The Rich And Bold

Coming clean

CHAPTER TWENTY- THREE

AZALEA

I told my parents and Kai about the tumour on the night that we got home from studies at Scarlett's house. Our older twin brothers, Remi and Karis were home by then. They had come back for the Christmas holidays very early. They had been away touring and inspecting our other companies in other countries. Karis came back with his girlfriend of fourteen years, who also worked with the company. They had known each other since Kindergarten. Her name was Jenna. She was practically part of the family. They were getting married.

I felt horrible for breaking the news to them after they had just arrived. They had only gotten home an hour earlier, but I knew that if I didn't tell them then, I never would.

We had just finished eating dinner at the dining table, well everyone except me, since Kai and I had eaten at Scarlett's, but Kai ate like a horse, so he ate again. It was time for us to eat dessert and the chef had prepared the twins' favourite dessert, white chocolate cheesecake. I waited until they had finished it before I spoke.

"I have something to say," I said with a smile, just as dad had ended his praises about the good work my elder brothers were doing.

Knowing that it was benign, I hoped that they weren't going to be as sad as I knew they would be. I knew that Kai would be, especially because Aaron died of cancer when we were younger, and he was close to him. They were going to be angry because of how long I kept my symptoms a secret, that, I was certain about.

I picked up my fork and used it to hit the table lightly as I looked at it. "I am so happy that you are all back, Remi, Karis and Jenna. I've missed you guys so much"

"We've missed you too, princess." Remi said and threw his arm around me, scooting closer to me.

I smiled and held the hand on my shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

"I am so sorry, to say this today of all days, but I know that if I don't say this now, it will take another several month before I do." I looked up and saw that they were all listening to me attentively, curious about what I had to say. "Two years ago, I started getting severe headaches, nausea, dizziness, numbness... and at first, I thought it was just tiredness, so I ignored it."

I heard a gasp, which I knew was from my mother, I looked up to see her covering her mouth, with tears in her eyes. She had already started suspecting the worst.

I shut my eyes briefly and winced. "Over time, it started getting very serious. The first time I got a seizure was before our major performance in Los Angeles." I heard sharp intakes of breaths around me, and I decided not to look up. Remi's hand that held mine tightened.

"It was a minor seizure. I've never had any major seizures. Because I did not want to miss the performance, I kept quiet about it and decided to look up what was wrong with me on the internet. I saw so many things, and I was scared. I was scared that it was something deadly, like cancer. I decided not to tell any of you because I didn't want to die being hooked to machines and being pitied, and I didn't want to stop performing. If I was dying, I wanted to die with happy memories, but it was just mostly because I didn't want to stop performing."

"Please tell us you aren't dying." Karis choked out.

"No" I shook my head.

They all sighed in relief and Remi dropped his head unto my shoulders.

"What drugs were you taking?" I finally heard my dad's voice. I looked up at his expressionless face and lied. I lied because I knew they would be furious.