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So many questions were in my head. I had trouble connecting the dots, but I didn’t care. The past didn’t matter anymore. Twisted as it was, I wanted to thank Natalie for cheating on me because this meant I could finally love Aria without a guilty conscience. Our attraction wasn’t wrong anymore, and it seemed impossible to believe how this sudden turn of events would change our lives forever. I was happy.
If God had had a hand in this, then he had made me a devout believer. If not, then I guess it was destiny. Whatever powers that existed in the universe were finally on my side. All this suffering had not been for nothing, because it led me to her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
NOAH
I was speechless when I walked into Aria’s hospital room. Evan was holding her hand, and Mom and Natalie were quietly sitting while Rob paced the floor. Rick wasn’t there, and judging by their silence, no one knew the truth yet.
“What did Dr. Peters say to you?” asked Nat.
What could I tell her? I didn’t know how to break the news. I was relieved when Rick appeared next to me.
“Sorry about the wait, everyone,” he announced. “I was paged and had to check on a patient.”
My mother regarded him with her resting bitch face stare.
“Frankly,” she began, “I’m not impressed with your hospital or your staff.” Her stony gaze found mine. “Please tell me you’re not donating any money to this place, Noah.”
“I assure you, Mrs. Hunter,” Rick said, “this hospital is California’s best.”
“Mom, quit harassing Dr. Peters and let him speak.” I glared at her.
Holding a clipboard, Rick cleared his throat. “First off, I’d like to inform you all about the good news… We have a match—two, in fact.”
“Oh, my goodness!” Natalie’s face lit up. “That’s wonderful!”
“Based on the blood work and other evaluations, we could determine that Mr. Mitchell would not be an ideal candidate because his kidneys are not in the best condition.” Rick looked at him and added, “I would advise you to follow up on this with your family doctor or a specialist.”
“It’s all right, honey.” Nat touched Rob’s shoulder. “We knew the chances were already slim with you.”
That’s what years’ worth of alcoholism will do to kidney function: it destroys it.
“Fortunately, Mrs. Mitchell, through cross matching results, we found you are a qualified candidate for kidney donation.”
“Oh, I’m so happy!” She stood up and hugged Aria with tears in her eyes. “See, sweetheart? You’re gonna be just fine!”
“However,” Rick continued. “We have an ideal match that showed better post transplantation success compared to Mrs. Mitchell’s results.”
Everyone stayed quiet and waited for the doctor to elaborate.
“If you recall, I had mentioned that donors who have no biological ties to a patient still are a match—it would be very slim, but possible.”
“One in a hundred thousand,” Evan said.
“Yes,” Rick replied. “With that said, the blood results revealed Evan has all six antigens. His body tissue is closer matched to Aria’s than her mother’s.”
“What?” I nearly shouted in disbelief, glancing at my brother. He was grinning, overjoyed by the news.i don’t want to see
“The success rate following transplantation depends on the closeness of the tissue match between donor and recipient,” Rick informed us. “For example, a kidney from a brother or a sister with a complete match has a 95 percent chance of working at the end of one year. A kidney from a parent, child, or half matched sibling has an 85 percent chance of functioning correctly.And last, a cadaver donor kidney has an 80 percent chance of proper kidney function within a year. But I must admit, these miraculous results have left my medical team baffled and amazed at the same time.”
“What about my son, Noah?” Mom asked. “He’s Aria’s father. How come he was not an ideal match?”
“I was just about to get to that, Mrs. Hunter.”
Things were going to get uncomfortable,fast. Rick met my gaze in confusion, uncertain whether to reveal the truth.
“Actually,” I said. “The reason the good ol’ doc here had wanted to speak with me is because…”
