Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(45)

I took a deep breath. “Because at the beginning of my second year, I started getting these vague symptoms. At first, I thought it was the flu, and that I was just tired after it was over. But I stayed tired, and by the time I’d made it through the school year, I was so exhausted, and I’d lost so much weight, that I didn’t have the strength to even walk to class or around the college. My legs hurt, and I’d get these strange nosebleeds that just happened for no real reason. Owen kept nagging me to get to a doctor, and I finally did.”

“What happened?” He sounded more neutral now.

“I was diagnosed with a fairly aggressive form of leukemia. They put me in the hospital and started treatment.” I closed my eyes for a moment, trying not to remember how terrified and alone I’d felt back then. “One diagnosis and the bright future I’d been looking forward to was completely gone. It was physically impossible for me to start my junior year.”

I didn’t mention the fact that I’d been pretty certain during that particular summer that I wasn’t even going to be alive when the fall semester came around.

I took a deep breath and continued. “I’m not going to lie, the treatment was brutal, and my prognosis wasn’t very good.”

“Cancer? Jesus! You were barely an adult,” Noah said, his tone incredulous.

I smiled weakly. “Unfortunately, cancer doesn’t discriminate. Owen was there for me, and I’ll forever be grateful for that. I think he was the only person who kept me reasonably sane.”

“Your parents—”

“Weren’t there,” I finished. “They didn’t want to be there. They hate illness of any kind. They called once in a while from wherever they were at the time, and offered to send me a companion. I declined.”

I watched his face and noticed he was no longer stoic or just angry. He looked . . . dumbfounded.

I started to rush through the last part of my explanation just to get it out while I still had the nerve. “There were times when I honestly didn’t know if I was ever going to see another new day again, Noah. The chemo, medications, and radiation nearly finished me. But I guess I’m stubborn. There was a part of me that never gave up. After a year or so of treatment, I started to improve. By the end of the second year, I was in complete remission. That’s why I started to travel. I didn’t know when the cancer would come back, or if it would come back. So I lived in the moment, and enjoyed every single minute I had. Because that day, that moment, could very well be all I had.”

He looked completely stunned, and I could tell he was searching for something to say.

“You don’t have to say anything,” I told him. “I just wanted you to know why I couldn’t promise you forever. I’ve been in remission, but forever might not be in the cards for me. It isn’t that I won’t promise you that. I can’t. It’s not mine to give, but if I was able, there’s nobody else I’d want to plan my life with but you.”

Right. So that’s it. Explanation complete.

I waited for him to say something, but when the silence stretched out to what seemed like an eternity, I put my mug down on the table, got up, and walked back out the front door.





CHAPTER 18

NOAH



“I need to know what’s going on with Andie from your view as a physician,” I told Owen with a calmness I didn’t really possess at the moment.

We were seated at my kitchen table.

I’d called my brother the moment that I could manage to think straight, which, unfortunately, had come soon after Andie had left.

I’d hauled ass to the front door only to see the rear end of her little convertible driving away from my house.

Then I’d called Owen. I needed something, anything to try to make sense of what Andie had said.

“She told you?” he asked.

I nodded sharply. “It was the last thing I expected to hear.”

Fuck! I’d been stunned into silence. None of what she’d said actually made sense, yet it did. I’d still been trying to digest it when she’d walked out.

“She doesn’t talk about that period of her life with anybody,” he shared. “The only reason I know is because I was there. She’s been through hell, Noah. Don’t blame her for not being able to see a future. At one time, she didn’t have one. Medically, I wasn’t sure she was going to make it. As a friend, I refused to even think about something happening to her.”

Hell, I didn’t blame him. I sure as hell couldn’t think about it without losing my damn mind. “She was so fucking . . . young.”

Owen nodded. “She was barely twenty years old when she was diagnosed. But she’d been sick even earlier than that. Leukemia symptoms can be pretty ambiguous. She thought she had some kind of virus and it was taking a long time to kick it. But she was so fatigued, and she was losing weight. I blamed myself for a long time because it took me so damn long to haul her into the hospital.”

My whole body tensed. “How bad was it?” I asked him, my voice hoarse.

He lifted a brow. “The truth?”

I rubbed a hand over my face. “Yeah. I need to know.”

Okay, maybe a part of me didn’t want to know, but I squashed those reactions. If Andie could live it, I could deal with hearing about it.