Never Stopped Loving You

Chapter 2

I feel my body being shaken, and I open my eyes, completely confused by what is happening. The first thing I see is Taylor, who is responsible for my body being rocked. His two hands are on my shoulders, and he is visibly concerned.

— You’re awake! — he says, relieved.

— What happened? — I blink my eyes rapidly, trying to get my vision to focus on him.

The worry begins to fade from Taylor’s face as he realizes that I am okay.

His hands move away from me, as does his entire body.

— You fainted when I started throwing some truths in your face. — The man in front of me starts acting like he’s coming to his senses, which leaves me completely lost. — Typical Rebecca, taking shortcuts to get out of situations she doesn’t like, how could I not think of this?

I frown and feel a twinge in my head, which makes me close my eyes immediately.

— Look, Taylor, I can’t deal with this right now, okay? So please, if you can, call my husband. — I ask quietly and hear his laughter ringing throughout the bathroom.

I think someone was about to be born who hated me more than this man, and although I fully understand his motives, I don’t understand why he still wants to wear himself out over this issue. Years have passed.

— Calling your husband? — another laugh. — Do you really love each other, Rebecca?

I put one hand on my head and let out a long sigh.

I knew how important this business was to Matteo, and I would never do anything to hurt him. So lying was the only option I had.

I raise my eyes to the angry man, meeting a gaze full of meaning, I take a deep breath, allowing the answer to come out of my lips.

— Yes, Taylor. I have never been so happy in my entire life! — I try to convey credibility with my words, and when I see the pain in his eyes, I realize that I was even too convincing. It was not my intention to cause Taylor pain, but it’s not as if I have any other choices at this point of the championship.

— No need to call Matteo, I’ll do it myself. — I speak quickly and try to stand up, not so successfully.

— I’ll call him. — he says hurriedly and leaves the bathroom in quick steps.

I understand how wrong it is to have this kind of thought, but I can’t help wishing, even for a millisecond, that my husband couldn’t close this deal, because I don’t know if I would have the mental health to deal with Taylor on other occasions. Matteo would find other better clients, I am sure of it.

Matteo appears in the bathroom doorway, looking quite desperate, he approaches me in quick steps and lowers himself in front of me.

I feel his body coming against mine in a completely awkward embrace.

Matteo and I hadn’t been intimate for a long time.

— What happened, Rebecca? Taylor said you fainted.

— I don’t know, I felt sick and just blacked out.

— I’ll take you to the doctor.

— But what about your event, Matteo? We can deal with it later.

— No way! Health first. — He leaves a weak kiss on my forehead, and I can’t help but frown.

When Matteo gets out of my way, I understand why he is acting so concerned about me. We had some viewers, probably curious ones, who followed him here to see what had happened.

I feel his arm go around my waist and I put mine around his shoulder, feeling my body being lifted without too much difficulty.

— You can go back to the event, I am leaving, but the party continues. — he says to the people who were watching everything, and they quickly move away, understanding the message. The show was over. — You should have warned me that you were not feeling well. — he looks at me intently.

— I thought it was just a silly malaise, and I didn’t want to get in the way of your conversation with the new client.

— Speaking of him, it’s a good thing Taylor was coming out of the men’s room just in time and heard you fall. He said he came in here to see if you were okay and ran to get me.

So that was the story he told Matteo?

— Good. — I limit myself to just saying this.

We leave the bathroom together and from what I can see the event continues in the same way, apparently very few people were aware of what had happened to me.

We walk towards the same partners and Taylor.

— She looks better. — Taylor says and takes a sip of his drink.

— Yes. Thanks for calling me! — Taylor nods. — I’m taking my wife to the doctor, but enjoy the event.

Matteo looks directly at his partners, as if silently telling them that the job of convincing Taylor was in their hands.

We walk away from the three of them, and I feel an immediate relief at this, even as I feel the angry look on my back. The feeling only leaves me when we are outside the mansion.

— How did you find Taylor?

— You couldn’t miss him, Taylor has founded several companies and has become an extremely important tycoon. Everyone wants to do business with him.

Na influential tycoon? Taylor?

Matteo helps me into the car and makes a point of pulling on my seat belt, I let my mind absorb the information I just received, while the car moves.

I only realize that I was totally trapped in my own thoughts when the car stops and Matteo gets out of it, we were in front of the hospital. I remove my belt and open the door to myself, noticing that Matteo’s kindness had ended the moment we left the event.

He gets in the front and goes to the reception desk, explaining to the girl what I had, while I wait a bit in the back.

— The doctor will call you in a moment.

We sit for a while, Matteo spends all his time staring at his cell phone, and I stare at nothing, remarkably bored. When a doctor appears in front of us, I feel an immediate relief.

— Mrs. Downson, I’ll see you.

I jump up and see my husband doing the same.

