Veronica-I didn’t have the words to express how I was feeling at hearing his words, instead, I raised up to press my lips against his. It was in this moment I felt like I could tell him that I loved him, but I knew that I needed to organize my feelings first. I felt an immense amount of gratitude towards him, which meant I could be mistaking my feeling for that and not love.When he turned my body and pressed me against the wall, I had this urge to stop him, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. It might be wrong that I was allowing this to happen, without knowing for sure what I felt. The last thing I wanted to do was lead him on.His lips against mine felt like a touch of heaven. Everything inside of me was coming alive as his hands moved to my hips and he pressed his body against mine. Was it wrong that I felt so much pleasure like this?Not wanting to think about anything, other than how he made my body feel, I cleared my thoughts of my heart’s desires. Wanting to feel his body n
Veronica-“Do I truly get the surgery?” Andrew asked with tears in his eyes.As I promised my brother, I returned to the hospital the following morning. Lyrek had already left to go to the hospital before I woke up. He left me a note saying he wanted to make sure everything was still a go for the surgery.I waited until Lyrek came to the room with Andrew and me because I had wanted him to explain in better detail. The wait had been gruesome, but I managed to keep it to myself until he arrived. What I hadn’t expected though, was for Andrew to become so emotional.“You are going to need to get one more dose of chemo and two more high dosages of radiation, but as long as your stats remain within the limits, we can begin operating a week from today.” Lyrek smiled at Andrew, his hand resting on his head.I could see in the way he was looking at my brother, that he genuinely cared for him. My heart fluttered at the sight of the two of them. Admittedly I did feel a little jealous that Andrew
Lyrek-Out of all the questions I could have been asked by a ten-year-old, that wasn’t one I anticipated. Taken aback by his question, I couldn’t bring myself to speak. My entire existence wanted to scream yes, but my mouth wouldn’t work.When I imagined my life with them, I hadn’t thought about becoming his father. Although at this current moment I couldn’t speak, I knew my answer. Gathering him into a hug, I slowly found my voice once more.“It would be my greatest honor.” I told Andrew, my voice cracking just a little.His arms came around me as he released a sound of delight, which sounded much like a chipmunk rather than a small child. We hugged each other for a while until he pulled away once again filled with energy. Focusing on our food, we had to remind Andrew to slow down a few times.“I want to see the penguins, Dad.” Andrew announced after he finished his food and stood up.With a chuckle, I rubbed the top of his head. “Then let’s go see the penguins.”Since they weren’t f
Veronica-As the week went by, I felt more anxious every day. Now that the day was practically here, I wished I could turn back the clock to have more time with Andrew. Tomorrow he would be having his surgery and I couldn’t help but think that this might be my last day with him.I didn’t leave his side all week because I wanted to spend every moment I could with him. It has been a rough week for him since his treatments were more vigorous than before. He has been bedridden most of the time.“Will they tell me before they put me to sleep?” Andrew asked out of the blue.It was nighttime and I was lying in bed with him because he wanted me to hold him. I had thought he had fallen asleep, so I was a little surprised by his sudden question.“I am sure they will.” I answered honestly, while I pulled him closer to me and held onto him.“I don’t want them to. I would prefer it if I didn’t know.” His voice was soft, making it so it was difficult to hear him.“Why don’t you want to know?”“I am
Veronica-Choking back my tears, I tried to be strong as I watched Andrew be taken through the double doors that led to the operating rooms. It pained me that I couldn’t follow him back there. I made sure to tell him that I loved him, and we said goodbye.He was adamant about telling each other goodbye because he was afraid I would regret it if he didn’t pull through the surgery. I had to keep reminding myself to be strong. No matter what, I needed to believe that this wasn’t goodbye for us.“Veronica!” Lyrek’s voice yelled my name as I turned to wait in the waiting room.I didn’t get a chance to turn on my own before he grabbed my arm and spun me around. Looking into his face, I could see he was in a panic. The last thing anyone needed right now was for him to be panicking over anything right now.“What is wrong?” I asked him while doing my best to keep my voice steady.“How do you feel about me?” He rushed out the words so fast that I couldn’t register what he was asking.“Huh?” I l
Lyrek-“Hang more units of blood!” I yelled inside the operating room.I had just been about to close Andrew up, thinking that the surgery went smoothly. The moment I told everyone that we were out of the woods, his stats started bottoming out and there was way too much blood. Unless I could find the source of the bleeding, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to save him.I had felt confident up until this point, now I was blindly looking for what went wrong. There was so much blood that I couldn’t get a visual of what went wrong. I tried not to look at the machines because I knew I wasn’t going to like what I saw.“Damn it, get me more suction!” I yelled at the intern that was assisting.“There is too much blood.” The intern complained as he tried to get the blood out of my way.Using my tools, I wasn’t going to be able to find the bleeder. There was too much blood for me to see, which meant I was going to have to go in blind. Quickly passing my instruments to one of the scrub nu
