chapter 18:
it's been 12 days.
rose has been visiting her dad every morning and night.
adam has been waking up at 6:30, picking her up, and taking her to the hospital with him.
she stays with her dad until it's time to go to work.
she comes back to the hospital and leaves with adam. s
he's tired, exhausted, and scared. so scared.
each time, she asks the doctors if her father is okay and why he's sleeping 12 hours and napping for 5 hours, they cause her worries to increase.
if she asks adam, he tells her to not worry, yet she'll find adam and finn whispering, sighing, and shushing each other when noticing rose eavesdropping to their secret conversation.
she's in the midst of typing 'lung cancer' on the search engine, when she hears "how are you, dear?" asked by zoe.
"fine, how are you?" rose shuts the laptop and faces zoe.
"I wanted to ask you if you've checked the tests for A2" asks zoe as she's pulling a cigarette from the box.
"is it okay if I check them at home?" zoe nods, "of course, but make sure to write one office hour, because you're going to get paid."
rose thanks her and watches zoe lighting her cigarette and opening the balcony to smoke outside.
her phone rings and she finds adam calling.
"hi, love. are you outside?" she picks her markers to tuck them inside her bag.
"love, finn will pick you up. I had to attend to one of my patients. is it okay?" she pouts.
"that's okay, angel. I'll see you in the hospital, then, right?" she makes sure.
"I'll try, angel, okay? I have to go now. I love you so so much." she says it back before meeting finn outside her workplace.
"hello dear, sorry I'm not adam." he laughs.
"no problem" she laughs as well.
"is he okay? he said he's busy." she fastens her seatbelt.
"he's been so busy since the morning. he's with your dad." and finn realizes that maybe he shouldn't have said that, when rose asks him, "my dad? he didn't tell me. is there something wrong?" her tone shaky.
"nothing's wrong. don't worry." finn's tone, not genuine, which leads rose to start asking more, but finn tries to avoid her questions each time.
since it's only a 15-minute drive, they arrive so quickly and rose is out of the car in a second.
"hold on, rose. adam isn't in his room. you can wait for him in mine."
and so she enters finn's room and waits exactly 40 minutes for adam.
"precious girl, I'm sorry I made you wait, are you okay?" he kneels down on the floor to cradle her head in both his hands.
rose can't help but shake her head off. "can you tell me what's wrong? why were you with dad? you didn't tell me. finn told me" she rambles.
"slow down, sweet girl, I'll tell you. come, let's go to my room."
he takes one of her hands.
he's wearing gloves.
his gloved hand feels unfamiliar to her.
she almost removes her hand from his.
once, she sat on the chair, he sits next to her and rubs the delicate skin of her cheek.
