Page 50 of Axel

“Cathy, is everything okay?” Axel had just stepped out of the bathroom and was toweling his hair dry when he realized his phone was ringing. He had cowardly been sending text messages to them and pretending that he was too busy to make a call.

He was not pretending to be busy – he was busy, but he did not want to hear, especially from his mother, how much he had messed up and what he had done.

He spent his nights recalling the memorable and distinctive times he had spent with her. He did not need any reminders. He knew she was no longer in River Glades, because Cathy had said so in one of her numerous texts.

“It’s mom.”

His bowels went weak, and he had to lower himself on the edge of the bed. “What’s wrong?” He rasped.

“She went to the doctor’s today.” His hand gripped the edge of the sheets.

“And?”

“I think you should come home.”

“Cathy, I don’t have time to play games. What the hell is going on?”

He heard when she drew a shaky breath and felt as if he was drowning.

“She…,” she paused, and he waited with bated breath. “She felt a lump in her breast and started feeling some pains over the last few days.”

His head dropped between his shoulders as if the weight of it was more than he could stand. Losing his mother was not an option. Closing his eyes, he found himself silently praying. He had never been religious.

The circumstances of his life had made him cynical and unbelieving. He did not believe in divine intervention or a God who would allow a man to walk out on his wife and two small kids and left them to starve or fend for themselves.

He had not been to services in a long time even though his mother and sister were devout Baptists and never missed a service. But now he would trade everything he had just to make her better.

“What are they saying?” He asked hollowly.

“They are going to run some more tests, but it’s confirmed. She has breast cancer.”

“I am on my way.” He hung up before she could answer and just sat there staring at the wall of his Paris pied a’ terre. He had been traveling since he left River Glades.

William had persuaded him to spend three days in Texas meeting with his lawyers to finalize the handing over of the property to him.

He had left there and stopped in Houston to visit an old flame but had left without accepting her invitation to stay the night. He had left there to go to Tuscany, to check on a small vineyard he had invested in.

He was trying to outrun his misery but refused to accept that.

His mother was ill. Cancer. A shudder ran through his body and galvanized him into action. He was not going to settle for that diagnosis. He was no longer the poor insignificant boy of the past.

He had resources, knew people and money had a way of whipping people into action. He was going to make certain his mother got the best treatment money can buy.

*****

“You shouldn’t have bothered him.” Caitlin was not used to being tired, but over the last few days she had been feeling drained. It was Cathy who had insisted on taking her to get checked out and she had gone reluctantly.

“Are you serious?” Cathy was fit to be tied and was so scared, she had no idea what to do with herself. Her mother had obviously been having symptoms for more than a few weeks now and had kept it to herself.

“Mom, this is not some garden variety cold or flu virus. It’s cancer and the doctor said it’s spreading rapidly.”

Caitlin plucked at the baby blue velvet robe she had donned as soon as she came home from the doctors. Her appetite was nonexistent these days and she was so lethargic, she could not even stir herself to go and tend to her beloved flowers.

The weather was getting so unseasonably cold that it was not prudent for her to venture outside. And she was feeling her age.

“Doctors are alarmists. They tend to make things seem worse than they really are.” Her lips trembled slightly. “I am not going to be beaten by this. Telling Axel is going to worry him needlessly. You should have waited until he comes back before saying anything.”

“He would have skinned me alive, and I am more in awe of him than I am of you.” Her daughter told her mildly as she sat on the edge of the bed. “Can you manage a bowl of plain broth? I could have the housekeeper whip something up for you.”