Prologue
Melanie
Getting hurt is inevitable.
We can’t avoid it.
It doesn’t matter how hard we try to shield ourselves from being hurt, life still somehow finds a way of tearing us down.
Life would’ve been so much easier if only we could skip getting hurt like we skip those annoying YouTube ads.
But the harsh reality of life is that it always can’t be rainbows and sunshine.
One moment we are at our happiest and in the next moment life would be asking us, ‘Hi there! How’s that rock bottom treating ya? I hope I didn’t knock you down too hard? But you see that shove was very much needed or you would never learn to appreciate the good times.’
And by some good fortune or miracle life doesn’t do its work of hurting you, then it just moves to the person you love most. Because one way or another, you gotta be hurting. That’s just life’s motto.
As humans we can’t seem to handle when our loved one gets hurt.
It’s never easy to see the people we love suffer. And it’s even worse when you can’t do jack squat about it. Sometimes, you’re just compelled to stand there idly and watch as they live through the pain.
You don’t know the misery and suffering till you get to experience it firsthand. If you think being in pain yourself is hard wait till you see the person you love gets hurt. There isn’t anything worse than feeling of helplessness.
No matter how many times you wish, you could take their place, you can’t do that. You just watch and watch and watch from sidelines as they slowly wither away and become a shell of themselves.
My hand moves up to wipe the lone tear from my cheek as I watch Marcy’s sleeping figure on the bed.
What wouldn’t I give to trade places with my baby sister right now?
Marcy just had another round of her chemo today. The medicine making her feel drowsy. As soon as she was brought into her room, she went to sleep.
Shifting forward in my chair, I take her hand which isn’t hooked to an IV line and hold it gently as I watch her face.
Her face looks ghastly pale. The usual rosy hue on her cheeks is absent. It’s so obvious that this treatment is draining her day by day. And her hair, the rich chocolate brown which both Pilar and her have inherited from Roger, completely gone.
It all started going down three months ago when Marcy, started to get sick frequently. It was so unlike her. I mean out of us three siblings, she’s the healthiest one.
Mom and Roger- my stepdad both were busy with work at that time, so I had taken her to the hospital thinking she had caught a stomach-bug or something, only to get the shock of our lives when her lab-results came in. What we thought would be a normal check-up, turned into a fucking nightmare.
‘It’s a cancer’, that’s what the doctor had said.
I don’t remember much of the conversation from that day, except for sitting in his office in shock without moving a muscle after he had uttered those horrendous words. After getting out of the shock, I had just run out of his office and I do remember calling mum, only blabbering god knows what, but I think I had asked her to come to the hospital amidst the blabbering. I had stayed outside the hospital, sitting on one of the benches, crying my eyes out, till I saw mum’s blue Honda pulling up.
Mum had just hugged me till I had stopped crying. And when I had repeated the words, the doctor had said she had broken down in tears too. I had never seen my mom cry like that.
After what seemed like hours, we had managed to compose ourselves and we went in to see the doctor.
There he had explained it was Leukemia, that’s the type of cancer Marcy had and how we were lucky that we had caught it on early stage and we could start the treatment right away.
And then telling Roger and Marcy about it was a whole another story. Roger was in denial that his little girl didn’t have the life-threatening disease. He was adamant about how she had only a flu. He even had lashed out at the doctor saying how he had given us the wrong reports.
It took some time, but we got through him.
Pilar had taken the news harder than all of us. It wasn’t easy for her to see her twin going through something like that.
Marcy, it hadn’t been easy for her either. How do you tell a mere 14-year-old that they have cancer? But when we had told her, it was like she had been expecting it. Maybe she did.
She just had asked, ‘am I going to die?’ and that question was enough to make Roger and mom break down. I, on the other hand had hugged her tight to me and told her over and over how she was going to be fine.
That had been over three months ago. Three freaking months of being in this hospital. Three months of my sister fighting for her life.
I wonder if we will ever go back to being happy like we were before all of this happened.