We follow the doctor into a corridor and enter his office. I explain to him everything that I was feeling and how often this discomfort has appeared in my life. He writes down everything that I say and tells me that I will need to do some tests to understand what is going on.

In the next few hours several tests are done, and the doctor sends me home, saying that the next day he would have the results.

Matteo and I go home, each one goes his own way, and the routine silence returns to its place.

The next day, I receive the information that nothing of great concern was found in my tests, but that the doctor had found something strange and wanted to investigate to rule out any doubt. He asked me to return to the hospital, and so I did.

— Mrs. Downson. — he spots me, as I walk through the hospital door. We go to his office and I sit down in front of him.

— How has your diet been the last few days?

I bite my lip and look down.

— Pretty bad. — I confess quietly.

— That justifies your routine malaise.

You need to eat and drink plenty of water, Rebeca, otherwise it could lead to anemia. All this weakness you’ve been feeling is your body’s way of warning you that you’re harming yourself.

— All right, Doctor. I’ll improve my nutrition.

He looks at the papers in front of him and seems to analyze what is there.

— What about what you found in my exams, you said it was something strange, do you know what it is yet? — I ask with a certain fear.

Something strange doesn’t sound good.

— I have some suspicions, but it’s still very vague, that’s why I asked you to come here. — His eyes are on me and I notice a slight concern in his gaze. — Before we proceed, I need to ask you a few questions, okay?

I nod my head immediately and see him moisten his lips.

— Have you had any unusual bleeding?

I think about his question.

— Actually, yes. I’ve been having some bloody discharge, and I’ve noticed that my period is lasting longer than normal.

I don’t like the look the doctor makes.

— Have you been experiencing pain in i*********e?

I swallow dryly at his question, because I knew that an honest answer about this would overexpose my relationship with Matteo. I hadn’t had s*x in months.

I think the doctor realizes my uncertainty to answer his question.

— I will need you to be one hundred percent sincere in your answer, Ms. Downson. — he warns seriously, and I take a deep breath.

I couldn’t lie.

— The truth is, doctor, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a s****l relationship. — I speak softly and run one hand over my face.

He doesn’t seem very surprised by what I say, he just nods his head.

— I will ask our gynecologist to perform an examination on you.

Gynecologist?

— Sorry to ask, but what does this have to do with anything?

— I want to rule out some possibilities.

The gynecologist meets me five minutes later and takes me to her office, where I have a pap smear. It has been a long time since I have had such Na examination.

After my s*x life became history, so did my visits to the gynecologist. I know that this was not the right way to deal with the situation, since frequent exams were extremely important, precisely to prevent anything bad from happening to our bodies.

— The result will be out in a few minutes, okay? Your doctor asked for Na urgent result. — the doctor says to me.

I just agree and wait in a small waiting room. In this time, I call my work and tell them that I won’t be able to go today for health reasons. And since I was not there, I went to check Taylor’s i********: and was surprised to see that his life was completely different.

He had pictures of jets, luxury cars, yachts.

Matteo had told me that he was a tycoon, but the thing only became real to me when I saw it with my own eyes. How had this happened?

Never mind. I always hoped that Taylor would have a wonderful life and that fate would be fair to him, I’m glad that my request was heard.

It’s good to know that he’s happy.

— Rebecca? — I raise my eyes to the doctor. — I have your test results, let’s go to my office.

I get up and go after him, as soon as I sit down and see him opening the envelope, I have the feeling that something bad is coming. His eyes pass over the paper intently, and he lets out a sigh, before looking at me.

— Don’t despair, okay? — I can already feel the desperation hit me. — According to the scan, you have Na abnormality in your uterus.

I frown, staring at him with distinct confusion.

— Na abnormality in your uterus? What does this mean? That I can’t have children?

Not that I had any plans to, considering who my husband is now, it would be unfair to put a child into the world.

— No, it’s something a little more serious than that. — The doctor runs one hand over his face and I can see the tension on his face, which makes me completely alert.

If a doctor is afraid to tell me what is going on, it means that a bomb is about to be dropped on my face.

— I’m starting to get scared, doctor. Tell me at once what is going on!

— Everything indicates that you have cancer of the uterus. We’ll need to do some more tests to understand how bad it is.

Uterine cancer?

I feel my eyes fill with tears, and the doctor gets more and more blurry to me.

— Do you want me to call your husband?

— No. — I answer immediately. — I’ll deal with this on my own.

— But… — I cut him off.

— Please respect my decision. — I wipe the tears that escape my eyes and watch him nod. — When do I start the treatment?

— Immediately. Uterine cancer is usually asymptomatic in the beginning, but since you have already had some symptoms, it means that it could be advanced.

I feel the world collapsing over my head. Cancer, huh? You will see that this is my punishment for all that I have caused in other people’s lives.