He shook the thoughts out of his mind as Madeline curled in his lap. He knew he was overthinking it. A fully functioning Ellie would definitely be different than one confined to a hospital bed, however, he knew deeply that she was not someone who would ever take advantage of him. He had this deep a.s.surance that intrinsically she was a very kind and thankful woman. She would be a great wife for some other man, one more deserving than him.At this point Madeline let out a loud snore, so Henry got up gently and created a little nest for her to rest in. He transferred her to it and tucked it around her. Then he straightened and began to stretch. It was time to face the new changes in his life.
In front of Ellie"s room, Michael stood with a pair of nurses on either side of him as he watched Ellie sleep. Henry could see the scar on Ellie"s exposed open back as a nurse was wiping it down with alcohol. Even though the nurse was touching her, Ellie was still out completely cold.
Henry"s cool voice cut through the commotion, "How is she doing? Does she require any additional a.s.sistance? I can be of some use."
A nurse standing closer to the door smiled at him. "She is one lucky lady to have a man like you. She has everything she needs to make a full recover. I"m sure not all of us need to be here, but Michael insisted that he would pay us double so you know here we be."
I"m paying you doubt, Henry wanted to correct her, but he didn"t really care. He wasn"t even annoyed that Michael had done so. "That"s excellent. If there is any more I can do to make you nurses more comfortable feel free to ask anyone."
"Oh Mr. Wong, I doubt that will be necessary. But I will let my colleagues know that you have said so. They will be itching to talk about how lovely it is to be hired by your family. The hospital keeps trying to get away with paying us less and less."
The idea that he was helping someone made him break into a grin. At least some byproduct of this
charade was going to have some nice benefit when he neared retiring age or was in some tragic accident. The Wongs would at least never be short on nursing staff.
It was rare, but tonight Henry dismissed all of the cooking staff for himself. He cooked some simple cold noodle salad for himself while he thought. Henry didn"t want to have people bustling around him tonight. He wanted to be alone with his insecurity.
He was happy.
It was a jump start of electricity to his heart that seeing Ellie with color to her face brought him intense pleasure. He had tried to be rationale about the whole miracle of science. He knew his grandchildren would not care if he was married once, twice or seven times. But as he tucked himself into bed with Madeline keeping his feet warm he couldn"t placate himself--why didn"t this feel wrong?