“You mean you knew that you were dying for a year, and you didn’t tell your son or me? How could you do that? We could have spent more time with you.”
“I know, honey, but you guys are adults. You have lives. I didn’t want to burden you. We all knew I would be gone eventually. It’s just a little sooner than everyone thought.”
How was he acting like this was no big deal? The man was dying, and he didn’t seem to mind. I couldn’t even speak right now. I rushed out of the room and down the hallway to Alexander.
“What’s going on?”
“He’s dying, and he has known for a year.” I fell to the floor and couldn’t stop crying. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t just be okay with the fact that he was dying. “Can we get him in to see a different doctor?” I asked him.
“Let me call my assistant and see if she can get him an appointment with someone far better with more experience.”
I needed to at least try. I couldn’t give up. That was just not in my nature. My daddy raised me to be strong. I needed to be strong now. I walked back into the room, and my mom had made it back. She kept her head down because she knew she told me but not the whole story.
“Have you even told Kevin?” I asked.
“No, but he should be here in a couple of hours.”
My brother wasn’t going to take this well. He was not good at emotional things. No matter what, this was going to hit some emotions.
“So, what is this good news that you were calling to tell us?” my mom asked me.
I looked down at my ring and showed my dad. “We are getting married.” They both looked happy about it. My dad had always been rude to my boyfriends but never to Alexander.
“I like him. You guys are going to do big things together. I can tell its true love,” he said as he smiled and took my hand.
Chapter Thirty-Six
ALEXANDER
A couple of weeks went by, and we were on our way to Jack’s house. He had invited us to meet my siblings. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it, but I wanted to at least try. They wanted to meet me. I couldn’t tell them no. Ella was still a little depressed from finding out that her dad was dying, but she wanted to come too. We had Tommy and Meredith come and stay with us for a while. I figured it was the least I could do. I hired someone to help Meredith take care of him during the days. It wasn’t long until we were in my father’s driveway.
“Take a deep breath, babe. It’s going to be great,” Ella told me. Man, she could read me like an open book. I took her hand, and we knocked on the door.
“Welcome, come on in,” a brunette said.
We were shown to the living room where I got to meet my siblings: Andrew, twenty; Jeremy, twenty-two; Nicholas, twenty-four; Makinly, twenty-six; Mackenzie, twenty-eight; and Madison, thirty. They were all friendly to me. Madison recognized me from somewhere. She used to work for me. What a small world. Jack walked into the room, and I announced our engagement. I got whoops and hollers.
Everyone was asking me questions. I was done talking about me. I wanted to get to know them. Andrew and Jeremy were still in college pursuing their degrees. Nicholas was a firefighter. Makinly and Mackenzie were studying to become nurses, and Madison was a reporter. They all had found their path which was great. That means they had received quality guidance as children. We sat around and chatted for a couple hours until my phone rang.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Edwards, you and Ella need to get back here.”
“On our way.” We jumped in the car and sped all the way there. When we got in the house, all we could hear was sobbing. What was going on? The nurse began to tell us he was getting worse and all she could do was make him comfortable. Comfortable? Did she mean he could die tomorrow?
“Any way to know how long we have with him?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, no.”
We were going to have to move up the wedding. He needed to be there to walk her down the aisle. Tomorrow I could find and book a venue for this weekend. Hopefully, he had that much time left. Ella was sitting on the couch with Meredith and Tommy.
“I’ll call Kevin.”
Kevin couldn’t believe it was already time. I told him to head to Baltimore, and he could just stay here. He agreed. After I hung up, my phone immediately rang. It was my mother.
“Hello, Mom.”
“What is this I hear about you being engaged?” she asked, sounding irritated.