His Perfect Partner by Priscilla Oliveras

Author:Priscilla Oliveras [Oliveras, Priscilla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-08-02T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“I’m sorry, girls. There’s nothing more I can do.”

Yazmine heard Dr. Lopez’s words, but her mind couldn’t seem to make sense of them.

“That’s—that’s not—not acceptable!” Lilí cried, voicing the words they were no doubt all thinking.

Yazmine’s gaze darted to Lilí, standing behind Papi’s cushioned chair in front of the doctor’s desk. Her younger sister’s pixie hair framed an angry, belligerent face, hazel eyes flashing at Dr. Lopez.

A tsunami-sized wave of nausea slammed through Yaz as the magnitude of Papi’s diagnosis hit her. Beads of sweat popped up on her brow. She swiped at the moisture and pressed her lips together, desperate to hold back the cry of pain building in her throat.

Dr. Lopez had to be wrong. This couldn’t be happening.

Papi’s slumped shoulders told Yaz much more than the doctor’s prognosis. His face was lined with fatigue and sorrow, giving him a worn, haggard look. She stared closely at him and saw something in his eyes that scared her even more. Acceptance.

Everything else in the room faded from her vision except for Papi. Seated in the chair next to him, Yaz put her hand over his, feeling his death grip on the armrest. “How long have you been struggling with this truth on your own, Papi?”

He closed his eyes, took a deep, shuddering breath. Somehow it felt like he’d sucked the breath out of her, too.

Her heart cracked, in danger of shattering into a million jagged pieces right here on the floor in Dr. Lopez’s office. “Two weeks ago at Thanksgiving you said the cancer might have returned, and if so, you didn’t want to fight it. Did you already know then?”

“No, this is wrong,” Lilí cried, desperation in her voice. “All wrong. Call the lab. Maybe they gave you someone else’s results. Not Papi’s. It’s a mistake. It has to be. Damn it, this is a mista—”

“Shhhh, shhhh.” Rosa wrapped her arms around their younger sister. “Está bien, you hear me? It’s going to be okay.”

Yaz glanced over her shoulder, making eye contact with Rosa who, until now, had stood silently behind her.

“Why don’t you take Lilí out in the lobby to get a drink of water?”

Rosa shook her head. “She’ll be fine. I think we need to hear this together.”

Yaz caught the flash of fear in Rosa’s eyes, but it was quickly tempered by her middle sister’s habitual calm. Rosa was always their port in a storm. Yaz gave her sister a slight nod, fighting back tears of her own, then turned to face Dr. Lopez.

“When you say ‘nothing more,’ what do you mean?” Yaz asked the doctor. “We give up? Stop fighting? The girls and I aren’t ready for that.”

Dr. Lopez looked from her to Papi. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Papi incline his head at the doctor’s unspoken question.

His expression grave, Dr. Lopez continued. “About six weeks ago we found—”

“Six weeks!” All three girls cried in unison.

Papi winced at their outburst.

Yaz willed herself to find some sense of control. Freaking out wouldn’t help their situation.

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