Kiss of A Titan
Chapter 10

At first, he thought she would wake up if he adjusted her head on the pillow but he was lucky that she didn't open her eyes when he gently rested her head on the pillow like he often did to ensure she won't suffer neck pain when she wakes up. The next minute, she rolled twice to get herself comfortable on the bed and giddily tossed her head to the other side of the pillow.

Then she stopped moving and drifted further to sleep. Richard became utterly relieved that his show of affection didn't wake her up and took two steps backward away from bedside. Then he hastily heads for the door, believing that she won't be waking up anytime soon. But he was wrong. He was only about to reach the door when she woke up, perceiving that someone had entered the ward.

"Richard, is that you?" she inquired as soon as she regained consciousness. Richard stopped abruptly at the threshold of the door and turned around. He didn't move nor did he make any noise. She tried to decipher his stature in the opaque darkness but her feeble eyes were too dim to pick out his odd shape at the doorway. She wriggled her eyes twice to ensure she wasn't in doubt that an intruder had ventured into the ward when she was fast asleep.

"I know you're standing there", she said further after a short moment of silence, "Show yourself if you're Richard", she demanded but Richard didn't utter a word leaving only vague silence to thrive in the fairly dark room. She wanted to give up thinking that she saw nothing but the empty gust of wind brewing in the shadows. Part of her felt her eyesight was getting poorer as a result of her sickness and almost believed that she might have seen things because of her desire to see her son.

It occurred to her that it would be hard to believe that Richard could be present in her room at this odd hour of the night which was completely unusual since she had gotten used to his routine visit in accordance with the hospital visitation hours and almost made a mockery of herself for speculating that Richard could have come at such unusual time of the passing night.

She knew the nurses in the hospital wouldn't grant him the opportunity to visit her since it was clearly not the time for visitation hours except for Nurse Lucy but she knew it would be highly a strong coincidence for them to meet at this time. Besides, Nurse Lucy might have swapped places with any of her colleagues and retired home early for the night in line with the interval at which shifts were being assigned in the hospital.

She relented trying to speak to the silent darkness and slumped herself down on the pillow to return back to sleep but sleep was forthcoming. Richard felt inclined to reveal himself but he hesitated when he realized he had nothing to say except what had been bothering him since daytime and he didn't want her to share in his tormenting agony.

He watched her staring at the ceiling under the only bright light in the dark room in utter dead silence and thought it best to leave before sleep gets hold of her for the second time in one night. He turned to leave but his feet wouldn't let him walk past through the same door he had come in without her knowing about it. Right there, he made up his mind to cast away every ill thought including his deepest fears of his mother not recovering from her ailment from his muddled mind and confront her about the present issue instead of having her find out about the sudden disappearance of her spouse from the city.

Cloaked with the darkness, he took steps further and sank his tall stature further to the left in the shadows beside the door he had left ajar. His mother seemed more focused in her own thoughts that she barely realized someone was stealthily walking towards her surreptitious from the darkness. It wasn't until Richard stepped into the gleaming rays of the bright fluorescent light at her bedside that she was arrested by an eerie feeling of her son's huge presence by the side of the bed.

"Hello, Mom", he muttered out, believing that she heard him. His voice sounded hoarse since his plaintive throat had been dry but it was strong enough to chase away that feeling that the grim reaper had stepped into her room to take her life.

"Richard, it was you all along", she said as she sat upright on the bed with the blanket falling down on the rest part of her legs, "Come closer into the light", she requested with keen happiness in her heart and felt uplifted by the sudden discovery that Richard was present by her side. Richard obeyed and ventured out of the heavy darkness into the waning light.

Now fully exposed for his mother to comprehend the needs of her son, He couldn't hide his pale countenance which shone brightly in the light since he had abandoned all bad notions and agonizing thoughts about his predicament to the darkness behind him.

At first glance, his mother's welcoming smile was almost blotched out by the frown Richard wore to face his mom. It was almost disappointing to her but she blocked away all the bad feelings that would have overshadowed her completely when she first saw him coming to stay by her side. In spite of the strength she had to put all the bad feelings aside, her first inquiry was a clear contrast to the pale discontented grin she had greeted her son with. "Anything wrong, Richard?"

"I'm fine, Mom", he replied feeling convinced of the words he had uttered from his mouth though his face was still as black as the darkness behind him. He took a step closer and embraced her tightly with an even warmer affection that misconceived her earlier opinion about his demeanor but his mom wasn't yet convinced. She wriggled herself away from his warm embrace and brought him closer to him. Meek and obedient, Richard allowed her to steer him to crouch on her laps. "I know you're clearly upset about something", "Mom...."

"Tell me what is hurting you to make you act this way", she interrogated with a fervent desperation that Richard could barely catch up to her persistent queries for answers.

"Mom....There's nothing wrong with me", "That's a lie. I can't believe that, you already know that I understand you better than anyone", "I know that but mom, please don't fight me on this", he said taking her hands into his. He was sure that her queries were itching his feelings and he didn't want her to instill more hatred in his heart than he had already let loose into the darkness which had taken root from his last quarrel with his dad a few hours ago before sunset and his arrival to the hospital.

She looked away and stifled a teardrop which had unconsciously fallen from her eyes when it became harder for her to persuade him to tell her the truth. He perceived that she was going to feel bad about his stubbornness and quickly grabbed her hand and pressed it against his bosom.