Benjamin
Am I doing the right thing? I think so, then why the hell am I getting this feeling of uncertainness? Is this nervousness? I guess it is. But there is no need to be nervous.
Okay, deep breaths, Ben.
It’s just like getting pre-wedding jitters. Yeah, that’s probably it is. I’m just having pre-proposal jitters. I mean this is Suzanne. The love of my life. The only one that’s been a constant in my life. It shouldn’t be difficult to ask her to marry me.
And I’ve been kinda putting this off for a while now. It’s about time I man up and pop the damn question already.
Also, I have to prove William, the man I sadly call my best friend, wrong. He had said I was gonna back down this time too. And I’m not about to prove him right. That idiot even went ahead and made a bet about it with the guys. He is so going to lose that bet.
I get up from the couch and start to pace the carpeted floor of my living room.
What’s taking her so long?
It’s been almost an hour. I pull out the small velvet box from the suit jacket and open it. The princess cut diamond that nearly costed me half a million stares right back at me. The ring is really gorgeous with the diamond sitting in middle of the slender band of small pave-set diamonds, but I’m worried that Suzanne might not like it. I wonder if it’s too late to go and pick out another ring. Maybe that emerald one was the one. Before I could change my mind and really go to pick out another ring, I hear the clicks of heels approaching. I quickly hide the box just as Suzanne reaches the bottom of the stairs.
The wait was totally worth it. I lose my breath when I take her in. She never seizes to amaze me with her beauty. Her form-hugging navy-blue gown fits her hourglass figure perfectly. Her usual long platinum blonde hair up in bun, with some lose curls freely falling around her face. Her make-up done to perfection.
“You look beautiful,” I whisper as I approach her. I put my arms around her waist pulling her closer to me.
“You look handsome as well,” She puts her arms around my neck, staring up at me with those stormy-grey eyes. I lean down and kiss her on lips.
Pulling back, I take her hand and guide her outside, “Let’s go.”
“You still haven’t told me where you are taking me.” She complains, trying to look upset.
I pull the door of the car open for her, “Patience Su, you’ll know soon.” Bending a little I kiss the pout away from her lips.
Getting behind the wheels, I turn up the engine, heading for the destination.
I just hope everything goes well.
“We’re here.” I announce as soon as I kill the engine and stop in front of her favorite restaurant- Aurelio’s.
As expected, a grin breaks off on her face.
I get out of the car first and walk around to open her door. After she gets out, I close the door and hand the keys to valet. I lead her into the restaurant and go straight for the elevators that would take us to the open rooftop which I exclusively booked for us today.
Our table is set in far back left corner, which overlooks the entire city, providing us the best view. The clear sight of night sky from open roof, only gives this setting a more exquisite look.
“Why are we the only ones here? And is it only me or have they really put on a lot of decorations around here?” Suzanne asks looking around.
Yes, I have paid them extra to make this place look more romantic. I don’t consider myself as remotely romantic, neither am I into these kinds of proposals. But I’m gonna make this exception for her. If it had been up to me, I would’ve just asked her at home or anywhere, whenever I felt like it. I’m glad though that William talked me out of doing just that and instead suggested doing it here. Suzanne deserves it.
“I reserved it only for us today,” I answer as I signal for the waiter to come.
“You’re really being suspicious Ben, what’s happening?”
“You’ll know soon.” I wink at her, causing her to roll her eyes at me.
I laugh, “Let’s order, shall we?”
We had just finished dinner when I decide to come out and ask the question that I’ve been wanting to ask for a while.
Here goes nothing.
“Suzanne,” I stand up from my chair and go down on my knee in front of her, with the box wide open in my hands, “Will you marry me?”
I wait in anticipation as she takes her sweet time and when she finally utters, “Yeah, I will Ben. I will marry you,” I feel like I’m on cloud nine. And I could finally breath. “I love you.”
I put the ring on her finger and scoop her in my arms. “I love you, too.” I whisper against her lips before kissing her passionately.
I can’t wait to start my forever with her.
