LOVE'S ETERNAL EMBRACE

"Okay. Your day's work is done with just a few more hours remaining to grab dinner and maybe something... more." Adelaide hesitated, then added as a question. "To celebrate a successful week?"

"Ady, I'm tired and about to tape your mouth to the back of your head to shut you up if you don't get in that car and drive me straight home," Nicole cut her off, her face straight with threat. "In silence!"

"What about the plans for your birthday party tonight? The team is already heading to the club."

"What!" she exclaimed, her hand freezing on the door latch, a hard gaze directed towards Adelaide who now seemed to be shrinking below the roof of the car in fear. "What do you mean a birthday party? I clearly told you to not get any ideas about this day. What part of that didn't you get?"

"I did. I didn't plan this. Matt accidentally saw the marked date on the calendar and announced it to the others. I tried to tell them that you were not interested in celebrating this year but they insisted," Adelaide explained carefully. "You know those guys when they set out to do something. Especially when it's about the only female in the entire law firm." She paused then, "And it's your thirtieth birthday."

"Stop!" Nicole shouted but there was a strain in her voice. She felt a tightness between her eyes and pressed hard with her thumb and forefinger, shutting her eyes tight.

"I'm really sorry, Cole. I couldn't stop them."

For a second, she felt dizzy. Her assistant's voice felt too far and muffled. She tried to push past the feeling and opened the door. "Just take me home," she managed, her mouth feeling dry.

She was about to get in the car when she staggered back, dizziness knocking her against her car. It happened so fast, she didn't even realize it until she was on the ground.

"Nicole!" Adelaide shouted in panic and ran to her side. "Oh my God, Nicole! Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm okay," she responded, pressing her palm to the ground to get up. Her attempt failed forcing her to remain on the same spot, palming her head. She sighed, her breath getting stuck in her lungs. "My pills... get me my pills."

"Cole, you need to go to the hospital. You don't look so good."

"I just need my pills and... and—" She lost coherence.

"Cole?" Adelaide shook her. In the next second, she was lying on the ground, barely conscious.

Minutes later, Nicole sat on an examination table in the emergency room, a worried Adelaide hovering over her as they waited for the doctor. She followed her assistant's movement until she couldn't anymore. "Stop pacing." Adelaide looked up. "Your movement is going to make me faint again."

"I'm sorry. I'm just worried. You haven't been okay for weeks now but you never—"

"I was just hungry, okay?" she cut her off again. "I haven't eaten anything all day."

"Okay. What about the constant headaches?"

"What about them?" she repeated. "Maybe it's stress because you and your crew keep forcing me to do things I don't want to. I don't know... like planning a party I didn't ask for? Or saddling me with the work they can't handle?"

"You love the tough work. You thrive on it, Cole."

"Alright, Ms Burgess," the doctor interrupted. "I'm just going to draw some blood for testing, then we are going to get some scans to determine the cause of your headaches. Is that okay?"

"Do I have to wait until the blood test results are ready? Because I've had a long hard day which is probably the reason I fainted, and I'd like to go get some rest. And eat some food."

"And you will be able to do all that very soon. This won't take long. Sit tight," the doctor smiled.

"Great," she stated flatly, suddenly feeling inconvenienced. She looked up at her assistant accusingly who averted her gaze.

Cole went through the motions, letting the nurse draw her blood, getting through the numerous scans after, barely listening to the instructions. Her mind was already gone from the sterile environment and the weight in her chest she didn't understand. After, she slid off the table, getting dressed back into her clothes.

Adelaide was waiting just outside the scan room, her hands clasped in front of her like an obedient servant expecting instructions. Cole didn't say a word to her. Just one look, sharp and accusing, was enough to make her assistant flinch. She blamed all this on her which felt more like wasting her scheduled bath and rest session.

A few minutes later, the doctor stepped out of the consultation room. They both looked up. "Ms Burgess," he called softly. It was too soft that it sent an unsettling feeling to the pit of her stomach. "Please come in."

