Twenty years ago.....................  ** Saigon, Vietnam 1989 **

Park Song Yi quickly scanned the hospital waiting room before sitting down. She pushed the dark large sunglass up her nose and puts a hand protectively over her very pregnant stomach. She prayed everything goes as planned and that she will be able to leave the hospital in two days…with an adopted daughter with her.

Another pregnant woman was sitting next to her. The woman had her head on a man’s shoulder, he must be the husband, Song Yi  thought and for a brief second there were regrets and envy in her eyes as she remembered the man that impregnated her.

With a huge sigh and a head shake, Song Yi shrugged and waited for her assistant. Thank goodness Mally speaks Vietnamese. Song Yi knew without her assistant she wouldn’t have the guts to come all the way to Vietnam from Korea.

What is taking Mally so long? Song Yi wondered as waves of painful labor cramps assaulted her entire abdominal. Mally is the only person alive that knows of Song Yi’s secret…she is pregnant out of wedlock. However, her assistant has no idea who the baby’s father is and Song Yi intends to keep it that way. She has no intention of telling the world the father’s name...it was a secret she’ll take to her grave.

After a few minutes, Mally rushed over to Song Yi and said breathlessly,

“I had to pay extra USD$1000 to get Dr. Sai’s cooperation but he finally agrees to help you with the adoption process”.

Song Yi sighed in relief and said urgently,

“Tell Dr. Sai to prepare a ward for me…my water broke two hours ago!”

Mally’s eyes widen and she shook her head at her mistress.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wanted everything to go as planned Mally…you know what we talked about.” Song Yi replied simply and waited for her companion to go do her bidding. Mally left again in search of Dr. Sai.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Song Yi lay back against the hospital bed and squeezed her eyes shut. The pain was unbearable as the contraction increased in its frequency; the cramps now seem to have spread from her stomach to her whole body.

The frequency and intensity of the cramps racked Song Yi’s body to the point where just breathing was hard.
Dr. Sai signaled Mally to hold her mistress’s hand and coached her with the birthing techniques.

“Ms. Park, remember what the instructor said? Inhale and exhale…on the count of three…” Mally shouted over Song Yi’s painful screams.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** 10 hours later **

“Dr. Sai, what happen?” Mally asked frighten staring at the limp baby in his arms.

Dr. Sai had shooed everybody out of the room, including Mally during the last two hours of Song Yi’s labor. There was only one nurse left in the room to assist him.

Dr. Sai took Mally by the arm and led her out of the ward where Song Yi was resting.

“The baby’s dead…she’s dead.” He said remorse in his eyes.

“What do you mean dead? I heard a baby cry and you told the nurse to wash…” Mally said confused as she recalled Dr. Sai’s announced the birth of the baby.

“You heard wrong, I thought the baby was alive but she’s dead.” He said. Dr. Sai turned to the nurse that was in the room with him and motioned for her. She avoided looking at Mally. Dr. Sai handed her the dead baby.

“Lan, you were in the room with me; am I lying?” he asked t