Mr. Moneybags | jb

Prologue

"Are you sure I can pull this off?" I asked everyone for the millionth time. I was beyond scared I would mess this up. That couldn't happen. I wouldn't stand losing her as well.

"Yes, Emma. We're all sure. You can do this. She won't know." My aunt Suzy assured me. I nodded and walked over to my mom's room. Carefully I pushed down the door handle and walked in. Before going up to her bed I made a brief pit stop in the bath room checking my reflection in the mirror. I looked awful - tear stains all over my face. My makeup was beyond messed up and there were massive bags under my eyes from all the crying and the lack of sleep. I tried my best to make myself look halfway presentable so she wouldn't get a heart attack just from seeing me.

I exited the bathroom and walked further into the room. There she lay peacefully sleeping in her bed. A hand flew to my mouth as I was shocked to see how many wires and monitors were attached to her body. I took a deep breath and walked up to her.

For a while I just sat there holding her hand as I waited patiently for her to finally wake up. Every once in a while one of the others checked in on us, but nothing changed. I watched her chest move up and down in a steady rhythm as she breathed in and out. She looked so peaceful and beautiful right now. If only she knew the hell she was about to wake up to.

Then finally after what seemed like forever she blinked and slowly opened her eyes. "Hey, mom." I greeted her with he biggest smile on my face. I was beyond happy to see her wake up. Slowly she turned her head to twice me and gave me a weak smile.

"H- how.." she gulped. "A-are they?" Was the first thing she said to me.

Here we go. This is the part we practiced. Don't mess up Emma! Don't kill her! "They're doing okay under the circumstances. Dad is set to wake up any moment, he had surgery as well and Max is awake. He wanted to be here for when you wake up, but they told him to rest and come visit you tomorrow." I smiled at her through my lie. Please believe me!

She nodded weakly. "Do you want some water?" I offered. She nodded again and I handed her the cup with the straw. I set it down on her bedside table and went back to holding her hand with both my hands. Mom looked at me for a while scanning my face for something. Eventually she cleared her throat and looked away from me for a second. I looked down at the massive casket her leg was in.

"Emma?" She asked. Immediately my eyes flew up to meet her gaze. "Yeah?" I smiled at her.

"Emma, you know I love you, right?" She asked looking deep into my eyes. Oh no! Please no! "Mom?" I asked as tears sprung to my eyes. Please don't do this to me! In the background I heard the door open and some of the others walked in.

"Emma, you know I love you, right?" She repeated. This time I nodded as tears began streaming down my face. Her head turned away from me and I sprung up from my chair not letting go of her hand.

"Mom?" I asked loudly.

"MOM!" I yelled as she closed her eyes. The next thing I heard was a lot of beeping as all the monitors went off. I could feel her hand relax in mine and watched her facial expression fade away slowly. One sound was dominating and I wouldn't forget that one for the rest of my life - it was the sound of the flatline, that monotone never ending, never interrupting beep.

"MOM!" I yelled again through my tears. "MOM! PLEASE! NO! MOM!" I yelled. People rushed in.

"Get her out!" One of the doctors yelled.

"MOM! MOM!" I continued to yell as someone grabbed me from behind. "NOOO!!!!" I was desperately trying to wriggle myself free. "LET ME GO!" I yelled. I fought the pull for a while. No way in hell was I leaving her alone. She couldn't die on me. No way!

I watched the doctors shake their heads. "Time of death 11.52am" one of them called it.

"NOOOO!!!! NOOOOO!!!!!" I continued to yell as my knees gave away underneath me. This couldn't be happening. I felt the air being sucked from my lungs and there was a massive pang in my chest. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I felt like someone sucked the life right out of me. All I felt was pain. Every fiber of my body ached. My chest probably hurt most and I could feel my body shutting down. The pain got worse by the second. This was all too much.

"Emma!" Rico called me. He was the one grabbing me from behind. "Emma, calm down!" He told me. That was the last thing I heard before everything went pitch black.