Adam stumbled, the doctor's announcement hitting him like a large rock, so strong and impactful that he knew he was going to fall. And he would've if Eva wasn't standing behind him and caught him from doing so.

"No, no, no, no. Don't tell me that doctor. Please tell me it's not true." Guille covered his mouth, seemingly at the horror. Adriana was at his side to comfort her fiancé in a hug.

Everything went around Adam in slow motion, even the voices, so much so that it felt like a dream, one he was going to wake up from soon. And he probably would've believed it was a dream if his heart didn't feel like it was being ripped out of his chest.

"You could come to my office to see the test results." Doctor Andrews was saying.

"Fuck the results doctor." Guile bit out. "Just tell me I can go see my father."

"Yes of course." Doctor Andrews nodded. "But I must warn you he's experiencing a lot of weakness and will get exhausted easily if you strain him out by letting him talk too much or sitting up. For that, I suggest only two people at a time." Her gaze scanned the others. "I'm supposing all of you would want to see him."

She directed her gaze to Adam. "Shall we go?"

He felt Eva kiss him on the neck before he and his brother followed the doctor. His legs felt so weak that he was surprised he wasn't crumbling to the floor. Because that was exactly what he felt inside; crumbled.

They took the elevator to the second floor, the doctor leaving after showing them the room.

"Mi hijos!" His father's eyes shown brightly when they entered the room. Guille was quick to rush to his side.

"Papa." His little brother broke down. "How. . . how are you feeling?"

"You know, exactly how one's supposed to feel after being declared with stage three cirrhosis." His father said, obviously trying to make light of the situation. He attempted to laugh and only ended up wincing.

Adam stood to the side just before the door, feeling his throat tighten. He'd already said all that he wanted to say earlier, even if his father had been unconscious. He couldn't afford more heartache right now.

His father's head turned, his eyes fixating on Adam. His mouth curved in a small smile even as sadness encompassed his expression. "You're upset with me."

He groaned when he attempted to sit up, and Adam rushed to his side immediately, placing a hand on his shoulder to encumber the movement. "Better lie down, dad."

His father obeyed, but his eyes looked at Adam questioningly. "You're upset with me."

"I'm not."

"Then prove it. Give me a hug, son."

The beseeching throb in the man's voice was his undoing. Adam leaned down and hugged his father as the tears began to pour unbidden.

"Why dad? Why did you never tell us?" The question he'd been needing an answer to so badly.

"Why did you hide something so serious from us?" It was Guille who asked this.

His father sighed sadly. "I felt ashamed. I've never been a good father and to suddenly be asking for your help. . . I wanted to fight this on my own, learn my lessons from it so that I could get close to my sons properly and not because I was sick."

"You didn't have to feel ashamed with us, dad. We're your sons. We love you. Don't call yourself a bad father. We saw the effort you made in your sober times. You should've told us." Guille croaked out.

"We would've gotten rid of all the booze in your house and locked you in a room if necessary." Adam added, fighting a smile despite himself.

His father smiled at both of them affectionately. "Doctor says I have only a few days to live." He coughed. "We better make use of it and stop discussing things we cannot change." He looked at Adam directly. "How are you feeling, son? It must be so hard knowing the woman you're in love with is your sibling."

"Eva is. . . Rebecca's stepdaughter, not her daughter." Saying the woman's name filled his tongue with an acerbic taste.

"That's great! I felt so terrible for you." His father breathed a sigh.

Adam realized that he himself hadn't even had the chance to savour the news of Eva not being his sister before the doctor had dropped the bomb on them.

"You know about your mother, don't you?"

"I was just told before the doctor came to tell us about. . . your condition." Guille answered. "To be honest, I don't know how I'll feel if I have her in front of me. All this is too much."

When his father's gaze slid back to him, Adam tensed. "Son, don't you think it's about time we all spoke?"

"What do you want to ask me, dad?" He asked, warily, hoping it wasn't what he was suspecting.

"Bring your mum. I want to talk with her."

Adam shot away from his father and onto his feet immediately. "Why do you want to see her, dad? We have no business with that woman."

"That woman is your mother, son." His father pointed out camly.

"That woman doesn't deserve to be called a mother by anyone." Adam bit out.

"Don't talk to dad like that." Guille threw at him with censure.

"It's okay, I understand how..." His dad coughed. "I understand how he feels. I feel ashamed right now for never telling you this." He paused. "Your mum came back for you guys after our divorce. I sent her away, and when she said she wasn't going to give up, I took you guys away again. I did it to hurt her."

"So?" Adam scoffed. "She left us, dad. Left us for the money. Her regret doesn't do shit."

"I am dying, Adam. Are you going to deny me this request?"

That caught Adam completely off guard. He glared at his father, feeling like he was between a rock and a hard place. Finally, he conceded, storming out of the hospital room in brooding silence.

He nearly crashed into a passing nurse. Feeling no urge to apologize, he ignored the man's curses as he stormed towards the elevator. It was occupied, and he had to wait for a while before it was free for his take.

When he got back to the lobby, the group rushed towards him, Eva in the lead. Alfred had joined them.

"How's he doing?" Eva was the one who asked.

Adam dragged in a breath, willing himself to not take his anger out on her. "He's kicking but is weak as the doctor said."

"Bro, I'm so sorry I wasn't here earlier." Alfred offered, parting him on the shoulder.

Adam nodded understandingly, before looking at Eva again. "Where's that your. . . Rebecca?" The mere mention of her name sent bolts of antagonism up his spine.

"I left her in the car after she told me everything. I was honestly too shocked. Why?" She said, curiously.

