Inheritance

Chapter 55

"Is everything okay, Sasha?"

"Yeah—nothing, it's fine." I shook off the odd feeling that placated my body. But, any punitive measures to calm myself only proved useless as increasing discomfort rattled me to the core.

It was simply an unsettling thought to consider the case that this woman might actually be stalking me. Quite frankly, it absolutely terrified me. Sure, I had a publicly-recognized namesake and I quite often had run-ins with paparazzi, but stalkers were well above even my level of notoriety.

Besides, hypothetically speaking, what exactly would she even want with me?

The wavering contention of the open question caused another notable shiver to travel through my spine.

Or, maybe, just maybe...

I was overthinking it. Overestimating my importance in someone else's life.

The restaurant did seem to be quite popular among New Yorkers in the upper east side area. It was much more feasible that, by sheer coincidence, the vaguely familiar woman just so happened to be dining in at the same restaurant as me, at the same time, precariously observing my actions, and writing something down onto her notepad—

"Okay, then. Are you sure?" My uncle repeated, this time concern slightly projected onto his weathered face.

"Yes, I'm fine...everything's fine." I wantonly uttered, just as the hard-lined woman locked eyes with me. Again.

Quickly stripping my gaze away from hers, I decided to focus my attention solely on my uncle's voice. With time, this became reasonably difficult to accomplish when I could still feel the woman's steely eyes locked onto me.

"Well, I've actually been meaning to tell you something. I suppose I should have told you this much sooner." He paused, as his usually warm expression became quite somber.

There was a fleeting moment of anticipatory silence, while I waited for him to proceed.

"There's no easy way to outright say this, so...I suppose I'll just go on ahead with it. Sasha, I have cancer." 

Cancer.

Cancer.

Cancer.

What??

The four striking words were unnatural to hear fall from my uncle's nipped lips, as I tried to process the precise implications spawning from the information he'd just revealed. 

But, I couldn't. I just couldn't seem to come to terms with the simplistic but charged framing of his last statement.

So, for a while, I refused to do anything. I simply sat there, terrified of unpacking the condemning outcome of his disclosure and what it would surely point to in the future. Death.

Rather than offer him an immediate response, I froze as I watched him take a casual sip of water before placing the nearly empty glass back onto the high table. 

He was so calm—too calm for my liking.

"What?! What do you mean you have cancer?" I finally dispelled, while a spontaneous spec of phlegm seemed to suddenly lodge itself deep into my throat. The spontaneous effect caused the tone of my voice to become noticeably hoarse towards the latter end of my question.

"Do you remember the first day I saw you?" My uncle proceeded in an intonation of indifference. It was almost as if he hadn't just dropped the largest bomb in the world on me less than a minute ago. It was no shocker that he was seemingly oblivious to the weight of his last few words.