Read Online Always: Broken Series Book Four by Annie Jocoby - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Annie Jocoby
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shoulders. “Nick, don't beat yourself up about that. It was a fight. It could have happened to anyone.”
“Scotty, I know what you’re saying. I know that you feel that you’re going to have to spend every waking second with Addison. But that’s not only not realistic, but it’s not going to do any good. All that’s going to do is cause you to obsess. You need something to take your mind off of what’s going on. You do. Addison only wants a normal life, as normal as possible. How is it going to feel normal to her when you’re home all the time? And what are you going to do if you’re home full-time – take up knitting? Because Addison’s going to go back to school and do all the things that she used to do. What are you going to do when she’s not around?”
“Nick, you didn’t address what I said to you. Abrianna’s death is not your fault.” I had a feeling, after seeing how Nick reacted when I said that shitty thing to him about his workaholicism contributing to Abrianna’s death that I had touched a raw nerve. I wanted him to address it, but it seemed that he had stuffed it down.
Nick finally looked defeated. He sat down next to me and put his head in his hands. And then he started to cry. I closed my eyes, feeling terrible that I had brought him to this. He had seemed so brave before, and now I was seeing, finally, what was roiling beneath his façade. All the pain, all the grief that he had experienced in his life had brought him to this point. He was finally dealing with it, dealing with how he felt when he lost his daughter and his sister so many years ago.
We held each other, both of us crying. We had no idea what the future held, but I was sure of one thing – we were going to face it together.
Nine
Nick
S cotty and I managed to , somehow, get through the last few days without completely breaking down. I even convinced her that she had to act normal, for the good of everyone – Addison, me, Chloe, Olivia, even Jack. Not that I was having an easy time trying to act normally. I wasn’t. I didn’t let on, but I was thinking about Michelle, night and day, and silently obsessing that the same thing was going to happen to Addison.
But I had promised Scotty that we weren’t going to jump to any conclusions until Addy had her biopsy results. We had taken her in to get her biopsy, and we were now in Dr. Michaels’ office, waiting to speak with him. I tried to concentrate on anything at all that would take my mind off of what was going on, because I was afraid of breaking down and crying. That was the last thing that Addy and Scotty needed, so I sat and stared at a crystal vase that was on the far side of the good doctor’s office.
Finally, he came in. “Okay,” he said. “I got Addison’s biopsy results back.” He cleared his throat. “She has what we call an Osteosarcoma. This is a tumor that very commonly occurs in the knee and upper arm. In Addison’s case, of course, the tumor is on her knee. Now, I’d like to refer to you to an oncologist so that you can know better what the next steps are going to be. I would suggest that you give permission for Addison to have what is called a PET scan. This is a scan where there is a small amount of radioactive glucose that is injected into a vein, and it’s very effective to see if the cancer has spread through other organs in the body. If it hasn’t, and it’s localized, then we have a good chance to beat this with chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.”
I squeezed Scotty’s hand, and I saw that she was squeezing Addison’s hand. I swallowed hard. “Okay, go ahead and do that PET scan.”
“I need to get you in touch with a specialist,” he said. “And we can go from there.”
At that, he gave us a card for one Dr. Jensen, whose card indicated that he was an oncologist. “Thank you,” I said to Dr. Michaels. “We’ll call this Dr. Jensen right away.”
Then we left.
I n the car , Scotty made an appointment with Dr. Jensen,
“Scotty, I know what you’re saying. I know that you feel that you’re going to have to spend every waking second with Addison. But that’s not only not realistic, but it’s not going to do any good. All that’s going to do is cause you to obsess. You need something to take your mind off of what’s going on. You do. Addison only wants a normal life, as normal as possible. How is it going to feel normal to her when you’re home all the time? And what are you going to do if you’re home full-time – take up knitting? Because Addison’s going to go back to school and do all the things that she used to do. What are you going to do when she’s not around?”
“Nick, you didn’t address what I said to you. Abrianna’s death is not your fault.” I had a feeling, after seeing how Nick reacted when I said that shitty thing to him about his workaholicism contributing to Abrianna’s death that I had touched a raw nerve. I wanted him to address it, but it seemed that he had stuffed it down.
Nick finally looked defeated. He sat down next to me and put his head in his hands. And then he started to cry. I closed my eyes, feeling terrible that I had brought him to this. He had seemed so brave before, and now I was seeing, finally, what was roiling beneath his façade. All the pain, all the grief that he had experienced in his life had brought him to this point. He was finally dealing with it, dealing with how he felt when he lost his daughter and his sister so many years ago.
We held each other, both of us crying. We had no idea what the future held, but I was sure of one thing – we were going to face it together.
Nine
Nick
S cotty and I managed to , somehow, get through the last few days without completely breaking down. I even convinced her that she had to act normal, for the good of everyone – Addison, me, Chloe, Olivia, even Jack. Not that I was having an easy time trying to act normally. I wasn’t. I didn’t let on, but I was thinking about Michelle, night and day, and silently obsessing that the same thing was going to happen to Addison.
But I had promised Scotty that we weren’t going to jump to any conclusions until Addy had her biopsy results. We had taken her in to get her biopsy, and we were now in Dr. Michaels’ office, waiting to speak with him. I tried to concentrate on anything at all that would take my mind off of what was going on, because I was afraid of breaking down and crying. That was the last thing that Addy and Scotty needed, so I sat and stared at a crystal vase that was on the far side of the good doctor’s office.
Finally, he came in. “Okay,” he said. “I got Addison’s biopsy results back.” He cleared his throat. “She has what we call an Osteosarcoma. This is a tumor that very commonly occurs in the knee and upper arm. In Addison’s case, of course, the tumor is on her knee. Now, I’d like to refer to you to an oncologist so that you can know better what the next steps are going to be. I would suggest that you give permission for Addison to have what is called a PET scan. This is a scan where there is a small amount of radioactive glucose that is injected into a vein, and it’s very effective to see if the cancer has spread through other organs in the body. If it hasn’t, and it’s localized, then we have a good chance to beat this with chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.”
I squeezed Scotty’s hand, and I saw that she was squeezing Addison’s hand. I swallowed hard. “Okay, go ahead and do that PET scan.”
“I need to get you in touch with a specialist,” he said. “And we can go from there.”
At that, he gave us a card for one Dr. Jensen, whose card indicated that he was an oncologist. “Thank you,” I said to Dr. Michaels. “We’ll call this Dr. Jensen right away.”
Then we left.
I n the car , Scotty made an appointment with Dr. Jensen,
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