How to steal a heart: 2 [COMPLETE]✔️

Chapter 18

Four hours later
After Josie and Ben- who is just now getting to the hospital after performing a several hour surgery- arrive at the hospital, Christ gathers everyone and tells them to meet in Natalie's room.
"So I did another scan of Natalie's brain and we found a problem." Everyone turns to look at Christ. "Well what is it?" Natalie asks.

Christ sits down next to her and holds her hand. "We noticed something that wasn't there before. We either didn't remove all of the tumor or it grew but it's still there and spreading fast. It's cancerous Natalie." Natalie and everyone else in the room was silent. "We want to do one more surgery because now that we know what it is and what's been affecting your memory, we're hopeful we can fix this. If it's not as successful as we hoped, we want to try chemo therapy." Christ finishes. "I'll give you guys a minute." Christ says and leaves the room.

As soon as Christ is gone, Charles starts pacing back and forth. "Okay can you do me a favor and quit doing that please?" Says Ben. Charles takes a deep breath before turning to Natalie. "I'm sorry if it's bothering you Natalie, I just can't believe this." Charles says, sitting down on one of the chairs in the room. "I know, I kind of don't want to think about it and just rest though." Natalie says. "Yea, you do that." Charles nods as Natalie closes her eyes. Charles puts his hands on his face and starts shaking his leg, producing sound inside the room. "Dude!" Yells Ben again. "Why are you even here?! Aren't you two over?" Charles yells back. "Look, what happened between me and her doesn't concern you Charles." Charles let's out a dry chuckle and gets up, trying to walk up on Ben but at that moment Josie comes back into the room. She feels the tension and anger between them and immediately steps between them. "Don't you guys. Natalie doesn't need this right now." Charles nods before going back to his seat. Christ comes back into the room minutes later and says it's time for Natalie's surgery. Charles, Ben and Josie are escorted to the waiting room.

A couple of hours passed before they see Christ again. "How is she?" Charles asks. "She's stable......... for now. She lost a lot of blood so she's in there resting. We're positive we got out the whole tumor so she should be healing and better in no time." Charles nods in understanding. "Can we see her?" "Yea, she's sleep right now but when she wakes up, just take it easy on her. She should have her memory back but if not, just be patient." "Ok." Charles said before they all go to Natalie's room. Christ goes to attend to other patients.

[Three hours later] Natalie's POV
I wake up to the sound of people talking, as I open my eyes. They felt so heavy and my head hurt. "Charles? Josie?...... where am I?" I ask. "Hey...... it's only me right now because you were asleep for a while so Josie and Ben went to get coffee's." I tried to nod but my head hurt so bad. I guess Charles must've seen the look of pain on my face, "Hey, take it easy. You just had surgery so right now all you need to do is relax." He grabs my hand, squeezes it and kisses it as well. We just sat there in silence for a while and I can't say I don't miss his presence and his touch. At that moment, Ben walked in. "Heyyyy...." He dragged out when he saw Charles hand on mine. For some reason, I snatched my hand back quickly and coughed in awkwardness. I could tell that Ben wanted to talk to me, as much as I didn't want that and Charles wouldn't be leaving anytime soon soooo, "Charles....... can you go and get me something to drink please?" He smiles and says, "Oh, here you go." He reaches over to one of the counters and hands me a cup full of water. "I knew you'd be thirsty so." Now I had no way to get him out. "Thanks....." I said awkwardly as Ben decided to come sit on the bed with me.

Ben is now on my left and Charles is on my right. "How you doing?" Ben asks. Before I can even answer, Charles decides to answer for me. "She's good." Ben looks at Charles with annoyance before his eyes trail down to my hand. At that moment, Charles decided to grab my hand again and purposely kiss it in front of Ben. "Dude seriously? Can you just get out?" Ben asked. "No, I was here before you and she's the mother of my child so I have every right to be here, unlike you." I didn't even have time to intervene before someone walked in. "Okay both of you, get out. I would like to spend time with my daughter." We all turned to see Leroy at the door. Both Charles and Ben get up to leave but before they go, they both kiss my cheek. I smile as they both walk out. "What?" I asked Leroy who was just standing by the door, looking at me with tears with his eyes. He walks up to me and sits down on the bed. He grabs my hand and kisses it before speaking, "I never thought that I could lose you before, but when I heard about what happened to you, it made me realize how precious time is. I'm sorry that you hate me, but I can't change the past. If I could, I would but I can't. I just want you to know that I love you and I'm sorry." I began to cry so he hugged me and for the first time in 28 years, I hugged him back.