A Love to Last Ch. 09

With so much difficulty, he managed to get to the top and once he reached the entrance, his face became pale. He felt light-headed and a bit disoriented. His mind began buzzing with the voices that he couldn't recognize. His David was standing at the altar with Jim, staring at each other. What she had said at the hospital was true. David was getting married.

His body didn't know how to react, it just shut down. He froze to a point where he was hardly breathing. He could feel a searing pain in his heart. He didn't even realize that there were tears rolling down his face. His body weakly and robotically moved slowly, getting closer to them.

"Do you take Jim Henandez to be your lawfully wedded husband?" The minister repeated.

David was so lost he didn't know what to do. Beads of sweat were rolling down his temples as he thought hard. Claudia and Elena glanced at each other, wondering what was going on.

"I.... I...."

But before he could answer, he caught a glimpse of someone and his eyes suddenly moved. He got so scared that his hands began shaking when his eyes locked with the boy's. In his terrified mind, every breath of wind was as loud as blood curdling stream. His heart began to hammer against his chest and his eyes widened.

Everyone wondered what could have made him look that terrified and their eyes moved in the direction he was staring. They saw the boy that looked so hurt and so sick at the same time. He had lost weight in just five days and his face was terribly wet.

"Ben!" Amber gasped, trying to get up.

Claudia painfully gripped her arm and made her sit down. Amber couldn't control her tears but she couldn't do anything. Her heart broke but she felt so helpless. She wished she was holding him.

Jim on the other hand smiled at Ben, enjoying the pain on his face.

"Do you take Jim to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Jim took David's hand and squeezed it sweetly, smiling when David looked at him. He moved his hand and caressed his cheek.

"Come on, baby, everyone is waiting."

David took a harsh breath, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

"Yes, I do." Those words felt like a death sentence.

Even when people began clapping, he felt like he had done something so terrible. He couldn't even imagine the pain Ben was going through. He just wished he had been there to witness the whole thing. It would have been much easier.

"By the power vested in me, I now declare you husbands." The minister announced. "You may kiss."

Davide hesitated for an agonizing second. Then his head tilted towards Jim. The soft of his skin of his lips pressed against his, and before Jim could even register it, the man was kissing him. It was welcomed by a loud applause.

Ben collapsed on the floor, dejected, swollen with emotions and the realization of his fate. He felt like his heart had been ripped out. He cried so hard that his body shook. His hand robotically moved to the bracelet David had given him and gripped it.

'This represents our love. It is half our hearts and just know that wherever you are, you have my heart as do I yours.'

He pulled on it hard and it broke. With a groan, he got up from the floor and used his remaining strength to run away from there. Just as he was getting out, he was welcomed by a very sharp pain in his tummy. It hurt so bad that he could hardly see anything that strobed in and out of focus all around. Pain sheeted through him with a terrible intensity and he felt something warm strolling down his leg.

He didn't stop. He just kept on going. He was about to go down the steps when he felt so dizzy and missed his step. Before he knew it, he was rolling down the stairs so fast that when he was reaching down, he had already lost consciousness.

***

Ben slowly opened his eyes and his vision blurred for a minute. He didn't know where he was but he could tell that he was in a bed covered. He scanned the room but it was bright and he thought he was dead. Maybe he was in heaven but why was he experiencing so much pain.

His vision began clearing and he realized that he was in a hospital bed with cannulas back on his hand. He couldn't recognize anything so it might have been a different hospital. He had a bandage around his head because he had hurt himself from the fall. There he was, sitting alone in the room, thinking about everything that recently happened to him. It had left quite a mark on his psyche.

"You're finally awake." An excited voice spoke.

He moved his eyes to the direction of the voice and saw a beautiful woman with blonde hair and brown eyes staring at him with a smile. He guessed she was a nurse since she was wearing the uniform.

"How did I get here?" His voice was hoarse.

"Oh! You were brought here by a doctor. They followed you when you ran away from the hospital." She said as she got closer, taking his hand in his. "How are you doing? Oh, pardon my manners. My name is Grace and I am going to be your nurse. I have been assigned to you."

