CHAPTER 41: THE DOCTORS PRESCRIPTIONS (⁠✿⁠☉⁠｡⁠☉⁠)

The next morning was quite quiet. It was filled with the emotions no one was saying...

Leo had woken up in an armchair in Sarah’s room, having refused to leave her side. He watched her sleep until the sun was fully up, his mind was a mess of fear and anger...

Downstairs, Sarah’s mother made breakfast. She moved around the kitchen with a forced, emotionless cheerfulness, setting out plates of eggs and toast that no one felt like eating...

Sarah’s father sat at the kitchen table, staring into a cup of coffee, his shoulders slumped downwards. When Leo and Sarah came downstairs, the forced normalcy shattered...

Sarah sat down but didn’t touch her food. Leo remained standing, leaning against the counter...

"Did you get the doctor’s number for me?" Leo asked, his voice cutting through the silence...

Sarah’s mother nodded, pulling a business card from a drawer. "It’s Dr. Katana. His office opens at nine."

Leo looked at the clock on the wall. It was 8:58. He took the card, walked into the living room, and sat down with his phone. Sarah and her parents followed him, hovering in the doorway as if afraid to get too close...

At precisely 9:00 a.m., Leo dialed the number. He put the phone on speaker, setting it on the coffee table in the center of the living room...

"Dr. Katana’s office, this is Aoi speaking," a pleasant voice answered.

"Hello, I’m calling on behalf of a patient, Sarah Sakura," Leo said, his voice steady. "We need to speak with the doctor. It’s urgent."

"Is the patient alright?" the receptionist asked, her tone shifting to one of concern...

"No," Leo exclaimed bluntly. "She’s experiencing hemoptysis. She needs to speak with the doctor immediately."

There was a brief pause on the other end. "Please hold."

The silence in the room was absolute. Sarah was pale, her hands twisting in her lap. Her mother was chewing on her fingernail, her eyes wide with fear. After a minute that felt like an hour, a man’s voice came on the line...

"This is Dr. Katana. I understand Sarah is having some trouble."

"Yes," Leo responded. "She coughed up blood last night."

He heard the doctor let out a long, weary sigh. "Sarah, are you there? Can you hear me?"

"Yes," Sarah whispered, her voice was barely audible.

"Sarah, we talked about this," Dr. Katana said, his tone firm but not unkind. "I told you that if that symptom ever appeared, you needed to call me or go to the emergency room immediately. Why didn’t you?"

Sarah didn’t answer. She just shook her head, tears welling in her eyes...

Leo spoke for her. "She was scared. And we were out of town."

"I see," the doctor said. "And how is she now? Any shortness of breath? Dizziness? Chest pain?"

"No," Sarah managed to say. "I just feel... tired."

"Alright," Dr. Katana said. "Listen to me very carefully. The fact that this is happening means the pressure in your heart is too high. The medication is no longer managing the condition as effectively as we’d hoped. This is a significant progression of the disease."

Leo’s stomach clenched. He looked at Sarah’s parents, who both looked like they were about to collapse...

"What does that mean?" Leo asked, his voice tight with fear. "What do we do now?"

"It means we are past the point of simple management," the doctor said, his voice direct. "She needs to be seen by a cardiac specialist, someone who deals specifically with advanced heart failure and transplant options. I can give you a referral. The best program in the region is at the Yamada Hospital in the city of Shibuya. Dr. Aoki is the head of their transplant cardiology unit. She’s one of the best."

The word ’transplant’ hung in the atmosphere, a terrifying, final-sounding word. Sarah made a small, choked sound, and her mother finally broke down, sobbing into her hands...

"Is that where we are now?" her father asked, his voice in pain. "A transplant?"

"It’s the direction we’re heading," Dr. Katana confirmed. "Dr. Aoki will need to run a full battery of tests to determine Sarah’s eligibility and where she would fall on the transplant list. It’s a long process, and it’s not a guarantee. But it’s the best and, frankly, the only long-term option we should be discussing at this point."

Leo felt a strange sense of clarity settle over him. The fear was still there, a cold knot in his stomach, but now it had a direction. A target.

"Okay," Leo said. "Dr. Aoki. Yamada Hospital. How do we get an appointment?"

"I’ll have my office call over the referral right now," Dr. Katana said. "I’ll mark it as urgent. You should call them directly in an hour to schedule the initial consultation. Don’t wait. The sooner they see her, the better."

"We will," Leo said. "Thank you, Doctor."

"And Sarah," the doctor added, his voice softening slightly. "No more hiding. No more pretending. Your life depends on being honest from now on, with your parents, with your friends, and most importantly, with me. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Sarah whispered. "I understand."

"Good. I’ll call you later this week to check in. For now, get that appointment made."

The line clicked, and the call was over...

The four of them sat in the living room, surrounded by a silence that was heavier than anything Leo had ever experienced...

Sarah’s mother was still crying softly. Her father stared at the floor, his face was blank...

Leo stood up. He picked up his phone and looked at the business card again, then at the family frozen in front of him. He was no longer just the boyfriend. He was the one who had to hold them all together...

He looked at Sarah, who was watching him with terrified, trusting eyes...

"Okay," he said, his voice ringing with determination. He walked over to her and knelt in front of her, taking both of her hands in his.

"Here’s what we’re going to do," he said, looking directly at her. "In one hour, I’m going to call that hospital and get you that appointment. We’re going to see the best doctor there is. We’re going to do every test she tells us to do. And we are going to fight this. Together. All of us."

He glanced over at her parents, who looked up at him, their expressions a mixture of gratitude and shame...

"No more secrets," he said, his gaze firm. "From anyone. We’re a team now, a family. Got it?"

Sarah looked at him, and for the first time all morning, a bit of her old strength returned to her eyes. She squeezed his hands and nodded...

"Got it, babe."