Abigail turned and asked, "Can I talk to her?"
Cole, slightly stunned stared at Abigail and said, "When have I ever done anything to prevent you from speaking to her? In fact, when we signed the agreement with the hospital, she told me to tell you to call her if you have any questions."
Without waiting for anything else, Abigail grabbed her school bag and pulled out her simple mobile phone, turning it on before dialling her adoptive grandmother in the hospital. After three rings the call was answered, and Abigail heard "If it is not my favourite granddaughter…"
Laughing, Abigail said "Your only granddaughter."
Abigail could hear a somewhat feeble laugh before her grandmother said "That is true, but that does not change the point that even if I had other granddaughter, you would still be my favourite…"
"Flatterer. Grandmother I have a question for you…"
Abigail heard her grandmother sigh before saying "You are with that nice biological grandfather of yours and you want to know about the agreement with the hospital…"
"How did…"
"I know you. Unlike the rest of the family, you always keep your promises to me. Yesterday, when you came and visited me after school, we celebrated your birthday and you made me a promise. You promised me that today you would focus on your birth family and not contact me so that they did not feel that we were more important than they were to you. But after you left your birth grandfather came to me and we talked."
"What did you talk about grandmother?"
"You, of course, darling. To both of us, you are highly important. He wanted you to be assured that I could continue to have treatment regardless of anything that happens from today onwards, because now you are legally an adult and what he can do is more limited that what he could do before today. What he wanted to do is pay for five years hospitalisation and treatment fees for me."
"Did you agree grandmother?"
With another feeble laugh, Grandmother Meng calmly said "You know me too well. I do not want anything that I have not earned and as I told your biological grandfather that. He told me, that in caring for and protecting you for over seventeen years I had more than earned the little bit of money that he was spending to make sure that I could continue to have treatment if anything happened to you. It was clear that he was not going to take no for an answer. But …"
"You insisted on something?"
"Absolutely. I wanted the money to go back to him, if I died, but in the end his compromise was that it should go to you. But to prevent our family from trying to get the money…"
Grandmother Meng was interrupted by a coughing fit, causing Abigail to call out "Are you alrigth grandmother?"
In a hoarse voice, Grandmother Meng, came back "I am. But you know talking too much causes me to do that."
After a short pause, she continued "He suggested, and I agreed, that the money goes to you on my death or if I discharge myself from the hospital, freely."
Abigail looked over at Cole, and saw that he was on another phone call, so she asked "You did not feel pressured?"
"Darling girl, you know me well enough, can anyone force me to do anything?"
"No, grandmother," came Abigail circumspect reply.
"That is good."
"Grandmother, he wants me to marry a business associate."
Grandmother Meng laughed slightly and said "Do not ever forget you are a strong young woman. I know how intelligent that you are. You were able to hide from the family how bright you are, and with the help of the schoolteacher, you completed your secondary schooling what, three years ago…"
"Try four, Grandmother," came Abigail's laughing response.
"And then what is it you completed your university degree in what … eighteen months with the schoolteacher facilitating your studies. Stop doubting yourself and know that what you do will always be your choice, no one else's."