No. She wanted to say but the word simply got stuck in her throat. She found herself moving like she was being compelled by an invisible force to the room and to a chair across the room. Adelaide stood beside her. The doctor sat down, took an unnecessarily deep breath before facing her.

"We couldn't find anything wrong with your head. The headaches and dizziness must be from overworking and not getting enough rest. However, there is something concerning on the ultrasound you requested," he began, every word carefully measured. "A mass— actually multiple masses on both breasts. We will need a biopsy to be sure but I believe it's..."

Cole switched off. Her world tilted, every sound in the room muffled like it was underwater. Her vision blurred, all the room's brightness shrinking until it was just her and a single point of impact. Just one word squeezed itself to the forefront of her mind and somehow slipped from her mouth. "Cancer."

It wasn't a question or a possibility. It was a hand she had been dealt before, one that several women in her family never came back from. She didn't need words to confirm it. The look on the doctor's face was enough.

She stood up abruptly. "I have to go."

"Ms Burgess—"

"Nicole!"

The doctor and her assistant called after her but she was already halfway out the door and out of the hospital doors in a few minutes, into the setting California sun. Her heels clicked on asphalt as she yanked open her car door and slammed it shut behind her.

"Nicole, stop! Where are you going?" Her assistant banged on her window anxiously. Nicole didn't turn. "You can't leave like this! The doctor..."

The engine roared into life muffling Adelaide's voice. She set the car in motion, not sure where she was going but very sure she had to leave. The car screeched as she turned into the street, driving fast. Her thoughts raced faster and louder than the wind slicing through the slightly cracked window. LA blurred behind her, buildings fading into endless hills, then fields, and then nothing.

She couldn't hold a single thought. They all collided threatening to burst her skull open. Her aunt's sunken eyes, frail body eaten away by months of chemotherapy and the weight of knowing what was coming. Endless visits to the hospital, pity looks which were worse than the disease...

She drove until the gas tank blinked red, snapping her out of her head. On the passenger seat, her phone was exploding with calls and messages. Adelaide, her brother, Kevin... just the names she didn't want to see. She switched it off and tossed it into the glovebox.

It was shortly after eleven that night that she pulled over at a gas station. Instead of refilling her tank, she made a beeline to the motel across with a flickering neon sign, feeling too exhausted to drive back. She booked a room and locked herself inside, willing all this to be a bad dream she would soon wake up from.

Inside, she exhaled for the first time in hours. The quiet was a pressure all on its own. She turned towards the mirror, pausing when she saw her reflection. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were ringed with exhaustion, and even though her body was still compact with her clothes, she felt like she had lost pounds of weight. It felt foreign, like it had been swapped.

Her fingers moved without instruction. She took off her top then unhooked her bra, letting it slide off her arms to the floor. She stared at her bare chest, to her breasts that were now beginning to feel like deadly parasites feeding on her. This was it for her, fragile and alone. Gone from the woman who shook LA's business industry to one no longer in control of her story within hours.

She broke. Her knees hit the tiles first, her body shook as sobs tore through her. What was she supposed to do now? Where was she supposed to go from here? The grave? That certainly wasn't far from her thoughts.

The following morning found her seated in a corner at a restaurant with a stack of blueberry pancakes in front of her, that she had no appetite for. She scrolled through her phone going through the list of the people who had been calling her for the last twelve hours, listening and disregarding their messages. She was yet to process everything that had gone down the previous day. How could she handle talking to them?

She needed a distraction and by chance or luck, it came in form of a realtor in Port Wren, her late grandmother's town several hours away. She clicked on the voicemail and forced herself to take a bite of the pancakes as she listened.

"Ms Burgess, hi. I've been trying to reach you at the office since yesterday without luck. I have some news." She sipped her coffee and shifted slightly. "I found a buyer for the Burgess ranch with a great offer if you are willing to close within a week. They have plans to develop the land and rebuild it. A mall with coffee sho