The Magnate's Holiest Sin (Cavanaugh #3)

Kabanata 40

Kabanata 40

Hacienda

"My apologies for the incorrect statement. She is experiencing symptoms of pleural mesothelioma, and her mother died with that same disease. It is possible that she developed the mesothelioma from her parents. One percent of patients with mesothelioma got it genetically, hereditarily. You worked as a construction worker before? She might got it from the clothes you wore. Though you covered your nose and mouth during work and you didn't get mesothelioma or asbestosis, the asbestos can stick on your clothes. It may get from a person and inhaled by another. Just like the smoke. Asbestos exposure, that's the common cause of mesothelioma. She needs to undergo biopsy."

Kakamulat ko lang ng talukap ng aking mga mata ay mariin lang naman akong pumikit ulit.

Dating construction worker si Kuya King noong panahong naghihirap kami at siya ang nagtataguyod sa aming dalawa. Pinagsabay niya ang pag-aaral at pagtatrabaho noon. Lagi ko rin siyang binibisata sa construction site pero hanggang sa labas lang ako dahil bawal ang mga bata, at delikado rin doon kapag walang suot na kahit ano'ng proteksyon sa ulo.

Sa tuwing umuuwi si Kuya King noon ay nagkukusa akong labhan ang mga damit niya. Binababad ko sa tubig, at saka niya lang ako tutulungan kapag nahuli niya akong naglalaba. Ayaw niya kasi akong maglaba. Ayos lang daw iyong paghuhugas ng pinggan, paglilinis ng bahay, at paglalaba ng sariling damit ko pero huwag daw iyong sa kaniya. Lagi niya akong pinagsasabihan na siya na ang bahalang maglalaba ng damit niya. Mabibigat din kasi iyong mga damit niya. Lalo na iyong mga pantaloon niya.

The doctor was saying that the sleeping mesothelioma in me was being provoked by the asbestos that was clinging in brother's used shirts before, during those season that he was working on a particular construction site? She was telling my brother that I might got the cancer from my mother?

How true was it? Not yet. It was the doctor's theory and suspicion. Anyhow, she has a point.

"I don't want to be diagnosed. Let me out of this hospital," walang nababakas na kahit kaunting pag-aalala para sa sarili ang boses ko.

"We need to confirm, if you really have mesothelioma. You should be diagnosed. To slow down the-"

"Please, I don't want to hear a word again." I did not let the doctor complete her sentence.

Agad na sumapaw si Kuya King. He thought that I was being rude.

"Can I have a minute with my sister, doc?"

The female doctor turned to him from facing me. "Oh sure, you may ask the nurse if you both have further inquiries. I'll be at my office," was her polite response to my brother before she look at me with her pleading eyes. "Please do try to think about it." And left.

About what? I had nothing to think of. If there would be something I had to put in mind, it would be my family, career, and business. How about myself? For the past months, I came to love myself. Selfless? That trait of me could not be removed. It clung in me though I had tried many times to be selfish.

Sitting properly, and shifting my weight on this hospital bed, I raised my gaze at my ever so caring brother.

He sat on the wide space of the bed, looking at me with his softening deep-set eyes. "Baby. . ."

"Kuya, please? I don't want to talk about it. If you're going to try to convince me, I'm warning you, my decision will still be the same. I don't want to be diagnosed. I don't want to live in a hospital," I crossed my arms under my chest and gave him a single shook of my head in disapproval.

May alam na siya kung ano'ng klaseng sakit iyon. The lung cancer ended my mother's life four months after diagnosed. Kung HIV lang iyon ay sana hanggang ngayon nabubuhay pa si Mommy.