Chapter 88: Bronson

It's Christmas day, a day for celebrating, a day for joy and blessings, but a day I would normally spend behind my desk at work while I watched the semi empty streets of New York go about their holiday routine.

But this Christmas is different, and as I turn and my eyes land on Nikki's naked body, the blanket riding low below her hip, I reflect on why. Nikki being in my life has changed it for the batter and although last night was one of the hardest nights of my life, I know I wouldn't have made it without her beside me.

Last night was difficult. To hear my father, mutter the words that have scared me since I was a child and learned just how devastating childhood cancer could truly be. Clara was in the hospital and she was there because her cancer was not only back, it was fighting her with everything it had.

I can recall her feeling weaker later in the evening on Christmas Eve, but I chalked it up to the normality of having cancer for the third time in her short life.

It wasn't fa