💛🔆𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧🔆💛
Coming Summer 2022, a brand new contemporary romance series set in the stunning small beach town of Lani Bay. They’ll be heartache, plenty of exposed secrets and friendships will be tested to the limit but above all these stories are jam packed with happy ever after moments to make you swoon with delight. Yes, you’ll want to throw your kindle in places but in the end there will be happy tears. Some of which might be yours!
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PROLOGUE
The man of Sophia’s dreams looked down at her as though he had it all under control, even though they both knew he hadn’t. “It’s going to be fine. You worry too much. I told you, you didn’t need to come with me.” He brings his continuous pacing of the hospital waiting room to an abrupt stop and scoffs. His expression shifts to one which lets her know she’s a dumbass for even suggesting she should have gone to the appointment on her own.
Despite what she said, Sophia felt relieved he was with her. Although his worrying was infectious, it was a relief to know that whatever the doctor says, he would be right beside her when he delivered the news.
It’s times like this that remind Sophia exactly how much she’s come to need Brodie. Just because she’s usually Miss-I-can-handle-myself, it doesn’t mean she can’t have a good man like him at her side to lean on.
She’s been leaning on Brodie since their high school days, but never in this new way. The physical kind. His shoulders were strong and Sophia knew he never minded, but it didn’t stop her feeling bad about the fact that she could barely stand up straight anymore, because the pain had gotten so bad.
A wave of nausea washed over her as her mind focused on the dull ache to the left of her spine and she tried hard not to let it show on her face. Brodie was worried enough without her falling apart.
“You okay?” He asked when he sensed that she’s anything but.
“I told you, I’m fine. I’ve probably pulled a muscle or something when I was hanging the voiles at that bat-mitzvah I did, recently.”
“You really need to hire someone else now you’re getting busier. Or call me. You know I’ll always help you out with things like that.”
“You have enough on your plate. Plus, I’m fine. You know I prefer it when we’re busy. It’s when we go quiet, I start to worry.”
“Miss Randalls?” The doctor appeared in the hall and Sophia nodded and followed him through to the small room where he had her scan results printed out and was ready to talk through with them.
Although his face gave nothing away, there’s an uneasy feeling hanging in the air as they take a seat and the doctor rounded his desk to perch on the swivel chair opposite them.
Sensing it too, Brodie reached over and took Sophia’s hand in his own. The contact gave her instant comfort. Although they were only joined by intertwined fingers, it felt as though her hearts was beating at the same time as his while they waited with bated breath for the doctor to say whatever he had to say.
“I’m sorry, Miss Randalls,” he began.
“Please, call me Sophia.” She insisted, unable to stand the formality of his firm expression and clipped tone.
“Sophia, I’m afraid it’s not good news.”
“What does that mean?” Brodie asks Sophia silently kicks herself for not getting the pain in her back checked out sooner.
“Your pain is being caused by a mass on your kidney. We’re going to need to run some blood tests and take a biopsy right away.”
“As in today?” He nods in response and Brodie strokes a hand over his stubbled jaw, but it does nothing to hide the shock written all over his face.
“The nurse will be along shortly to take you up to a ward and get you prepped for the biopsy. It won’t be painful, but the sooner the results are through, the sooner we know what we are dealing with.”
Sophia had no idea what a mass was, but she knew the word biopsy all too well. When her mom had breast cancer a few years ago, she had a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. But this was different. No one Sophia knew had ever had a biopsy on their kidney.
“How is your pain, Sophia?” The doctor asked.
She shrugged her shoulders in response, unable to find the words needed to answer him.
“If zero was no pain at all and ten was the worst pain imaginable, where would you rate your pain on the scale of one to ten?”
It was a simple enough question, but tears burned in her eyes as she fought to hold them back. Sophia hadn’t thought about my pain. In fact, she’d thought about anything and everything else that she could in order to try to forget about it. But now the doctor was asking her the direct question, forcing her to consider the level, and she swallowed the thick lump in her throat as she croaked out the answer.
“Eight.”
Brodie’s fingers tense around Sophia’s as he winced at the realisation of just how much she was struggling and it forces the tears she’s been battling off, to free fall down her porcelain cheeks.
“Okay, wait here. The nurse will be along shortly, and I’m going to prescribe you something to ease the pain.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
“It’s no problem at all,” he smiled. He was young. Probably only a few years older than Sophia and Brodie. To Sophia, it seemed wrong for him to have such a serious job, and she wondered how many times a day he had to deliver bad news for a living. She decided that to him, she was just another statistic. The thought stung because this was the scariest moment of her life and although his voice was tinged with compassion, she wanted more.
A nurse appeared and showed them to another room a short while later. As promised, she gave Sophia some painkillers. Everything seemed to take forever, and the nurses moved at a sloth pace which drove them both half crazy.
Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like days until the biopsy was done.
Afterwards, Sophia would have given anything to slow time down.
To rewind a few minutes so she didn’t have to face her reality with the man she loved by her side.
Sophia knew from the lines in the doctor’s furrowed brow when he breezed into the room with two nurses in tow a couple of hours after her biopsy. Another giveaway was the bag of fluid hanging from an IV that one of the nurses wheeled in with her.
“Sophia, as you know, we’ve completed the biopsy and tested your blood. Along with the images from the scan, I can confirm the cause of your pain.”
“Just tell me, whatever it is, please just say it,” she pleaded with him to hurry the words along and instantly regretted rushing him when they came.
“You have Stage Four cancer of the Kidney. It looks as though it started in the mass we found, but it’s spreading quickly.”
“What?” Brodie’s voice is high pitched and his eyes wide and fearful.
“I know this is a lot to take in, but it is imperative that you have all the information so we can act quickly.”
“To treat cancer? Like chemotherapy or something?” It’s funny how words that were once so alien to Sophia are now rolling off her tongue as if she knew exactly what they meant.
“Because the cancer is so aggressive, our options are very limited. Unfortunately, chemotherapy will not be an option. We need to perform an immediate nephrectomy.”
“What the hell’s that?” Brodie’s eyes flicker between Sophia’s and the doctor.
“I’m sorry. The type of cancer you have is rare and already in its latter stages. The nephrectomy will allow us to remove the kidney in its entirety.”
“But she’s going to be okay, isn’t she, doctor? People can survive with one kidney, can’t they?” Brodie’s expression bores all the agony in Sophia’s own heart and seeing his concern only fuelled her own heartache tenfold.
“Absolutely. The remaining kidney appears to be healthy and unaffected, so there is every chance that once we remove the affected kidney, you will make a full recovery.”
Words fail Sophia, but through the thick fog cloud that’s distorting her thoughts, she hears Brodie say, “Whatever it takes, doctor. You have to understand, I can’t lose this girl. She’s my everything.”
Hannah Blake 