Amelia arrives at the hospital, the Whitlock's Hospital was one of the biggest and most expensive hospitals in the city, it is owned by Mr Ramon Whitlock, CEO and largest shareholder of Whitlock's corporations, one of the elite billionaires in the city but before she goes to the hospital's director's office, she went straight to her grandmother's ward.
The grandmother is the dean of the orphanage where Amelia grew up in, she was taken in by the dean.
The dean dedicated her life to taking in orphaned kids whose parents lost their life or where nowhere to be found because they abandoned their kids.
Amelia was one of those kids and thanks to the elderly dean for making her who she is today, Amelia decided to take care of the sick dean all by herself with the little money she had earned as she noticed that the dean's health was declining.
She refers to the dean as grandmother, because she is like a grandmother to all the orphaned children she had taken in but she was closer to Amelia than she is to the others.
Amelia was always by her side, tried to make her proud and always found ways to appreciate her, the dean loved all her rescued children equally but Amelia became her favorite as time went on.
Amelia entered quietly into the dean's ward, she saw that everything was okay and nothing out of the normal, it is the same as it was three days ago when she came to visit last.
The dean has been unconscious and has been on oxygen for weeks now, although she has had a history with high blood pressure, she has been able to take good care of herself while taking drugs but things got worse a few weeks ago when she suffered cardiac arrest and has been in hospital ever since then.
All the tubes and machines attached to her made Amelia feel sadder but that's the only way for the dean to survive.
Amelia walked in, she sat close to the dean and held her soft hands, tears begin to flow again from her eyes as she looked at the vulnerable dean lying on the hospital bed, the woman she knows is a very strong and loving woman who has dedicated her life to do things that others wouldn't even think of but look at how she is now, defenseless, and in critical condition, couldn't life have rewarded her with good health?
After spending some few minutes with the dean, Amelia decided to go see the hospital director.
"Grandmother, please recover for me, I have a lot of things to tell you". Amelia said and started sobbing again.
This isn't good, she is not supposed to be crying in front of the dean, she shouldn't lose control of herself, she needs to stay strong, if not for her but for the dean at least. She thought.
Amelia rushed out of the ward, she walked down the hallway and entered the elevator.
Amelia knocked on the door to the director's office.
"Come in".
The voice of a man responded.
"Good evening sir, you called to see me?".
Amelia said immediately she sat down in front of the hospital director.
"Good day, Ms. Carter, yes I did ask to see you, I want to pass some important information about your grandmother and the hospital bills". The middle aged man replied.
"Oh, okay sir".
"Yes, for your grandmother there have been little signs of improvement, she is in a stable condition for now that is, her blood pressure is in control for now, she opened her eyes a few times and went back into unconsciousness few seconds later, that's a good sign that she isn't yet in a stage of comatose and the illness hasn't yet affected her brain badly".
At least one good news, Amelia thought to herself but the next statement shattered her little happiness.
"And also your grandmother's hospital bills have increased, since the last couple of days, so you will have to pay at least half before the end of this week inorder to continue treatments for your grandmother".
"What about the amount I paid two weeks ago? Wasn't that enough to continue the treatment till the end of this month, I will complete the payment as promised?".
Amelia asked surprised, she had used all her savings to buy a new home for her and her grandmother.
"Well that has changed, this is the current bill, everything was accumulated yesterday and the total is two times more than what you paid initially, we gave her treatments that cost more than what was paid for, payments needed to be made this week to continue treatments". The middle-aged man said, showing her the bill.
Amelia looked at the huge amount of money to be paid by the end of this week and was shocked, where is she going to get half of this amount to pay?
She's just a waitress at a restaurant, she doesn't even have anything to mortgage, but she won't have the heart to watch her grandmother die ...
Amelia sighed deeply, can this day get any worse? She asked herself.
Considering her situation the probability of getting a loan is very low, unless maybe she decides to meet with loan sharks.
"Alright, thank you, sir, I will see to it". Amelia said and stood up.
"Okay, Ms. Carter".
On her way back, Amelia thought of going back to the ward to see the dean, but decided against it, what was she going to do there?
Cry again?
There are a lot of things on her plate now.
Amelia arrived back at her apartment in the evening, standing at the dislocated door, she began to sob.
All her savings are gone and she can't even live in a comfortable apartment after sweating and suffering to save enough money to buy a comfortable apartment where she would live with the love of her life, she never even thought that she would return to this shabby place again today, everything she has worked for down the drain, she didn't deserve any of these, not one.
Amelia was about to push the door open to enter inside when someone greeted her.
"Hey, Amelia, can I see you?".
Amelia recognized that voice, it belongs to the caretaker of the apartment she is staying in.
What's she doing here? Why does she want to see me?
Amelia thought to herself.
"Yes, madam Prisca". Amelia answered, turning to face the woman.
"Ah, yeah, how are you doing?". The woman asked.
"I am fine, thank you".
"Hmm, are you sure? You don't look happy but anyways I am here for the rent, you haven't paid the rental fee for this month". Madam Prisca said.
Amelia was stunned, she still had one week before her rent would expire, why is she coming now to request it? It was definitely to embarrass her, she didn't even know how she would deal with the other neighbors tomorrow morning.
"Umm, madam Prisca I don't have the rent money now and it's not yet time, I still have one more week till the date, why don't you give me more time?". Amelia said calmly trying to save face.
"Ehh, yeah, I know there's one week remaining but I just saw you walking in and I said let me just remind you because it appears to me that you are not yet ready to leave…".
Amelia wasn't surprised at what she was hearing from Madam Prisca, although she still had like a week remaining before the rent expired, she knew why she was here.
"I know you don't have much on you and I will be very lenient…".
"I don't understand?".
"See look, I know some rich gay couples who would pay a huge amount for you to be a surrogate for them, how do you see that? It's very lucrative, you know". Madam Prisca said with a smug face, she had achieved her goal.
Amelia just stared at her without saying a word.
"Just think about it, okay? If you are interested I will link you up with them, you are very beautiful so don't even worry about them not accepting you". Madam Prisca said and laughed as she left, she definitely was going to tell the other neighbors.
Amelia opened the door to her apartment and banged it angrily so that the door dislocated even more as it collided with the wall.
Amelia fell to her bed and muttered to herself.
"This is my worst birthday ever".