"You shouldn't have brought me here." He said, trying to get up.

"Don't!" The nurse said, putting him back on the bed. "You still have no strength. Now that you're awake, perhaps you should eat something. What would you like to eat? I'll buy it for you."

Ben sobbed as tears raced down his face. "What is food if it's tasteless? What is water if it can't even quench your thirst?"

"I don't know what you've been through, but all I can tell is that there is always light at the end of the tunnel." She assured.

"It doesn't matter." He said harshly. "I am dying in a few days anyway."

Before Grace could answer, the doctor came inside. When he saw Ben awake, he couldn't help but be happy. It was the same doctor that had been taking care of him.

"Hey, you're finally awake. How are you feeling?"

Ben just looked at him and didn't even answer.

"Anyways, better cheer up." The doctor smiled. "I've got some very good news for you." He sat on the edge of the bed and gazed at him. "The specialist is arriving here tomorrow and after a few tests, we're gonna be able to perform surgery ."

Ben's eyes welled up when he heard the news. He kept staring at the doctor without saying a word to him or even show any expression on his face. He was too hurt to respond.

"Are you not happy?" Grace said excitedly. "This is very good news."

"How?" His voice was cracking. "I thought you said..."

"Yeah, but there is someone sponsoring your treatment." The doctor hollered. He couldn't contain his happiness. "When your husband told me he couldn't raise the money, I made a few calls and we were able to find a sponsor. Having cancer at such a young age is very rare and shouldn't be seen at all."

Ben felt a huge lump in his throat.

"I don't want any surgery."

Grace and the doctor looked at themselves in shock.

"What?" Grace gasped. "Why? I thought this was gonna make you happy."

"Nothing will make me happy." He sighed. "I have lost every reason to live. I have decided to accept my fate and let the cancer take me. There's a reason why I was given this cancer and I see it now."

"But..."

"Respect my decision."

He moved to the other side and showed his back to them. There was nothing left of his happiness. Everything was gone. He didn't feel anything at all, except for the pain that was slowly eating him from the inside. He could hardly keep himself together. He was shaking.

True to his word, Ben refused to undergo any treatment for the cancer. He had wanted to leave but the doctor couldn't allow him no matter what he did. The next day, he spent his entire day in the hospital chapel, just seated there with nothing but his pain. His eyes were puffy from crying. He was dehydrated, and his entire body was become sore. Even when his mother died, he didn't cry as much as he did at that time. He couldn't understand how the pain he was feeling was much more than the treasured memories of his mother.

Hours turned to days and Ben was becoming worse. His pain was getting worser and worser and he was losing a lot of blood. He was vomiting a lot. He became very pale and thin and he knew that his end of days was coming. It was only a matter of time. He could feel it.

He wanted to spend his last days in the chapel, staring at the Lord Jesus. But just as things had gotten worse, Ben got the surprise of his life when one day he had lost consciousness. But when he regained consciousness, he was feeling much better. That day he experienced mild pain.

The coming days, he started feeling much better. He was no longer bleeding and the pain was getting dull. The only thing that was frequent was the vomiting. Days turned to weeks and he was getting much better, except for the mild pain in his lower abdomen.

Ben knew he still had the cancer because he could feel the growth in him. Weeks began turning into months and his bleeding was spotty, his pain dull. He was supposed to be getting worse, the cancer had grown so much that he could see it. His tummy was getting bigger by the day but his symptoms were going away. He couldn't understand it. All he knew was that the pain that David had caused him was getting worser.

***

"What?" Ben gasped, looking at the doctor like he'd grown another head. "I don't understand what you mean."

"You don't have cancer!" The doctor said with a sorry face. "I don't know what happened when we first diagnosed you. All the imaging we did showed that you had cancer and it was growing at a fast rate. That was why you were bleeding. But the recent test that we did shows us that you don't have cancer."

Ben's mouth opened, then closed, then opened again as he tried to gather his thoughts. "I still don't understand anything. IF I don't have cancer, then what do I have?"

The doctor took a deep sigh. "You have persistent mullerian duct syndrome."

Ben was now more than confused now. He came looking at the doctor like he was speaking a language he couldn't understand.

