Forever: Chapter 10

Three weeks later, after Valerie went to London with her family, all kinds of stories began to circulate in the town. Everyone had their own version of why the Pattersons have left Santa Monica suddenly, without telling anyone, and where they went. There is always a friend of a friend, who witnessed something and who literally knows everything. It's strange how people we have never met in our lives know more about us and our lives than we know about ourselves.

Every day Timothy was hearing a different story about Valerie, and the latest thing he heard about her, is that someone apparently saw her in London, in a shop while she was trying a wedding dress. From a "reliable source", the same person, nobody knows his or her name, found out that Valerie is rushing with the wedding because she is pregnant with her rich Englishman, and she doesn't want her stomach to show off on her wedding. Her family went with her, to help her with the preparations for the big day, and her sister, naturally, will be a maid of honor.

Timothy didn't want to believe any of this, but his pain was not allowing him to think rationally. He remembered that the day Valerie left him; she had an appointment at her gynecologist. That made him seriously worried because if Valerie was pregnant with that guy, Henry, he met in London, then he had really lost her.

Valerie's friends didn't know what to believe in anymore either. They thought that they knew her, but they were wrong. Valerie, they knew, would never leave without saying goodbye. Their attempts to contact her were pointless. Her cell phone was turned off all the time, and she shut down her profiles on social media. Tessa did the same.

But the unimaginable already happened. Used to, if someone said that Valerie and Timothy might break up one day, everyone would laugh at that. Everyone who knew them either wanted to be like them or they were jealous of their love.

Timothy was leaving his home only to go to work. At every invitation from his friends to go out for a drink or to a sport's match, he would lie and say that he couldn't, with the excuse that he had started to write a new book. But he couldn't fool them. They knew the truth, but they didn't know how to make him leave his apartment.

Still, Sundays were the most difficult for him. The family dinners at his parents' used to be full of laughter or arguing with his father, but now everything had changed. Nobody was asking him how he was doing because it was obvious. His mother stopped cooking Valerie's favourite meals, and his father stopped lecturing him about his future. Timothy had a feeling that the empty chair next to him on the table was there only to remind him that Valerie was gone from his life, and most likely, she'd never come back.

His father realized he was a fool when he was complaining about how his son was coming to work, only for reading and writing. Now Mathew's heart was breaking while he was watching how his son suffers, sitting all day in one place, without saying a word, and he would give everything he has, just to return these days because then, Timothy was happy.

In London, Valerie was in the hospital, and she was ready for the operation. She did all the tests she needed before the surgery, and the results were as Dr. Richards hoped. Her parents and Tessa were with her all the time. Natasha got a month off from work after she explained her family situation to the dean, and Tessa missed her final exams. That didn't bother her much because she wasn't prepared, anyway. Tessa made a decision. She'll take the exams later, she'll study harder, and she'll make everyone proud of her.

"Before I go to surgery, I have several things to admit..." Valerie said, while she was lying in the hospital bed.

"Please don't talk like you're gonna die!" Tessa said, very upset.

"Tess, sweetheart, everything will be all right. Val is going to be fine. Nobody is going to die," Natasha said, trying to calm Tessa.

"Mum, when I was thirteen, I stole twenty dollars from your wallet..."

"I didn't notice," Natasha said.

"You didn't notice, but I was feeling bad. I still do, that's why I'm telling you now. I needed the money for Ti... I mean, I needed the money for a birthday present. I'm sorry," Valerie said, and everyone understood for whose birthday she needed the money.

"It's all right, sweetheart."

"Dad, when I was seventeen, I told you that Tessa deleted important files for work on your computer. It wasn't Tessa. It was me. I didn't want to. I just pressed the wrong button," Valerie continued.

"It doesn't matter," Philip said.

"It doesn't matter now, but then you were so mad. You grounded Tessa for two months. Sorry, Tess!" Valerie said.

"Val, if these are all your sins, you are a saint," Justin said, trying to cheer up Valerie before she goes into surgery.

"She is, she really is," Philip said.

"Well, I have a few things more..."

"Please stop! You'll ruin your reputation as a saint!" Justin continued to joke with his cousin.

The nurse came to Valerie's room, and everybody knew that it was time for her to go to the operation room. Before she was diagnosed with cancer, Valerie was a healthy young woman, and she had never had any health problems. This was her first surgery, and normally all this was a little frightening to her.

"There is nothing to be afraid of, Val. The surgery is not that scary. You'll see," Philip said when he saw fear in his daughter's eyes.

"I'm not afraid, dad."

"That's my little brave girl," Philip said, and he kissed her forehead.

"When I was at your age, Valerie, my appendices had to be removed and I was seven months pregnant with your father. I was so afraid for the baby, but as you can all see, he turned out all right. Years later, I had an operation on my left knee, my bleeder, an eye surgery on both eyes, and your grandfather had more operations than I do. Tell her, George! Tell her!" Valerie's grandmother said, proud of all the operations she had in her life.

