Choosing Fate (Book 3)

Chapter 8

"Just in case what?"

"You'll see."

He led me to the dining room, where everyone else were already. Delilah smiled at me, as did a few of the females I couldn't quite name at the moment. The men gave me a nod, but continued to talk amongst their group, until Noah spoke up.

"Xavier is not joining us to dinner tonight. He said he had last minute errands to do, so we are all here." A few people sighed in relief as we all went to our seats. The chair on my left remained untouched as plates were filled with food, and scraping silverware rang in the air. I didn't notice I was mostly picking at my food until Alex commented on it.

"No, no, yeah. Everything is delicious. I guess I lost my appetite on the way here."

"That reminds me, what was that thing you were going to tell us?" Noah spoke up from his spot a few chairs away. I flinched as I kept my eyes casted on my plate, but sighed a few seconds later as I dropped my spoon. As I looked up, I saw a half of the people staring at me with surprise in their eyes, and the other half with curiosity. Only one person continued to stare at their food in adoration, and a part of my queasiness left as I watched them eat in content, not realizing everyone else had stopped.

"Well before I come out, I will just like to say this first: I know I've said this already, but I want to repeat myself again. I want to thank you all for everything you've done for me so far. I've only been here a few days, but you all have treated me like family, and that's something I haven't felt in years since my parents left me, so thank you," I breathed out, looking specifically at Delilah and Alex at the end. They both nodded at me, and I gave them a small smile before I turned my neck to face everyone else. "As for my news, only two people know, and they both aren't in this room."

They all looked at each other, as if they were about to start to guess who knew. Eveline spoke up, surprising me when she said a specific person. "It's my son isn't it? The errand thing he told his dumb father isn't true."

"Hey! Who you calling dumb?" Noah defended himself as he stared at his wife in disbelief.

She rolled her eyes as she patted his back. "You seriously don't know our son if you believe he had some last minute errands. Who do you think tells him to go do stuff?"

Noah thought about it for a second and then realized his mistake. I saw his skin turn a pinkish shade, but he didn't comment on it. He looked at me, and raised an eyebrow, his signal to confirm if Eveline was correct.

"Yes. He got upset and left me. I found Noah not a few minutes later." Noah frowned again, but nodded and I took a deep breath.

Here I go. I thought. About to tell my most personal information to a bunch of strangers...

"It's ok if you're not ready," one of Eveline daughters breathed as I hesitated to say something. I smiled up at her, and shook my head as I opened my mouth.

"I need to. I don't know when it will happen, or if something will happen to me, so I just want you all to know so you won't be panicking later on."

There were a few murmurs, but they quickly quieted down, as if they never started. I took another deep breath, and before I could change my mind and say something else, I uttered the same words I had told Xavier. A few mouths dropped, while others looked utterly confused as they stared at me.

"What?" Someone choked out, but I didn't see who had spoken. I was too busy looking down at my hands as I felt all of their stares.

"I have cancer, and I'm not doing any treatments. This is my second round, and according to my doctor, there are extremely high possibilities that I won't make it past two years now if I don't do anything about it."

"And when did you find out?" Someone spoke out for everyone.

I slowly looked up, and met all of their eyes as I whispered, "Eighteen months ago." Another round of gasps and even a choked cry had me biting my lip to stop myself from crying. Everyone who knew my story always acted like this, but it never failed to make me sad. Make me know that someday I would be gone and they would still be here. "That's why I am out, traveling. I want to experience everything before I get too weak to do anything."

"Can't we do anything about it?" Delilah voiced her thoughts to her husband, but I wasn't sure who she was talking to. Her eyes kept on flickering back and forth between me and him.

I shook my head. "No. You've been gracious enough to let me stay here. I won't accept-"

"We would have to ask Dimitri, as her body cannot accept the change to become one of us. But remember, it is all her choice, so if she doesn't want our help, we can't force her."

I gulped as Delilah looked at me with pleading eyes. In that second, as I looked at everyone, I had enough of the sadness and the crying. I stood up, not caring at the moment if my chair was scraping the floor, and dropped my napkin on top of my untouched food.

"I'm so sorry for these sad news, but I can't bare any more glances that will only make me feel much worse about my decision. If you will excuse, I'm going to bed."

I didn't wait for any responses. I bolted out of the room, still feeling a few glances towards my back. As soon as I thought I was out of hearing shot, the tears sprung down my cheeks as I tried very hard not to trip over anything as I ran.

Everything had just gotten a lot worse, and there was nothing I could do to take it back.