Page 5 of Missing Pieces (Men of Manhattan 3)

"We can't afford to try anything else."

"Of course we can. We can figure it out. Just like we always have."

"I borrowed money against the bar. Against our house. Against my car. There's nothing left."

I shook my head.

"And we have your college loans to think about now."

"Screw that. There has to be something else we can do."

"Insurance won't cover any of the experimental treatments that my doctor has recommended. There is nothing else. Chemo didn't work. Radiation didn't work. It's the end of the road for me. We just have to use the time we've been given."

I tried to blink away the tears. "How much time?" My voice came out as a whisper.

"Four months."

I shook my head as the tears started to spill down my cheeks. "You can't just give up."

"I'm not giving up." He stood up and put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm choosing to enjoy my last few months with my girl."

"Dad." My voice cracked. I couldn't lose him. He was the only family I had.

"Chin up," he said and lightly tapped under my chin. He used to do that whenever I was upset growing up. It reminded me to be brave. It reminded me to be strong.

And I needed to be brave for the next thing I had to say to him. "What about Elena?"

He sighed. "She won't help us. And I don't want her to."

"Dad, I know she has the money."

"And she has no reason to give it to us."

"I've never asked her for anything. I could..."

"No. I don't want a cent from her. We've never needed a thing from her and we don't now either."

I pressed my lips together. How could he not want to try? How could he be giving up? And then I realized that maybe he had been fighting this for longer than I knew. Maybe he had been fighting alone the whole time I had been away. "When did you get diagnosed?"

"Halfway through your junior year."

"Why didn't you tell me?" For a year and a half he had been suffering alone. We told each other everything. At least, we used to.

"Because I knew you'd come home to help. I wanted you to finish school."

"You should have told me, Dad."

"And wouldn't you have come back?"

"Of course."

"Then I made the right decision."

"We're supposed to be a team, Dad."

"We are a team. But being a parent is also about making sacrifices for your child."

"I didn't ask you to do that."

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