"What?" He frowned.

The doctor was hesitant. "It means that you... you..." He paused and took a deep breath. "...you have female reproductive inside of you. You have a functioning uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries."

A sudden chill swept through Ben, as if cold wind cut through. He heard a sound like a bird flapping its wings in a panic. Maybe it was his heart, for all he knew. He looked at the doctor, wide-eyed, mouth agape, face frozen in expectant fear.

The doctor exposed his growing tummy and squirted some gel there before he placed an array there and started moving it. He did a couple of movements before a focused image projected on the screen. Ben couldn't understand what was going on.

"I wasn't sure at first so I couldn't tell you anything, but what you see on the screen is a baby growing inside of your womb."

There was a delicious moment when Ben's face washed blank with confusion, like his brain cogs couldn't turn fast enough to take in the information from his wide eyes. Then a sound started playing, a sound that he wasn't familiar with but soon his mind told him that was his baby's heart.

"You have a live fetus growing inside of you, Ben." The doctor continued. "We don't know how this happened but no one with this condition has ever gotten pregnant. At first, your body was trying to reject the pregnancy and hence why you were feeling the pain and why you were bleeding. Your uterus wasn't designed to carry a baby but it seems it adapted. You're pregnant, Ben."

Ben couldn't believe what he was hearing or understand how it was possible. His hand slowly moved to his tummy and once he touched it, he could have sworn that the baby kicked. How could he have not felt it before, he thought as tears rolled down his face.

For perhaps a split second, his grief was suspended, the surprise protecting him.

"How's that possible?"

Grace held his arm and smiled. "A miracle." She said happily. "You said you didn't have a reason to live any more. I guess God has given you a very good reason for you to live. This is very good news if you ask me."

Ben sobbed as he passed his hands around his tummy. He didn't know if it was from the surprise or the pain that David had left him a reminder of his betrayal. Why was this happening to him, he thought? He had gotten ready to die and only to discover he was pregnant, maybe the first guy to get pregnant. Was he a freak?

"I know this is good news to you but it's also going to be very dangerous for you. As the pregnancy grows, you're at a risk of rupture or even worse, death. You already know what it did to you when it was still very small. I'd suggest we perform surgery as soon as possible to remove it."

But how could he? Feeling his child moving, hearing its heartbeat brought a whole new feeling to him. There was no way he was gonna kill his child.

"No!" He hollered. "Whatever the outcome is gonna be, I am ready for it."

Ben had made his decision and there was no going back.

Why was fate playing tricks on him? Why now did this happen after all the pain he was going through?

***

"Here you go, baby." Elena said as she handed her husband a glass of wine.

"Why? Thank you very much."

They kissed and sat arm in arm, staring at each other like the first day they had met. Jerome's emotions were running wild and he wanted to have so much. It had been so long he had made love to his wife and he was dying to.

"So... I was thinking..." He said as his hands grasped the back of her head. "...with our son married and everything, we have the whole house to ourselves. Why don't we make use of it?"

Elena blushed, biting her lip. "What does my dear husband mean?"

"You know what I mean." He winked. "I don't have to explain anything but maybe I can show you."

Elena felt like she was set ablaze and she got in the mood right away. "Of course, something tells me that I am going to enjoy your little demonstration. And once you're done, something also tells me that I am gonna make you scream in pleasure."

"Oooh!" Jerome moaned, getting the wine glass away from her. "Then perhaps let me start now."

Putting the glasses away, his head tilted and he went in straight for the kiss. But before he could even reach her, they heard the entrance door open with a bang. Both of them gasped and moved in the direction of the door.

There was a very beautiful woman who was rushing towards them and boy did she seem pissed. She wore a black jumpsuit that showed off her curves with black heels on her feet. Her hair was made in a sleeked back ponytail, revealing her gorgeous face with piercing blue eyes. Her fists were clenched and she couldn't mask the annoyance on her face when she saw them.

"You son of bitch!" She yelled, shaking her head at him. "I always knew you were a good for nothing man but never in my life did I think you could stoop so low."

Elena rose from the couch like she'd been possessed.

