Even After Death by Lilting Champ

Olivia shot Keith a grateful look, and he nodded at her in acknowledgment before turning around to help her with the hospitalization matters.

The nurse patiently explained the process to her, “Ms. Fordham, you will need to receive treatment over the long term. We will inject the chemo drugs into your body each time, but all the injections and the drugs will further harm your veins.

“In some serious cases, you will experience exosmosis. Just so you know, the drugs used are corrosive. To avoid those complications, we’d recommend inserting a medical port in your arm. We usually insert the port in advance to make sure that the drugs travel through your veins and into your organs.”

She continued, “The good thing is that the nurses won’t struggle to find your veins down the road—it’s convenient and safe. But on the flip side, you can’t lift heavy weights with this arm in the future.”

Olivia agreed with the nurse and went under a minor surgery to insert the port in her arm. As she was allergic to anesthetics, she turned down anesthesia. When the blade slit through her thin skin, she merely frowned without so much as making a sound.

The doctor couldn’t help but comment, “It’s rare to see someone who can take the pain.” To that, she sighed. “Well, it’s not like I have anyone who would care if I was hurt anyway.”

The conversation brought her back to a year ago when she had to undergo emergency surgery after falling into the water and suffering premature labor. Even after she was given anesthetics, she could vividly sense the pain when the blade sliced through her abdomen.

That day, she fainted from the excruciating pain, only to wake up to the same sensation. Throughout the ordeal, her screams fell on deaf ears because Ethan chose to stay guard in front of Marina’s delivery room.

From then on, she learned not to make a sound even when she was in pain.

The second day after chemo, she was besieged by an array of side effects. It was Keith who helped her to get discharged.

for breath, resulting in multiple breaks in between.

and got down on his knees to scoop her into his arms. Panicking, she rejected his help, “Keith,

is weak now. If you refuse my help, I will have no choice but to call your

divorce papers, Ethan remained legally her spouse and the only family member who could

him know about my

about her diagnosis.

and advised her, “Olivia, you need a caretaker. You can’t even take care of your meals

to return from abroad. She’ll take care of me. Keith, you still need to

and agreed it was about time to head back to work since he had some major surgeries scheduled. He gave her

felt pain in every inch of her body. As she fought her dizzy vision, her abdomen roiled, and she was suffering from nausea. Even the wound on her

the only word she could describe it with. To her dismay, the only person she missed

rushed her to the hospital in the middle of heavy snow. Still fussy and squeamish, she cried when she was

she still recalled his expression when he soothed her. He said

a month. Ethan was next to

was with another woman, taking care of the

all the lovely memories she had of him. Fighting the debilitating pain, she stumbled down the bed and gritted her teeth, telling herself that she could do this. She

took out to boil. The worst pain wasn’t physical—it

thousands of blades were cutting through her body, and the

on the fourth morning, she was glad to find that the pain had decreased, and her nausea seemed

she heard someone drawing the window curtains. It was Keith, who had regularly dropped by after work to

a bag of chips that she had been craving. His black wool coat was