid situation”, she patted his cheek.

“Mot--”, he began, but she promptly exited in a flurry of motion.

Jean sighed and turned to look at Lali.

“Still sleeping. Even through all of that”, he sighed as he placed his hand back on her stomach.

At that moment, her brow wrinkled. A jolt ran through Jean’s body. He began to watch her movements in anticipation. She went from bouts of movement to stillness as she struggled with consciousness. The stillness was disturbed with a large inhalation, while her movements concluded in a lifeless exhale.

“Lali”, Jean said softly, “Come on”. He patted her stomach several times in hopes it would wake her.

She finally managed to force her eyes open, but quickly shut them as the pain from the surgery and injuries came rushing back. Jean hit the call button to inform the nurse.