I'm Not Leaving

Part 5

5/

Epiphany sat down at the breakfast bar as Sonny came in behind her leaning over the sink. She heard him slam his hands down hard against the metal. "I can't lose her. I won't lose her. Not now!" Epiphany watched as Sonny picked up one of the plates he had cleaned hours the night before and threw it against the far wall. "Am I going to lose her?" He asked, slowing down his breath.

Epiphany looked at him disapprovingly. "If you keep breaking her dinner plates ..."

Sonny shook his head. "Yeah."

"I can't give you the answer that you're looking for, Sonny. I'm not God. I'm just a nurse with a very stubborn friend that has been trying to help in any way possible, but she has to start fighting. No one ever beat such an aggressive form of cancer going into it as if they're already defeated."

He nodded.

"How do I do that?"

"You know her better than almost anyone. You tell me."

Sonny sighed. He was still trying to figure that out. He knew her buttons, her fears, her past ... where he could push and how hard. She didn't want to journey through cancer again. How could he fault her for that?

"My Mom had cancer ..." He responded sitting down at the table.

"I did not know that."

Sonny looked down at his hands clasped together tensley in his lap.

"My step father was a police officer. He was a horrible man and an even worse husband." When he looked back up Epiphany could see the immense hurt in his eyes,

"Anyway, my mother had been free of Deke for almost a year when she found out she had Stage 3 breast cancer. She decided that she had lived in so much fear ... her body had gone through so much trauma for years and years. She decided not to have surgery or any type of treatment. I told her that whatever I had to do I would pay the medical bills ... take her to chemo. She said she wanted to enjoy the rest of her life and her freedom. She'd felt like a prisoner in her own home and she didn't want to be confined to a bed or trapped in a hospital without knowing they could cure the cancer." He wiped his eyes. "She made it almost a year. Then, she was gone. All I have left of her is a cross and a few books in Spanish."

Epiphany bowed her head, giving him time to collect himself. She understood now. Sonny cared deeply for Alexis, but she realized that Alexis wasn't the only one who didn't want to go through this type of pain again. I can't lose her. He'd said. It was personal.

"Does Alexis know? Does she know about your Mom?"

"No. I'm mean, yes. Sort of."

Epiphany raised an eyebrow at him.

"Alexis said she didn't want to tell me about the cancer because she didn't want me to think about my mother. A very long time ago, not long after she came on as my attorney, I told Alexis about Deke and that my Mother had died shortly after him. I didn't tell her how she died. The only way she could have known," he continued, "is from my medical records. "She had Carly discreetly obtain them, shall we say, when she was pregnant with Kristina."

"So she doesn't know that your Mother refused treatment?"

"No."

"Maybe she needs to hear it."

"What aren't you telling me, Epiphany?"

She seemed to be weighing whether or not to share with him.

"Alexis said she had some decisions to make. When I tried to encourage her by saying that you thought she could beat this, she said you didn't have all the information."