The hospital ambulance was steadily making its way through the bustling street that Friday afternoon without the sirens blaring since it wasn't an emergency.

The occupants, with the exception of the driver who was studying the road closely, were sending glances each other's way. The look of communication and concern very common with close relatives was not lost on them.

Indeed. For Lindsay Michaels, her three children and her mother, Ethel Goldwin, were being transported home from the private hospital where they had spent a couple of weeks.

It was the private hospital her husband had chosen to use for the family and that was where her three children had each been born.

The private hospital, one of the best in Boston, was very efficient and strived to leave the best impression on their clients.

After they were discharged from there, the management offered to drive them home in his absence.

Her husband, Rex Michaels, was a famous philanthropist and an extremely successful entrepreneur who went only for the best.

He paid for their services in advance, then renewed it at the beginning of every year. So, with or without him, the hospital did what they knew how to do best.

Lindsay glanced out the window, glad that they were finally going home, "the hospital stay had limited her ability to admire sceneries like this," she realized.

A movement very close to her body drew her back her attention and she settled her eyes on her son.

Matt had undergone an urgent abdominal surgery and Lindsay had been trying to come to terms with just how close she had come to losing him. Even now as she stared down lovingly at his small form, she was still scared.

"How is he doing, Lindy?" She heard her mother's soft voice say. Glancing away from her son briefly, she looked in her mother's direction and met the worried brown-eyed stare.

Regardless of what might be reflected in her own eyes, Lindsay said, "he is probably just dreaming mum, he doesn't appear to be in any pain."

"Thank goodness. For a while there, you looked scared," her mother goshed. Smiling weakly, Lindsay understood her mother's trepidation at any thing pertaining to ill-health.

Since losing her father to a life-threatening tumor, her mother was careful not to lose another family member to any form of ill-health ever again.

She saw her mother's gaze shift sideways and followed it too. Fast asleep next to her were her other two children. Ashley, the oldest, aged nine, then Danny, aged seven. Matt, the one who had the surgery, was the youngest, aged five.

She saw the look of tenderness cross her mother's tired expression. "Ever since her mother came to live with them after her father's death, Lindsay had remained grateful to her."

"Her undiluted love for her grandkids was the push Lindsay needed especially at this point in her marriage when she didn't know the direction in which it was headed."

"Any word from Rex yet?" Her mother's question, asked with a hint of caution, brought her attention back to the present.

Just then the ambulance driver announced that he was nearing their neighborhood and confirmed the street and house number from her.

Giving him directions, she turned towards her mother and slowly shook her head from side to side in answer to her query.

She could sense herself close to tears and didn't trust her voice.

Her mother nodded, keeping her expression neutral. Lindsay, extremely grateful for this, turned her gaze outwards, looking through the window.

"Her mother had never even once judged her or her Rex, only giving advice when necessary and encouraging them both together and other times individually," Lindsay recalled.

"Their marriage, after all, had been a happy one since they got married eleven years ago, not until almost three years ago when their rosy financial situation changed for the worse," she reflected.

Suddenly, the familiar flowers surrounding their home came into view and her thoughts were interrupted. She could hear her mother talking softly to Ashley and Danny, waking them.

The ambulance driver quickly came to her side of the door and opened it, as she carried Matt in both hands, and gradually stepped down from the car.

By now, her mum had already reached the doorway, about to ring the doorbell when it was quickly opened by the maid. She was the only one out of the others who offered to stay until the end of the year.

"Welcome home everyone." Lindsay heard her say excitedly and saw her pat the children's hair affectionately before walking over to the driver, relieving him of the luggages.

Lindsay hurried into the house and carried Matt over to one of the very large and comfortable sofas. She quickly looked around the home as if looking for signs of her husband's presence.

She could feel her mother's hand patting her gently on the shoulders before going further upstairs, as she held each of her grandchildren by their hands.

"I will just be on my way now Mrs Michaels, your maid has carried out all of your belongings out of the car. I wish Matt the quickest of recoveries, my regards to Mr Rex," she heard the driver say from right behind her.

Turning around quickly she realized that in her musings, she had forgotten about him.

Thanking him warmly, she bade him goodbye.

"Matt was still fast asleep, thank God. He had asked for his father several times in the course of their hospital stay and she had assured him that soon he would see his father."

"I hope he sleeps some more now that we are on familiar grounds while I think of what to tell him about why his father had absented himself," she deliberated.

"Ever since her once-upon-a-time beloved husband and devoted father to their children lost all of his wealth and of course every highly-held position he had as a result of his influence, their marriage had steadily gone downhill."