Veronica-What was I supposed to do now? During the time I had been waiting for Andrew to get out of surgery, I had tried to think of anything but the outcome. Lily had distracted me by talking about Lyrek, which caused me to think about him instead.As time passed, I started to think about what had happened before Lyrek went into surgery. The more I thought about it, the more I started to regret my words. I should have told him how I felt beforehand.Even though at the time I still was unsure about my feelings, I should have at least told him what was going through my mind. Even if I couldn’t tell him that I was in love with him, perhaps he would have understood that it was complicated for me. All of this was just a big misunderstanding.I had no one to blame but myself. When Lily left to go back to work, I couldn’t stand waiting in the waiting room by myself. I alerted the staff to let Lyrek know where I was if he came out looking for me. Unable to wait in the waiting room, I chose
Lyrek-As much as I tried to fight it, I knew it was pointless. The instant I saw Veronica begin to break down, my legs developed a mind of their own. If it weren’t for the chaos that erupted, I would have made it into the room first.Thankfully, the doctor I had assigned to Andrew’s case was the first one in the room. I was torn between helping with Andrew and helping Lily with Veronica. Being that there was plenty of staff to help, I decided to assist Lily.Regardless of how upset I was at Veronica; I also couldn’t bring myself to stand back and let her watch her brother die if that was the outcome. Stepping behind her, I wrapped my arms around her, pinning her shoulders to her side. Lily released Veronica and went to help the other nurses.She knew Andrew better than any other medical professional in the room, which I hoped would be beneficial. With Veronica in my arms, I dragged her out of the room. She kept fighting me the entire way, but I didn’t loosen my hold on her.When I ma
Veronica- Ten years later “Hurry up mom and dad! We are going to be late!” My nine-year-old daughter Lexi yelled as she ran ahead to the bar, where we were meeting everyone. It was now Christmas, and we had a tradition to meet at the bar every year. Rick still managed the bar, but he now did so with his husband, whom he met while he was in Europe. This year it was a little different from our usual get-together because this year Lily couldn’t join us. She was in Africa working with Doctors Without Borders. I was really proud of everything she has accomplished these last few years since graduating from medical school. The main person that I was looking forward to seeing was Andrew. He was in college now, studying to be a medical researcher. His life was relatively normal now, having been cancer free for ten years. I never thought he would have made it this far, but I was thankful every day that his illness was a thing of the past. I haven’t seen him since the school year started, b
Veronica-It wasn’t easy, but with the help of Lily, a team of wedding planners, and a lot of money, we managed to get the wedding I have been planning for the last few months up and going. It took us only forty-eight hours. The best part of it all, Lyrek’s grandfather was able to hold on.I had a feeling that the wedding was giving him the desire to live because I could tell by looking at him that he was fighting to stay alive. When I told him my plan it was a light flipped on in him and he now had the will to live. Lyrek tried to argue with me about rushing the wedding.He wanted me to have the wedding of my dreams, but I managed to win him over to my way of thinking after I told him that it wouldn’t be the wedding of my dreams without his grandfather here to celebrate it with us. After all, it had been because of his grandfather that we were together.I thought it over and concluded that even if he would have pursued me, I wouldn’t have been as willing to be with him at the time. I
Veronica-Waking up in Lyrek’s arms was the best thing in the world at this moment. After the last twenty-four hours, I have been more grateful to have him by my side. I wish he would have let me know what he was doing, but I understood why he kept me in the dark.Rolling over in bed to face him, I saw he was still sleeping. Taking a moment to admire his features, I smiled at how relaxed he looked. Moving my gaze to the other side of his body, I noticed Andrew was lying in bed next to him.I must have slept like a rock if I hadn’t noticed Andrew joining us in bed. Reaching over, I gently caressed the side of his face. His features weren’t as relaxed as Lyrek’s, yet he didn’t seem to be nearly as influenced by past events as I expected him to be.“Good morning.” Lyrek’s sleepy voice pulled me from getting too far into my thoughts.Tilting my head back, I looked up to see him smiling at me. “Good morning.” I repeated his words.“Are you hungry?” He asked, his tone soft and low.Instead