"Call her. Tell her my dad wants to see her." With that, he stormed past her and the rest of the group, ignoring their calls of his name and their asking where he was going.

He was going home to take a much needed shower and freshen up. If his father and little brother wanted to speak with that woman, then he wanted nothing to do with it.

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

Adam's father groaned when he stumbled a little. Both Adam and Guille were at his sides in an instant, checking to see whether he was okay.

“Boys, I'm fine.” The man tried to chuckle but stopped immediately, probably from pain. He coughed.

“Dad, you never listen!” Guille groaned. “We shouldn't have left. Why are you so adamant, dad?”

“Oh, come on,” Cough. “We're already here so complaining is a waste of time.”

“Uh-huh, wait until you find us driving you back there.” Adam finally bit out after having spent most of their drive in the car in brooding annoyance.

His father had insisted on getting discharged from the hospital even though he was still felling weak because as he'd said, if he was going to die anyway, he wanted to do it in the comfort of his own house, not in the confines of some hospital room.

The fact that Doctor Andrews had agreed to discharge him and had only prescribed some pain medication without issuing any attempts to change his mind had thawed every remnants of Adam's hopes there'd been.

As they helped their father into bed, Adam took in his all too suddenly frail form, the pale skin, and it hit him like he hadn't been hearing the fact for practically all day.

His father was dying. Really dying, and there was no room for manoeuvering.

“I'll be right back.” He told his father, knowing that if he stayed here a minute more, he was going to break down again, and he didn't want that to happen again in front of his father.

He'd barely closed the door behind him when the tears slid free from his eyes and trod down his cheeks. He braced his hands against a wall, letting the sobs rack through his body silently.

He'd never imagined himself being triggered to cry so easily. But there was only so much a man could take without losing his emotional stability.

A hand fell on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “We need to be strong for him, bro. For dad. We can't let his last days be filled with seeing us cry.”

His brother's voice was just as teary. Earlier, his brother had needed a hug after he'd told him about their father's condition. Now it was Adam who needed it desperately. Pushing off the wall, he pulled Guillermo into a tight hug.

“I can't believe that soon we might not see him again.” He croaked, trying desperately to restore some normalcy.

“We need to be strong for each other when that happens.” Guille mused.

Adam nodded. Finally pulling out of the hug, he managed a sad smile at his brother. “Tell me, Guille. What happened when m...” He nearly said mum but caught himself quickly with a grimace. “What happened when Rebecca came?”

“Well, we talked about a lot of things, and we cried too. Dad forgave her.” Guille sighed, and Adam shook his head in disbelief. “I used to imagine the emotions I would feel if I had her in front of me. Always, I thought of those along the lines of anger, disappointment, rancor. . . and even hate."

He paused for a while until Adam wasn't even sure he was going to continue before saying more, “The anger and disappointment had been there alright, but when she entered dad's room, all I really felt was an overwhelming need for understanding. I let her retell me everything. I realized that a part of me had been waiting for that; that closure. That's exactly what I found when I finally understood that even though she abandoned us, it wasn't as cold bloodedly as we'd grown up thinking.”

Adam was gritting his teeth so hard he feared they were going to shatter, clenching his fists so hard that his nails dug into his palms. God, he'd known that his brother was soft. But this soft?

“Not as cold bloodedly as we'd grown uo thinking?” He looked into his brother's eyes and saw hints of forgiveness glowing everywhere.

Anger padded through him, and without thinking, he grabbed his brother by the lapels of his shirt and pulled him in.

Glaring into his eyes, he ground out. “Nothing. I repeat, nothing, brother, can justify what that woman did. May I remind you that she chose money over us? To her, money was more important than we could've ever been. Don't forget that.”

Finally letting go off his brother's shirt, he sidestepped him and stormed into the kitchen to get himself a glass of water.

He'd rather die than ever forgive a woman like Rebecca. He hoped his words were enough to knock some sense into Guillermo's head to make him think the same.

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

Not wanting to waste even a single second of the very little time they had remaining with their father, both Adam and Guille moved into his house with him.

They made sure he took his pain meds whenever necessary, and restricted every physical strain he attempted to execute, ignoring his please that they were suffocating his freedom.

Sometimes they played chess cards or Go together, and other times, his father shared parts of his life while growing up that he'd never shared with them before, until he was exhausted and they had to force him to sleep with his pain meds.

Adam picked up Eva to take her to his father's house when the man requested to see her. Other than that, they spoke little over the phone, and thankfully, she never tried to bring up the subject of that woman.

He missed her. Lord knew he did, yearned to be with her so bad, but right now, his father was his top most priority and he couldn't afford to let any distractions get in the way.

A week went by in a blur as if nature had a problem with him, and so did a few days more. His father's health kept on deteriorating, the pain becoming more intense, his body becoming weaker and weaker.

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

“Gosh, I told you I'm not tired.” His father said grouchily as Adam put him gently into bed.

“Your face and body language tell us otherwise, Papa.” Guile mused. “Besides, you've already taken your meds.”

His father smiled despite himself. “Thank you, my sons. Thank you for taking care of me so much. I'm really grateful.”

“You don't have to thank us for anything and you know it.” Adam pointed out.

His father stretched out his hands, and Adam and Guile took one each, sitting on either side of him on the bed. “I know I was never the best of fathers. Perhaps I was one of the worse. But never doubt my love for you, my sons.”

“Everything is alright, Papa.” Guile said. “You did your best, and we love you.”

“Thank you.” He said groggily. His eyes had begun drooping. Adam and Guile kissed him on the forehead and left him to rest.

The next morning, when Adam came to check up on him, his father was already dead.

_________

I know this is explosion after explosion, but well....

LOL
–E