Time For Her To Let Go

Kira tacked her brain for an appropriate opening line...

Should she go with 'Good evening?"

No, it was moning over ther

should she call her Mom?

But would it be too awloward?

The word "hello" was stack in her throat when Kira finally caught sight of Charlotte.

She knew Austyn's mother was bedbound with some kind of severe illness, but she never expected Charlotte to be this sick.

Her head was shaved.

A tube snaked into her nostrill, with the other end connected to a machine-off-camera.

She was hollow-cheekel, almost skeletal, though it was easy to see from her bone structure that she must have been a stunner in her younger days. Her skin had that sickly, whitish-grey colour Kita was familiar with-she'd seen it on her dail's face.

charlotte Carthy looked like she had one foot in the grave,

Kica's heart sank

she hid that thought and forced a smile. "H-hello."

Charlotte smiled.

It was a weak but joyful smile.

'Kira, so nice to finally meet you."

Hira felt tears stinging the back of her eyes.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "It's so nice to meet you, too. Now I see where Austyn gets his good looks from.This belongs to - ©.

Charlotte's eyes wanded with delight. "Aw, aren't you a sweetle. Austyn never told me you're a flatterer."

Flattery if it's the truth,"

And it was working

The smile on Charlotte's face grew wider.

Some colour tumed to her cheeks.

The chat couldn't have gone better.

Kira was sweet and charming and attentive.

charlotte regaled her with tales of Austyn's childhood.

They debated the issue of baby names.

But Charlotte was exhausted after twenty minutes

Austyn gently took away the phone from her hand. "Mom, you need to rest,'

He said good night to pura, ended the call and was about to leave the room, but Charlotte grabbed his wrist. "Sit down."

Austyn parsed his lips.

He sat down on a chair next to the bed and said nothing

He knew where this conversation was going

It was a topiche tried to stay away fmm

He had to duck out of the room when Dr Manning came in to check on Charlotte earlier.

The self-imposed deadline had passed and he still had not given the doctor an answer

Charlotte studied her son's face.

How time flew.

Her little boy had grown into a man, and

d he was about to become a

à father.

He had acarrer, a wife and a family.

Hew how to take care of himself, and he was now anchored by the responsibilities of a family.

It was time for her to let go.

"De Manding talked to me.

Austyn tumed bis head away

Come on, Assle."Charlotte held his hand.

It was big and warm and strong, so unlike hers.

"You can't keep running away from this."

"I'm not, Austyn refused to look her in the eye.

'You know I don't have much time left."

"Don't say that! I'll figure out a way. There has to be

"know my own body. Charlotte squeezed his hand. 'After spending so many years in a hospital, I've become a somewhat self-taught expert." Austyn clenched his i

sjaw.

'I know you're not going to like what I'm about to say, but just hear me out. Austyn, I'm ready. It's time to let me go."

"Mom!' Austyn's eyes tumed red

Charlotte was firm. 'You're an adult now. And you've always been strong. It's time to face reality, no matter how harsh it is."

Charlotte's forbearance was one of the many things Austyn admired about his mother.

She accepted both the good and the bad in life with equanimity.

She taught him to be brave, which was not only the courage to change the things he could, but also the serenity to accept the things he couldn't. Austyn got his self-assurance from his mother. Charlotte knew Austyn was smart,

He was blessed with a rational mind and fortitude.

He could survive the grief of bereavement.

He just needed some time to come to grips with reality.

When Austyn spoke, he wasn't looking at Charlotte.

He was staring at the cardiac monitor next to the bed.

Charlotte suffered from bradycardia, which meant her heart beat at a rate slower than normal.

Austyn would do everything in his power to stop that green line on the screen from going flat...

"I'm not giving up. There's still hope.

"By hope, you mean Kira's father."

Austyn finched. 'I can find other donors!

Charlotte shook her head. 'You know there's no time.

Charlotte had no brothers or sisters.

The odds of finding an exact match with an unrelated donor were about one in 100,000.

A heart could only survive outside the body for four to six hours.

Even it, by some miracle, another suitable donor was found, the person could be hallway across the world and there would be no time to Besides, Charlotte needed more than just a heart. Almost all her vital organs were failing

Dr Manning told her she had about a month to live without a transplant,

Charlotte had processed the news and accepted it with tranquillity.

She knew the day was coming sooner or later

I know you, Aussie. Can you really do it? Can you really take the organs from Kara's father to save me? She refused to let Austyn look away. Austyn lowered his eyes.

He was bone-tired, both body and mind.

But it was at this moment that he truly felt fatigue wash over him.

It was an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and helplessness in the face of cruel fate.

Its shoulders were bunched, as if crushed by an invisible weight.

He had stayed up all night, trying to find an alterative.

But there wasn't une.

e to get it to South Rockwood.

He Fell Into His Own Stre

Dr Manning and his team were dedicated.

Anytime a new donor was added to the International Registry on Organ Donation and Transplantation, they would do their appraisal.

But so far, no luck.

None of the donors was even a remote match for Charlotte.

Austyn was so desperate, he had asked Kai to put the word out on the black market.

But four weeks were simply not enough time.

Austyn couldn't sleep a wink last night

On one side was his mother, whom he loved and respected and who was too young to die.

On the other side were Leland and Kira

It was a Sophie's choice.

Austyn had never been this indecisive in his life, torn between two equally impossible options.

If this were two years ago, if he had not married Kita, if he had no idea she existed, he would have paid off whomever Leland's living relative was and obtained their signature on the organ donation consent form. But now..

He did not know what to do.

He'd ratherface ten more bloodthirsty drug traffickers like Santors, than be confronted with this impossible choice!

Austyn had stumbled across Leland's medical profile two years ago, when he was trawling the national database for a possible match with Charlotte.

Leland Hewitt was forty-eight years old, in good health before the car accident.

He fell into a persistent vegetative state, the result of a traumatic brain injury

But the rest of his organs were unaffected

With Jesse's help, Austyn brought in a team of doctors to evaluate Leland's compatibility.

All thore tests-blood type, crossmatch and HLA testing-showed a match

Austyn did nothing at that time.