The Russo Family

Chapter 36 - Cancer

Emiliano's POV:

My energy levels have been decreasing rapidly over the past few weeks. I've lost over 30 pounds in a month alone. I've also been working day and night at the hospital, avoiding my family, because I don't want them to find out about my.... situation. My family is already dealing with a lot of shit so I'm not going to be an added burden.

I have been diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. It all started a month ago when I started getting night sweats, shortness of breath and unplanned weight lost. I knew something was wrong, considering I'm a doctor. I did many physical examinations on myself and drew my own blood. 

I have been administrating my own treatment by myself. Chemo, radiation and CML. My health is pretty stable right now after all the treatments but what scares me is that it's neither improving or deteriorating. I can't possibly burden my family with this.

To make things worse, I'm in love with someone. Aria Grey. My whole world. We have been secretly dating for the past 2 months. We were going to tell everyone about us a month ago but the day we were going to tell them, I found out that I have Leukemia. Ari doesn't know about it yet. I want to get better before I tell any of them.

I was in the middle of my treatment when I got a call from Leo, asking me to prepare for a patient. He did tell me it was pretty bad so I stopped my Chemo halfway and rushed to hide all the cancer stuff in the clinic. 

A few minutes later, Leo barged into the clinic with a girl in his arms. He was right. She looks half dead. I could see the worry lines on Leo's face so I immediately got into action. Leo placed the girl on the bed and I forced him to get out. Before going, he told me her name was Savannah Brown. She flinched when I went next to her so I knew I had to be extra gentle with her.

" So Savannah right? Are you allergic to anything? " I softly asked.

" Uh no I don't think so " she said with a timid voice.

" Are you comfortable with lifting your shirt> I need to see your bruises. " I told her.

She immediately shook her head no. In fact, she looked terrified as if I was going to do something bad to her. She also looked like she was reliving a flashback and started having a panic attack unconsciously. I tried to get her to calm down but it was as if she was blind and deaf.

I quickly grabbed a sedative and injected her with it. She looked shocked but eventually she got knocked out. I called a female nurse and asked her to do a full body examination on her because she was clearly uncomfortable with me touching her. The results I got back were honestly pretty disturbing. From the results and the way she was behaving, it was obvious that she was a survivor of abuse and sexual assault.

I sighed and walked out of the clinic to find Leo. It was pretty late right now. It was about 11pm in the night. I walked outside to find Leo, Rose, Sara, Noah, Luca, Rio and Teo sleeping against each other. The girls were spread out on their laps. I took a quick picture of them and woke up Leo. 

Leo dramatically woke up, making everyone wake up with him. I shook my head and chuckled.

" Ok I did a full examination on her and the results are pretty disturbing so brace yourselves " I started. They looked incredibly worried and asked me to continue.

" From the way she was behaving and the results, it's pretty clear that she has been abused for a long time now. And I'm talking years. Many years. She also seems to be a survivor of sexual assault according to the tests. " I slowly told them.

Everyone gasped except for Leo and Rose. They looked like they were about to rain hellfire on everyone. Leo and Rose slowly made eye contact and nodded.