Page 21

The doctor pulled his spectacles up his nose, which was too straight for them to stay on.
Damien took a deep breath.
Lena remarked, “I guess all these treatments with big names will have some side effects?” She tried to sound bold, but her mind was really spinning.
“Yes, sometimes permanent ones,” Dr. Robert said with a nod. “I don’t want to scare you, but there is a 40% chance of life-threatening complications or paralysis during the surgery. Some patients lose their vision, have trouble speaking, or have trouble with balance or coordination. It’s funny how easy it is to damage any part of our body when it comes to the brain.”
Lena didn’t get why it was so funny. It was scarier.
There was stillness again for a few seconds that seemed like they were smothering.
Lola suddenly said, “Oh hell, what can one expect after getting drilled into the brain!” with a harsh gasp.
She makes a good argument.
Dr. Robert raised his eyebrows, which had some gray in them and gazed at Lola for a second before shifting his focus back to Lena and Damien. “But let’s hope for the best, Lena,” he said with a sigh. “Willpower and positivity have made things that seemed impossible possible in my career.”
Lena was sure she didn’t have any of those things anymore.
She could also see the clue in the doctor’s vague explanation of her therapy. She would need a miracle to go through it without getting hurt, and that was only if she lived through it.
Lena decided not to allow herself hope that she would live. It seemed like a good idea not to anticipate much when fate was so set on dragging her face-first through this never-ending hellfire.
Fate doesn’t like it when people go against it.
And she was just too tired.
 
Someone else didn’t like the thought of being defied, especially not by her.
Kellen was now going to their store every day.
When she heard that he was trying to get information on her from other employees without their knowing, her fury boiled. The result was quite bad, at least for her. People were now making up stories about Kellen and her, and she could hear them whispering behind their hands and then talking excitedly.
For real!
What kind of game was Kellen attempting to play?
There was clearly nothing left between them. He didn’t care about her anymore; he’d made it clear by his actions over and over again.
What did she think of his sudden interest in her?
It just didn’t add up.
So, at one point, Lena stopped asking these questions. She had a lot going on lately, including getting ready to get her head drilled, as Lola put it.
Kellen should be the last item on her list of things to worry about. Still, he made it a point to crawl to the top of that list in strange ways, like the reptilian friend he was.
“Get out of the way.”
Lena had gone to the store to get food. She always went to the store that was closest to her flat.
While she was picking things off the shelves, everything was calm. But then, at that awful time, Kellen actually rushed around the corner of one shelf with his hands full of bottles of wine and scotch. She was astonished when he showed up out of the blue and unwittingly stepped in his path. Kellen, on the other hand, appeared surprisingly calm about running into them.
She couldn’t help but frown in anger as he rudely told her to move.
Why did he have to show up practically wherever she went?
In actual life, there could only be so many coincidences.
Lena stepped aside and glanced away, bringing her attention back to the several kinds of oats in front of her.
She heard the sound of bottles ringing, and after a time, Kellen stood next to her and stared at the oats.
So this jerk was going to just not go to his own awful path once he got rid of her. So funny.
He said something like, “Oats are good for the stomach flu.”
Now, who the heck got the stomach flu?
Lena clenched her teeth. She thought Kellen was attempting to start a fight here, maybe over something as simple as oats. He only wanted a reason to offend her. She was quite confident of it.
She had been smart to stay away from him lately, even though he kept coming to the store to pretend to be breathing down Damien’s neck, which showed Lola how crazy he was about Lena and how much he liked the female staff’s flirting.
This man had been bothering her a lot, and it was growing harder and harder to ignore him.
But she has to stay away. It was important for her mental health.
So Lena just hurriedly picked a random packet of oats that had nuts and other stuff in it. She threw it into her basket, turned around, and ran to the cashier.
While she was in line, she spotted Kellen going to the other counter out of the corner of her eye. He seemed quite angry, and then a hippy guy ran into him. Most of the bottles fell from Kellen’s palm with loud, shattering sounds. Lena shivered as she heard the sound of glass cracking. Then she watched with her mouth open as Kellen grabbed the hippy guy by the collar and yelled in his face. The guy, who seemed angry, said something back, and then he stuck his tongue out at Kellen to make things worse. It would have been funny if Kellen hadn’t punched the man in the nose.
Lena paid her bill in the middle of all the noise. She shook her head in disbelief and hastily exited the store while the security officers went after the two stupid men.
It’s best to just leave certain issues behind.
But it was sad how dramas wouldn’t leave Lena alone. Like the law of gravity, they always found her in the most unexpected ways.
Lena strolled down the sidewalk to her flat, holding her little handbag in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other. She stopped on her step when she saw a familiar person standing tall by the roadway in front of a sleek black Mercedes.
“Hello there. It’s been a while, huh?”
Selene Arthur’s face didn’t match her calm, sardonic voice. Her long hair loosely swung about her thin shoulders, giving her an image of total pride. Her eyes had a cruel gleam in them.
It’s scary how pretty something so bad can seem.
Lena was shocked during the first few seconds.
She saw pictures of the magazines on the table in Kellen’s office. She had to admit that Selene looked every bit like a supermodel.
She also had to agree that Selene was perfect and far more gorgeous than she was.
And Kellen had picked her.
The truth hurt, especially when the lady who had chosen to lavish all his love on the guy she had given everything to stood directly in front of her.
Lena let out a quiet sigh as Selene kept looking at her as if she had all the time in the world. Lena, on the other hand, did not.
She didn’t want any more drama on the way home now. She was looking forward to a nice shower and a big meal since she knew that soon, Chemotherapy would take away her ability to enjoy good cuisine.
Yes, the doctor and the homework she did online were really helpful. She was now extremely aware of how painful this chemotherapy treatment might be.
So Lena started walking again, but this time she went quicker. She made up her mind to merely stroll by Selene.
Whatever crap Selene had planned to fling at her was already making her gut feel bad.
Lena could almost smell it.
“Are you going to run away again?”
Lena stopped moving, with her back to Selene, who laughed a bit.
Selene responded, “That’s good.” Her voice had a trace of a grin in it. “Now that we know how good you are at going to hell, why don’t you do it again? I don’t want you hanging around, Kellen.”
Selene stated with happy certainty, “We’re in love with each other, Lena. He moved on with me.”  “Remember that you can’t come between us in any way. I won’t put up with it, and you won’t like what happens next.”
Selene’s voice dropped in tone, making the threat extremely plain.
It made Lena mad. She turned slowly and faced Selene, hands clenched. “It’s not my fault that you feel bad about yourself because I’m here,” she said, tilting her head and looking at Selene gently. “You’ve come between us. Kellen is still very much married, even though there’s hardly anything left of that marriage. That makes you his mistress, no matter how you want to see it.”