Page 32 of All the Beautiful Things
David clasped his hands on the table, met each of our gazes and lingered on mine for only a brief moment before he said, “I have cancer.”
The table erupted in a cacophony of noise, Jenna’s gasps and oh no murmurs. Brandon swearing.
Hudson shoved back from the table so quick the chair toppled and his fists slammed to the table, making the drinking glasses still on it tremble.
“What?” His word was a roar, powerful enough to clear the Sahara plains.
“Son—”
“No.” I faced him, sure the pain of hearing this admission again ravaged my features and met Hudson’s furious glare. “You knew.”
He threw the words out as a blame and I cringed.
“That’s why you’re here. Isn’t it?”
“Hudson,” I tried.
“Isn’t it!”
I jumped back from his scream, ripped from him with all the agony he was currently experiencing. My heart split in two, as I took in his torn, ruined features.
We’d gone from laughing to torment so quick my breathing was having a difficult time staying steady.
“Son, please,” David said, but it was no use in calming the lion who had been attacked. “Sit. Let me talk.”
“I think I’ve had enough of your talking and secrets, Dad.” He spit out dad like it was poison in his veins.
Tears burned and fell from my eyes. He shoved the table so hard it pushed into Jenna and Brandon on the other side. Kicking the chair he’d toppled again, he stormed out of the kitchen.
I met Jenna’s gaze. Her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and wet as she stared at me.
A door slammed, making all of us jump.
“I will not die from this,” David said. He spoke so quietly, so vehemently, we all turned to him and blinked. “I will and I can fight this but although the prognosis is not the best, it is far from Melissa’s. It is beatable.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Brandon said. His jaw tight, his expression hard, he took his fiancée’s hand in his and squeezed until she covered their connected hands and rubbed the back of his. He softened his grip with a quiet apology.
“What kind?” Jenna asked.
Before he could answer, I stood. This was a time for family, and I’d already been told this information. My legs trembled as I glanced at all of them, saw such worry in Jenna’s eyes and fear in Brandon’s I choked back a sob.
I turned to David. “I’ll go find Hudson.”
He gave me a nod of understanding.
My role to be there for him had begun.
I headed down the hallway I knew led to bedrooms when I heard another crash coming from near the end. The beautiful walkout ranch home had David’s bedroom on one side of the house, five others on this side. I passed four closed doors before another loud thump echoed and I hurried to where it came from.
Hudson had his back to me, standing between a bed with cream covers and lime green walls. All but one, anyway, because this wall was covered from top to bottom and side to side with photos, or what had once been photos because Hudson took another swipe at the wall, sending pictures and photographs and newspaper clippings flying into the air and fluttering to the floor.
His fist followed, right into the wall, that horrific thump sound I heard earlier repeating. Drywall dust plumed in the air as he yanked his fist out of the hole he’d created.
“Hudson,” I called out, stepping into the room.
And the look he gave me as he turned to look over my shoulder was positively glacial.
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