"Fine, I won't ask if you don't want me to but you have to cheer up a little bit", She said and broke her hands free from him. Then she placed her two palms on his rough cheeks.

"I can't do that, Mom. Not tonight but I think I'll be better in the morning after I leave", "And why do you say such a thing?" she asked, looking at him straight in the eyes. His blue eyes had reminded her of how his father looked but this was no time for her to ponder about her spouse. Making her son feel good about himself, was the only thing that concerned her at that moment. He couldn't bring himself to respond and drifted into silence like he did earlier the first time they both saw each other.

"Tell me right now or I'll be forced to believe that something really bad has happened", "Nothing bad has actually happen... It's just..." he replied evasively but she interrupted him before he could even complete his statement. "For God's sake, spit it out already!", "I.....can't do that. It'll only upset you", "What...?" she asked and took a slight pause. An eerie thought that had been staring boldly at her face ever since she saw Richard's despondency for herself, suddenly reeled its ugly head in front of her. She became convinced it had something to do with his father, her spouse. Since birth, she knew Richard to be outspoken and straightforward whenever it comes to voicing out his opinion even in the presence of his father.

Even with Ben, Richard had been fearless in protecting things that he knew belong to him and he always had that feeling of contempt towards anyone who threatens to oppress him or tries to cheat him to obtain what rightfully belongs to him and he had always demanded justice whenever he felt wrong but It was only after his first quarrel with her husband that she remembered Richard feeling terrible with himself during the aftermath to the point that he didn't want to mention to her anything about the cause of their fight. She recalled that it was from her husband that she found out the bone of contention of their first quarrel and she wasn't too happy that her current condition was the sole cause of their fierce argument.

"Is it your father, again?" she asked and Richard feigned ignorance. She became displeased with herself and dropped her hands from his face. Her hands fell down loosely on her thighs and he knew at that instant, she had caught on with the actual cause of his discontentment though she hadn't realized the whole truth yet. Seeing her being dismayed and irritated by his secretiveness, he bravely decided to let the cat out of the bag instead of keeping silent about it. "You're right, Mom. It's him, again and I....am just completely fed up with his outrageous promises", "What did he do this time around? Did he..." She paused at the sudden remembrance of something she had skipped which Richard had unwittingly reminded her. It hadn't been a complete two months that her husband and son had paid her a visit.

Back then, she still slept in her old ward and her two visitors had showered her with love and affection so beyond her imagination that she gained enough courage that she was going to win the battle against her sickness which she had to suffer for three years and had chained her to the bed as well as the confines of the hospital not to mention she wasn't permitted to go out of her room on her own unless accompanied by any of the Nurses but she had isolated her whereabouts to the hospital vicinity where she sometimes stare point-blank at the cityscape that was way beyond her reach.

During that visit, Mr. Stark had promised her that he was planning on handing majority of his duties to his personal secretary, Mr. Adrian whom he will appoint to oversee the affairs and would be in constant correspondence with him whilst he stayed in Houston along with Richard to keep them company with his gracious presence.

She had been pleased to hear him make a loving promise and it was one of the driving forces that helped revive back to normal, a good number of layers of her body cells that were on the brink of corroding due to the length the sickness had so far eaten deep into her body mechanism.

It was quite ironic for her to nurture the feeling that what she had experienced was a mirage when she had witnessed her spouse utter such promissory words to her in person, right before the ears of her very own son and Richard's sudden devastation proves it. Richard sensed that his mom had figured a whole part of the truth and it was now very much in the open for him to spill out the cause of his disdain.

"He left, Mom...", Richard mumbled out and took a slight pause to read her reaction, "He left us for Singapore",. His mother's face turned horrid the very moment she heard what Richard said. "What? When did he ", "He left this afternoon", Richard replied, searching his mother's faces for signs of redemption. He saw that his mother was speechless and clearly devastated.

The unexpected news of her husband's sudden departure from the town completely blotched out every ounce of smile that was left on her face leaving her facial countenance pale and disfigured. Consequently, she became beguiled with tearful grief of being left in the lurch and a teardrop fell from her eyes which now were sorrowful red with heart-stricken feeling of being betrayed.

“This is outrageous.... How could he have kept me in the dark without telling something so damn important", she said aloud in sheer bitterness and whimpered as she started crying. Richard quickly hugged tightly as a way of comfort in order for her not to break down completely.

"Mom...It's gonna be fine so please stop crying", Richard said but his words were like the passing wind to her ears. She remained unshaken by Richard's plea for her to stop feeling bad about his dad's failures.

"How could he have lied to the two of us? He said he'll be here all summer and now.....", "Yes, I agree with you, Mom that he did lie to us but please don't get upset about this", Richard pleaded but it was far too late for him to repair the wounds she felt in her heart. She tried to heed to the words of her son but the pain was too much for her to bear which in fact really made it difficult for her to hear the hot tears that kept streaming forth from her eyes.

The feeling of her husband being untrustworthy and unfaithful in his promises left her completely bereft of words and highly disappointed. Knowing that her son and her spouse were not on good terms, she had fought really hard ever since she fell ill to convince her husband to spend quality time with the family instead of his work, particularly Richard and her unrelenting efforts to sustain the love she believed would keep them together during her ailment.