"Between the pages"//Fillie

Chapter 16.- "A shadow on her window"

After the call with Sadie, Millie had mustered up enough to go down and reunite with her grandmother, Millie was still in deep pain and still had no regrets about her decision to change and to stop being a naive girl who believes in things of small kids ... but despite that, she realized that she had been very rude to her grandmother, after all, she has always wanted to do what is best for her.

The best thing about Alice is that she was an infinitely kind person, she did not even allow Millie to apologize, as soon as she saw her come down she hugged her tightly, showed her support and let her know that whatever happened, everything would be fine ... Of course, she also had to take advantage of this.

"Listen Millie, I'm not upset but ... I have something important to do and I have to go out, so it would be nice if you compensated me by cooking dinner ... I know you hate cooking and I suppose it will be a good punishment".

And this was why Millie was now in her clothes full of tomato sauce, rushing to finish the pasta she had burned a second time, It was almost nightfall and dinner that night depended on her.

Millie knew that her grandmother just wanted to tease her but it seemed like a fair deal to her, what Millie didn't know is that that important thing her grandmother had to do ... was a visit to the hospital.

Yes ... Alice had a visit with the doctor, she had not felt well the last few days and was beginning to worry, she had done some studies and now it was time to go for the results, She tried to stay calm but from the moment she walks through that door, feels the scent of the disinfectant and sees all those white walls, can't help a chill running down her back and unfortunately things don't improve after hearing the diagnosis.

"It is your heart ... You have heart disease ... it is damage to the left ventricle"

The words were going through her head as she returned home, they had indicated the medicine to take and she would be under observation until they discovered if the treatment would be enough or if surgery would be necessary, it was a matter of luck, she could improve or one day just her heart It could collapse ... but Alice Brown was a positive person.

"Come on Alice ... you will be fine". She forced herself to put on her best smile before entering that house where the most important person in her life was waiting for her, the person she needed to be well for, she couldn't let Millie find out, she couldn't put this on her shoulders after everything she had been through these past few days.

"Wow ... this is beautiful Millie ... and the best thing is that you didn't burn the house down!". Alice was surprised to find the table perfectly served, Millie had even placed flowers in the center.

"Well then, I must confess that I saw many videos from you tube ... and I think that pasta is not poisonous, so we can eat it!" Millie said making Alice laugh. "And about the flowers, they are my apology Nana ... I am sorry for everything I said, no matter how much pain I feel, you did not deserve that".

"It's Okay honey, I understand that you were hurt ... I think you are old enough to know how to face your problems and I support you ... whatever you decide to do about Finn or about your life, I support you ... And if that implies putting a fence in our garden so that he doesn't come near you, I will ... you need time to heal and then your heart will tell you what is best ... but enough to talk about sad things, let's eat before the pasta comes alive and eats us! ".

After that the dinner went by quickly, that's normal when the two people who share the table are hiding something ... Alice, her health problem and Millie was struggling not to tell her grandmother that she was dying to talk to Finn, that she hated herself for not being able to hate him and that her chest burned with the need to speak to him, to see him ...she hated feeling that need for a person who had completely broken her, all the previous nights she repeated to herself that she would not forgive him and she kept repeating it to herself, while she washed the dishes, while she returned to her room, while she put on her pajamas, she believed that the more she repeated it to herself, the faster she could convince her heart to stop needing him ... the distance would help, after all she had been clear with Finn, told him to stay away from her and even if that killed her, I knew he wouldn't look for her.