"How dare you, Alejandra." She snapped. "Who the hell gave you permission to badge into my home like that? And how dare you speak to my husband like that."

"When I need you to speak, Elena, I will give you permission." Alejandra barked, raising her finger at Elena. "If I were you, I would keep my mouth shut. This is between me and this excuse of a man."

To say Jerome was surprised would be an understatement.

"Did you come back just to insult me?"

"Believe me, when and if I insult you, you're gonna know." She chuckled bitterly. "I called you a few weeks ago asking about Ben and you refused to talk to me about him. And something told me I shouldn't be worried because you love him. And then I discover that Ben has been missing from this house for months and you didn't even bother to tell me? What kind of sick man are you?"

"Hey, don't insult me!" Jerome snapped, pointing angrily at her. "You don't have the right to judge me as a father. Ben became a whore and I can't have a son like that. He chose his path when he followed David and he ceased to be my son that day. I gave him everything a father could give his child and what did he do, he went sleeping around with men including my business partners."

"Oh!" She chuckled, furiously wiping the tear that came out. "Ben is the unluckiest son on this planet for having a father like you. A boy that has done nothing but love you and pleased you his entire life. You couldn't even spare a few minutes to appreciate him."

"You don't know what you're saying. You've never had a child before so you wouldn't understand."

Elena was laughing on the inside. She enjoyed the scene before her.

"It's better to be childless than bringing a child into this world whom you abandon." She got closer and stared into his eyes. "If you're such a great father, how come you didn't know what was going in your son's life. Did you know how Ben met David? Did you know the torture that he went through trying to stay away from him."

"You are so clueless." Jerome laughed. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh really?" She nodded. "Well, we're gonna see who is clueless and who's not. A few months ago, Ben called me crying that he had lost his virginity to a stranger. Do you know the events that led to that?" She raised her finger and pointed angrily at Elena. "This woman was the cause of that."

"Excuse me!" Elena yelled. "What the hell are you talking about? You're delusional. I forced Ben to seduce David?"

Alejandra didn't even pay attention to Elena. She was busy fuming at her brother.

"All Ben ever asked for was for you to perform a ritual with him on his mother's memorial. But you left him in the hands of this woman that burned every memory he had of his mother."

Alejandra began narrating the events that led to the passionate night Ben had spent with David. Elena on the other hand felt her pulse race as she struggled to control her quivering palms, her eyes wide with panic.

"It was so hard for him and where was his father?" She laughed. "Obviously busy making millions and forgetting he has a son. Despite all the pain he had gone through in the hands of this evil woman, he still cared so much about you and didn't tell you about it. He fell in love with David but decided to keep it to himself because he was protecting your legitimate son's feelings."

Jerome felt something in him, something that he couldn't explain. He stared at his sister like she'd grown another head.

"Even when he was almost raped by the man that this woman had sent him to, he still kept quiet." She said with tears following. "So, tell me, have you been a good father? Have you cared so much about your son? Have you showed him enough that he can come to you when he's in trouble and you are gonna help him? No!" She shook her head. "Ben has always felt like a stranger in this house and in your life. He's always been alone without any support. He's always felt like he owes this family a favor and that's why he's been sacrificing everything."

Tears made their way to Jerome's face as the pain slowly started reminding him that what Alejandra had said about him being a lousy father was true.

"I am so disappointed in you, Jerome. Ben left this house and you didn't even bother to look for him because you finally got the family you wanted. If I hadn't seen his awful state in the video that's circulating on social media when your son was getting married, I wouldn't have known anything." She sniveled, rubbing her face. Then her face got fierce. "But you don't have to worry. I will relieve you of your duties and you can have the family you deserve. I will do everything to find my son and once I do, I do not wanna see you anywhere near him because so help me God..." She swore, raising her hand to the heavens. "...I will do something to you that you'll regret having a sister.

From now on, you can forget that you ever had a sister." She said with so much pain. She glanced at Elena who looked like she wanted to kill her. "You two disgust me." She spat on the floor. "You deserve each other. You've been so unfair to that boy and always remember that as you sow, you shall leap."