"Mother, please not now! Valerie has to go to the operation room! We don't have time to listen about your surgeries," Philip had to stop his mother from speaking because she could talk for hours.

"We'll be praying for you," Rebecca said.

"Thanks, Becca!" Valerie thanked her.

"We'll see you very soon, sweetheart," Natasha said.

"I hope so," Valerie said, and she smiled at everyone present in her hospital room.

Nobody from Valerie's family and relatives said a word the entire time she was at the operation. They were patiently sitting in silence, with anticipation for Dr. Hunter, the young intern who was keeping them updated during the surgery, to come out of the operation room and bring them some news about Valerie.

"The operation went well. Valerie is stable, and you will be with her soon," Dr. Hunter said.

"Thank you very much!" everyone said at the same time with relief, as they have been practicing.

"The cancer hasn't spread much, and we didn't have to remove the whole uterus. The doctor will be with you soon, and he will tell you more than me," Dr. Hunter said.

"Thank you!" Natasha said.

"Excuse me, are you Timmy?" Dr. Hunter asked Justin.

"No, I'm not," Justin said, confused.

"Which one of you is Timmy? Ms. Patterson is repeating his name all the time, and he will be the first allowed to see her when she will be fully awake," Dr. Hunter explained to them.

"He's not here. He is back home in California," Tessa said with disappointment.

"Well, in that case, you'll be all allowed to see Ms. Patterson very soon," Dr. Hunter said.

A week after the surgery, Valerie was released from the hospital. All the time she was feeling tired, and she was feeling pain. Dr. Richards told her that was normal. Only her life was everything but normal. She was spending the days in her new room, without wanting anyone's company or having a desire to do something. Edward brought her a television in her room to entertain herself, but sometimes she was just staring at the screen, without actually watching the program.

She didn't know that she would miss, and she would need Timothy so badly. Without him, she wasn't whole. Nobody from her family and her relatives didn't dare say his name in front of her because they knew that would cause her a much bigger pain than the physical pain she was feeling from the surgery.

"Can I come in?" Natasha asked after she knocked on the door of Valerie's room.

"Yes, mum!"

"Can I get you anything, Val?"

"No, I'm good. Please leave me alone, mum. I'm watching this."

"Since when are you watching the reality shows?" Natasha asked, and she sat on Valerie's bed.

"Since now."

"Val, we need to talk before I go home tomorrow. Are you planning to spend all your time watching stupid reality shows?"

"Yes. What else do you want me to do?"

"Val, sweetheart, will you please stop pretending that you're fine and that nothing happened? You're not fine. You have cancer, and you left Tim without any reason. I don't know which one is worse for you, the bloody disease or being without Tim. I don't know what is going on in your head, because I can't reach you. You're not telling me anything..."

 

"What do you want me to say, mum? Everything that happened in the past month feels like a bad dream to me. I can't believe that this is my life. I'm not aware that this is really happening to me. This can't be my life. This is not how I imagined it. I know I should not be complaining because a lot of people are in a much worse position than I am, but I'm waiting every second to wake up from this nightmare, and when I wake up, everything will be as it was. I had big plans and big dreams. When I got the job in the magazine, I said, 'This is it. My life will finally become as I always wanted. I'll have everything I've ever dreamed of,' and suddenly, in a heartbeat, everything was gone. In fact, my dreams and my plans were not that big and unrealistic. I found true love and a passion in my life, but why did life have to be so cruel and didn't let me keep them for longer?"

"Sweetheart, please calm down. You don't need stress. The stress is bad for your disease. Life didn't take your love away from you, but you did. If you make just one phone call now, Tim will be here today, and the things will be again as they were before."

"No, mum, no! You promised that you'd never tell him! He is the nicest man on Earth, and how many times do I need to repeat to you that I don't want him to suffer? The most difficult part of the battle with the cancer will come in the next months, or years, if I live that long, and I don't want him to be a part of it. He doesn't deserve that."

"He suffers more now because he is not with you and he doesn't know what is happening."

"He'll get over me. One day, his life will be better without me."

"No, you're wrong. Soon you'll be fine, and your life will come back to normal..."

"My life will never be normal again. If I survive this time, I'll spend the rest of my life in fear that the cancer will come back at any moment, and I will die. I want Timmy to forget me."

"And will you be able to ever forget him? Can you be happy without him? I don't think so. He'll never be able to love another girl the way he loves you, just as you'll never love somebody else the way you love him. If you don't get back together, you'll have other loves and other guys in your life, but it won't be the same. I remember when Tessa broke up with her first boyfriend. She asked me if the pain will ever go away. I told her, every day it will hurt less and less, and a few months later, she fell in love with a new guy. But, you and Timothy, I'm not sure that the pain will ever go away. The pain might stay forever because a love like him is hard to find. Please call him before it gets too late and before you lose him. The chance for your and Tim's happiness is in your hands. With your decision to leave him, you ruined two lives: yours and his. You have no right to do that. Nobody has the right to make decisions for somebody else. Let him decide what he wants and let him love you."