Alliance

Misunderstanding

Twenty Two

Victoria came to a screeching halt just in front of her house. She really did need to change out those breaks, but right know the night had already spread across the sky. Seeking out a mechanic would not be a successful one at the moment. She stepped out of the car and into her house, silently making her way upstairs. The events of today had her feeling so broken that tears began to gently flow down her face as she closed the door to her room. Anger then began to course through her veins, invading the sorrow that lingered in the center of her chest. Why was she feeling so hurt? She quickly wiped her tears away and went about removing her yellow dress.

"I am not going to shed tears for him, what am I thinking?" she whispered lightly laughing with no sarcasm. What was the point in crying over it, she was already used to that kind of treatment. Taking a deep breath she pulled into some pajamas and snuggled under her covers while taking her retainers off, focusing instead on things that needed to get done at the bakery she tried to ease her mind. But her mind didn't seem to want to follow orders as she laid there and the tears began to flow out as she closed her eyes.

"Damn you," she hissed under her breath. "Damn you Alex."

The next morning Victoria rose off her bed in a rather grouchy mood, going about the kitchen home trying to focus on the pancake in front of her.

"Morning honey," her mother said. She turned and smiled kindly at her mother, noticing the tired expression that she wore.

"Is dad awake?" Victoria asked.

"He's still asleep, but there are some things I wanted to talk to you about," she went on.

"What about?"

"Can we take a seat?" she offered.

She quickly placed her pancakes on a bright green plate and hurried to her mother's side placing the plate in front of her.

"Thank you dear."

"Now what do you want to talk to me about," she asked going about pouring syrup for her.

"There is some difficult news I must confess to you, I don't know how to really begin but I just want to let you know that whatever happens, I will always love you."

Victoria nodded already knowing the news she was about to receive, but to think about it still pained her and tears rimmed her water line as she stared at her mother.

"I have breast cancer," her mom said.

A sob escaped her and she covered her mouth reaching out to embrace her mother in a tight hug. She cried, cried like a little girl as she held her, she had already heard the news and had already endured so much pain from it but hearing it come out of her only seemed that much more painful. For a long moment they both held each other and cried, then they pulled away to look at each other.

"I start the treatment today, and I just wanted to let you know, I'm sorry I didn't confront you about this right away, it was just that it was taking time for it to sink in on me."

"Everything is going to turn out, because you are a brave woman, I know that you will fight to the end to stay alive, I love you mom, and I will be with you every step of the way."

"Now do you understand why your father wanted you to agree to the arranged marriage? It was all because we don't have any money, and the Jewels have offered to pay for everything if you would just agree to marry their son."

"I know, it all makes sense now, and I completely understand dad, he loves you as much as I do, and doesn't want to lose you."

They both sat there holding each other until tears couldn't spill over any more. Soon the entire family was off to the doctor for her first treatments. The last thing on her mind at the moment was attending to the bakery. She knew she had orders that needed to be picked up, but they could wait, her mother needed her now.

"So what kind of chemotherapy will they be doing?" Victoria asked as she drove towards the hospital.

"My doctor recommended starting with pills; he tested my blood and gave me cat scans, and decided it was best for me to take either that or an awful tasting liquid." She replied.

Victoria took a breath as she parked the car outside the hospital; she prayed on the inside that the treatment would work. Chemotherapy was used to attack the cancer cells, in other words also attacking the healthy cells of the body, causing so many side effects. She prayed on the inside that maybe just maybe her mother would not endure the worse side effect from these treatments.

After a meeting with her doctor he set up a treatment schedule for her and based the dosage of medicine to give to her mother by her age and size.

"It is important that you take all your medications and follow the instructions. Some drugs will not work well if they are not taken at the right times or amounts." Her doctor said before he said his goodbyes to them both.

Her mother felt a little dizzy and tired when they arrived at home, and startled Victoria was surprised to see Alex standing outside their house.

"I'll take your mother upstairs," her father whispered taking Mrs. Elven by her waist into the house. Alex politely smiled and opened the front door for them to both step inside.

"Hey," Alex said.

Victoria tried composing her face as she stared at him, she didn't want to leak any kind of emotion out. The man  in front of her had no clue that she was beginning to see him different, and as much as she didn't want to she couldn't help it.

"Good morning Alexander," she replied.

"I dropped by the bakery but I saw the shop closed, I figured you might have had a family emergency so I came here to see if everything was okay."

"My mother had her first treatment today, there putting her on medication, but will just have to wait and see if they'll have to do anything else after a month of treatment."

"Vicky, about yesterday...did I do, or say anything that made you feel uncomfortable?" he asked looking down to the pavement.

"No, not at all, why would you think that?"

"I know that we both don't agree to this engagement, but that doesn't mean I am ashamed to hang around with you in front of my family." He whispered.

"Really?" she asked a little too thrilled. Alex grinned and reassured her that last night they simply had just misinterpreted things.

"It wasn't that I didn't want to introduce you to my family, I just thought maybe you didn't want anyone to know that we were engaged yet," he stated.

She laughed and covered her blushing face embarrassed about the whole deal.

"Well I'm glad things are cleared up now," she responded more ecstatic than she should be.

"So can we go back to being cool with each other?" he asked. She nodded and pulled him in for a hug so relieved that this hadn't turned out like she had thought. Everything had simply been a misunderstanding from both their parts.

"I saw Max at the reunion. I get it now, I guess I thought I still liked him because he had saved my life all those years ago." She said.

"Are you sure there aren't feelings for him left somewhere in there," Alex joked pointing to the center of her chest. In truth he wanted to know, maybe like this he could really stop thinking about it.

"No, I can reassure you that I don't feel anything for Max Stevens anymore."

Alex felt his aching chest relax as she smiled truthfully at him and invited him to the bakery for a cup of coffee. Soon they headed back to the shop to finish up the order's that were to be in by five o'clock. It was there in her very shop as he sat across from her on the kitchen table that he realized then and there that his feeling for Victoria Elven would simply not fade. No matter how much he tried to ignore the sudden attraction, it would only get bigger.

He was starting to fall for her no matter how much he wanted to deny it. He smiled as he stared at her go about the kitchen preparing the coffee. He pictured what their life would have been like if they would have really loved each other and gotten married. She would have been running about the kitchen cooking, cleaning, and preparing him a cup of coffee like she was doing now. He didn't love her, he wasn't there yet, but by the way his feeling where erupting he was sure to be there by the end of this day.