The following week, Sophia's long-awaited phone call came, and Luciano gathered his family in the private office to hear her update on Aurora's condition.
"She's relatively stable now. But the cancer has spread further in her left lung; resection is no longer possible. We have two options: removal or a transplant."
"Which one will cure her faster?" Logan asked.
"There's no cure for lung cancer, only treatment. We've also detected growth in her right lung that we can resection, but it is possible for the cancer to resurface. And while transplantation will give her a new pair of lungs, we've no way to test whether these won't develop cancer. The new lungs are more likely to develop—"
"Transplant." Luciano interjected. "I've already made the arrangements for a healthy pair."
Logan scowled at the older man.
"With all due respect, sir, her husband has the right to make that decision before you." Sophia advised.
"She is my child, doctor. I'm not going to stand by and watch her die."
"I'm not willing to watch her die either." Logan declared. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you do as you please. Sophia, I want to see her before I decide."
"How long...can she live after either of these procedures?" Claudia asked, concerned.
"Once we remove the left, so long as her right lung remains clear after treatment, she has a chance of living a fairly normal life. It's the same with the transplant. However, transplants have other risks; she may develop an infection or her body might reject the new lungs; either of these can be fatal. And if the cancer resurfaces, in the first instance, we can try to manage it. In the second instance, there's no guarantee the transplanted lungs will carry the same type of cancer. She may develop the more aggressive small-cell lung cancer."
Claudia broke into one of her sobbing fits. Logan gripped Adam's shoulder firmly, his fingers pressing deeply into the boy's skin.
"Thank you, doctor."
But Sophia had more bad news for the family. Regardless of the procedure they opted to do, it could not be completed soon because Aurora was not fit for surgery. She had developed a rare infection in her lungs—aspergillosis—which was preventing them from administering her cancer drugs, as the interactions between those and the drugs for aspergillosis could cause further damage to her other organs or be fatal. It was also possible to treat aspergillosis with surgery. However, if they pushed through to have surgery now, her chances of surviving would be drastically reduced. Likewise, the longer they waited, the more the cancer would spread.
"How long will it take for her to be fit for surgery?" Logan asked in a shaky voice.
"It depends on how quickly she recovers. Treating aspergillosis can take weeks. After that, I'll have to put her on a new regimen to get her as close to fit as possible."
"You were prepared to do the surgery last year. Why didn't she?" Luciano asked.
Sophia hesitated to answer; her silence stretched on to the family's annoyance.
"Sohpia!" Logan called.
"She was pregnant. And she wanted to keep the baby, so I adjusted her treatment."
Logan frantically racked his brain. "When...When was she pregnant?"
"When Adam came to us,"
"She was already pregnant?" Logan was stupefied as he took a step back.
Luciano took a breath. "And after that?"
"She wanted to try having a baby one more time."
Logan looked at his son. "Sophia, is she awake? Properly conscious? Not like how she was when he brought her back."
"Yes."
Logan nodded, took Adam by the hand, and pulled him to the door. "Come on."
But the boy pulled back against his father. Logan turned to Adam, confused. But the boy turned to look at Luciano. "I'm going with dad." He declared.
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Shortly after Sophia's phone call, Adam, Logan, and Stella were on a flight to Stockholm. Logan hardly let go of his son's hand after they left the office. Even when they landed in Stockholm and rode to Solna, he did not let go of Adam. The boy didn't mind; Logan was his father. He had spent too long away from his parents, craving their warmth and affection. He would do the same to his mother when he saw her again. He wouldn't hesitate to hug her again.
Sophia met them when they arrived at the hospital. She stopped outside Aurora's room and gave them a warning. "You need to steel yourselves."
Aurora was a shadow of her former self; everything about her looked like she was on the verge of disappearing into thin air. She had lost even more weight from the last time they saw her; her eyes sank further into their sockets. Her skin had lost all colour, and her brown eyes looked dull and empty. The tubes and cables connected to her seemed to prop her up like a marionette.
Aurora watched as they entered but didn't say anything. Logan sat by his wife's side, taking her hand in his. He gently kissed her fingers and palm. "Adam's safe, my love." He whispered.
Still, Aurora didn't say anything; she just smiled weakly at Logan.
"You were wrong. Nicholas isn't Adam's father." Seeing her confusion, Logan chuckled. He held her knuckles to his lips and leaned in closer. "Adam is my biological child. He's our son. We've always had a child." Again, Logan kissed his wife's hand. "We don't need to try to have another."
Logan signalled for the boy to approach his mother. Aurora struggled to raise her hand but managed to caress Adam's cheek. 'I love you.' she mouthed.
Adam held his mother's hand to his cheek as he cried. "I love you too, Mom. You have to get better. I need you."
"We both need you." Logan corrected.
Logan and Adam stayed at a hotel within walking distance of the hospital, and every day they visited Aurora. Father and son recounted their funny moments together, funny things that had happened to them in the past, and told jokes. The first couple of days, their antics left Aurora smiling non-stop and even elicited soft chuckles from her. When they ran out of funny things, the duo settled into playing board games, asking Aurora to help beat each other.
Despite their efforts to raise Aurora's mood, her coughing fits, wheezing, or the sounding of alarms quickly put Logan and Adam in a sombre mood. As the doctors and nurses rushed in, father and son were quickly moved outside the room. Their fears and anxiety ate away at them as they sat on the nearby bench, waiting for word from inside.
"Dad, I don't want Mom to die." Adam said softly, leaning his head against the wall so his tears wouldn't fall.
Logan inhaled a shaky breath, then took hold of Adam's hand. "What did I tell you about crying?"
"You're crying too." The boy accused.
Logan pulled his son into a smothering embrace. As Adam's cries gradually got louder, Logan picked up his son and carried him outside. He brought the boy to the park next door, and they sat under a tree crying.
"You were definitely a cry baby, baby." Logan said, wiping the tear lines on Adam's cheeks.
Adam pouted and turned away. "No, I wasn't." He said under his breath.
The two sat in silence, watching the world move around them. Even if their lives felt like everything had stopped, the world and everyone else would go about their day like nothing had happened. They didn't know. They wouldn't grieve. They wouldn't care. Life would just keep going.
"What are we going to do, Dad?"
Logan exhaled loudly. "We're going to grab a bite to eat, wash our faces, then check on your mom."
Logan continued to ignore Adam's questions about Aurora, and eventually the boy stopped asking.
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