Veronica-I was beyond worried right now. As many times as I called Lyrek, it went straight to voicemail. I didn’t know what to do and even the police had to call in the FBI because they were getting nowhere.With nothing better to do, I have been pacing the lobby of the theater, trying to reach Lyrek. My nerves were a wreck. I didn’t think Lyrek would up and abandon me, so I couldn’t help but feel that something was very wrong.The Chief of Police also thought something was wrong and has been trying to track him down. He had one of his officers try calling every hospital in the area, including different police units. I wanted to call his lawyer, but I didn’t have the number.I couldn’t call his grandfather, because he wasn’t doing very well, and I didn’t want him to worry. Pacing back and forth was all I was good at right now. It wasn’t helping anything, aside from helping hold on to the little bit of calmness I had left.Finally, my phone rang, and I quickly looked at the screen. A
Lyrek-With no choice but to wait until their attention was away from Andrew, I kept myself hidden. The minutes were ticking by slower than I wanted. The men guarding Andrew were getting impatient, but I couldn’t move without putting him in danger.Looking across the room, I tried looking for Snake, but I couldn’t spot him. My hand tightened around the hilt of the dagger until my knuckles turned white. One of the men returned to the computer, while the other was pacing.If I was going to get Andrew out of here, I needed to do it soon. The moment I thought about it, there was a loud explosion coming from the other side of the factory. Both men moved in the direction of the explosion.“What the hell was that?” One of them asked.“Sounded like a bomb going off. This is an old factory so it could be just nothing, but I am going to go check it out. Stay here with the kid and keep trying to fix whatever is going on with the computer.” One of the men took off running and the other returned
Lyrek-“Found them.” Snake said a bit later.Pushing away from the table I was leaning against, I moved to stand behind my friend. Looking over his shoulder, I saw a map on one of the computer monitors with a blinking red dot. We weren’t very far from the location.Pulling out my cell phone, I dialed Veronica’s number. Thanks to Snake, he made it so I could use my phone, but it was now a secure line, and it couldn’t be hacked or traced. I had to hand it to him, he really knew what he was doing.“Did you get the money?” She asked the moment she answered the phone.“I need a little more time, but I am getting closer. Have they contacted you again?” I asked my wife while I watched Snake type like a madman on the computer.“They called once since you left and told us that you better have the money soon or they were going to start hurting Andrew.” The fear in her voice was as clear as day and I knew we were running out of time.“I promised you that we will get him back. I am going to do ev
Lyrek-“Where is my son?” Veronica asked the man that was on the phone.“Don’t worry about that right now. What is important is how you are going to come up with five hundred million dollars to get him back. If you don’t want him hurt or worse, I suggest you start calling the banks and get me my money.” The man said.With that amount of money, it was going to be difficult to produce. It wasn’t that I couldn’t get it, but it wasn’t like I had that kind of money laying around. Even if I went to the bank to withdraw it from my personal account and even take it from the foundation funds, it would take a long time.“I don’t have that kind of money!” Veronica was starting to become hysterical, which only fueled my anger.Stepping closer to her, I wrapped my arm around her in an attempt to comfort her. I knew it wasn’t going to do much, but I wanted to remind her that she wasn’t alone. My thoughts were racing with who the caller might be.We thought it was her parents, but the man’s voice wa
Veronica-It didn’t take long for the police officers to show up. Every second of waiting had felt like an eternity. I couldn’t breathe without feeling like I was going to have a panic attack. If it weren’t for Lyrek, I would have broken down the moment he told me.There was a lot of chaos going on currently as everyone in the theater was being questioned. While giving my statement to the police officers, Lyrek and I had to separate so he could also talk to them. I hated that in this situation everyone was a suspect, but I also didn’t care as long as Andrew was found.“Do you know of anyone that would have done this?” The police officer assigned to question me asked.“I was attacked a few months ago because the mugger was wanting money from me. I don’t know if it is related or not, but that is the only thing I can think of.” I admitted, even though I didn’t feel like it was relative to the current situation.“We have already investigated that. Is there anyone else that would have done
Veronica-Three months later“Come on! The movie is about to start!” Andrew yelled as he raced ahead.I couldn’t help but laugh as Lyrek and I followed him into the theater. While I knew he was excited to be able to see the movie he had been waiting for, I didn’t know why he was in such a hurry. It wasn’t like there weren’t going to be any seats, being that Lyrek reserved the entire theater room for us.Over the past few months, things have been a little weird. Not in a bad way, but in a way that was still taking me some time to get used to. When Lyrek did anything for us, he did it in a big way.Every time we went out, he made it obvious that he had money to spend. I wasn’t a huge fan that he was spending money so elaborately, but I couldn’t fault him either. His excuse was that he wanted us to enjoy everything life had to offer.No matter how much money he spent on me or Andrew, I was still not used to having someone take care of me to this degree. On the plus side, it has allowed m