On this particular day, Nanalie’s condition was exceedingly awful. As always, she’d had trouble breathing when she’d first woken up, but today her palpitations wouldn’t subside.
She tried to focus on the sensation of drops spilling out of her, but it wasn’t helping her feel better like it usually did. Nanalie could feel that the end was near, and a stern look came across her face.
“Not yet...” she muttered to herself between pants. “Both as Reiner’s wife and a mother, I can’t lose just yet...”
As ill as she was, there was an unexpected light of hope and strength behind her eyes. She was determined to fight this sickness until the very end. Even her son, whose heart had been indirectly consumed by this illness, had gotten back on his feet. As his mother, Nanalie couldn’t dare complain and lose to her disease—her pride and dignity as a mother wouldn’t allow her to.
“I won’t lose, no matter what,” she said, hanging her head as she grasped her chest with pain. She stared into space as she spat out her determination. “Just you see... One day, I’m going to stand on my own two feet again.”
Some time passed, and her palpitations finally subsided, perhaps cowering in the face of her incredible will.
“Yes, that’s good,” Nanalie mumbled in a trembling voice as she tried to catch her breath. “Stay calm, just like that.”
Her shoulders heaved as she took deep breaths. There were no members of the household staff stationed in her room. She wanted it that way, because there was no medicine that helped with her sickness. Surviving each day was a fight that she had to face alone, and she didn’t want anyone to see her weak and struggling. It was another display of her pride and dignity as Reiner’s wife.
The very next moment, there was a sudden knock on her door. Nanalie caught her breath and composed herself as if nothing had happened before responding.
“Come in,” she said.