Read Always: Broken Series Book Four for Free Online

Soon.”
    Addison simply nodded her head. “I’m scared.”
    I pasted on a smile. “Hey, no getting ahead of ourselves.” I took her into my arms and looked over at Nick. He was unusually quiet and standoffish, considering what was going on. But I looked into his eyes and I knew that there was a lot going on under the surface.
    “Well,” I said, patting my legs. “Nick, let’s go and unpack. Maybe we can get some lunch before we take Addison to the doctor. What do you think?”
    Nick just nodded his head.

    W e unpacked the SUV and went into our bedroom. I sat down on the bed and patted it. Nick came and sat next to me. He was quiet and pale.
    “Nick, what’s on your mind?”
    “Nothing. I…”
    “Michelle?”
    He nodded. “I’m really embarrassed that I tried to discourage you from talking to Addison before this.”
    “Nick, we don’t know anything.”
    “Yes we do. It’s not a good sign that the doctor is fitting us in today. And it’s not a good sign that the doctor wouldn’t talk to Addison without us.” He shook his head. “Michelle never told anybody that she was sick, either. I don’t know why, but she didn’t. She waited so long…by the time we finally saw a doctor about her bleeding, there wasn’t a damned thing that could be done.”
    “Let’s not…”
    “Get ahead of ourselves?” He shook his head. “I agree with that, but we need to be prepared for what that doctor might say. You know that if it was something relatively simple, like a sports strain or something like that, he would have just told her. There wouldn’t be a reason for all of these formalities.”
    I felt like the tables were turned. I was the one who was trying to find the silver lining, where Nick was the one who was being the total pessimist. “Nick, this isn’t like Michelle. She had totally different symptoms than Addison.”
    Nick said nothing, but just cleared his throat. “Yeah. Anyhow, let’s get to unpacking. This place is kind of a mess.”
    “Since when do you care about a mess?” I was trying to tease him, but it sounded forced.
    “I don’t. But…” He then sat down on the bed again and put his head in his hands. “I just need to keep my mind off of what’s about to happen, that’s all.”
    I cleared my throat and sat down next to him. I put my arm around him and put my head down so that it was closer to his own, which was still in his hands. “What’s about to happen?”
    He shook his head. “Our lives are about to turn upside down.”
    “Don’t catastrophize.”
    “Don’t psychoanalyze.” He looked at me, and his blue eyes looked completely haunted. “I know what it means when a doctor gets you in the same day that you call. It means that the news is bad. If there was something minor, that doctor probably would have just told her. You know, put some ice on it or something. You have a strain. Don’t worry. He didn’t say any of those things.”
    “I know. But let’s just figure out what’s going on before…”
    “Yes, let’s. Now let’s unpack and then we can take Addy out to lunch before we see the doctor.”

    A t 3 PM , the three of us were in Dr. Michaels’ office. He didn’t keep us waiting, but, rather, sat down right away. “Hello. I’m very glad that you could make it in on such short notice.”
    “Of course.” I realize that my hands were gripping each other so tightly that they were both white.
    The doctor cleared his throat. “I’m very sorry. I wish that I had good news for you. But young Addison came into the hospital early Sunday morning, complaining of a pain in her right knee. I ordered a bone scan, and unfortunately, the bone scans indicated that Addison has a tumor. It appears to be cancer from the looks of the scans.”
    I felt like I was floating above the office. I wasn’t in my body anymore. Inside, I was being split in two. I tried, however, to show an outwardly calm demeanor to the doctor. I didn’t want to fall apart in front of my