The Choosing Game

Back in time two

(3 years ago)

"He isn't answering his phone" Lilliana said panicking.

Sofia sighed sadly "please calm down lils, i'm sure he is fine" she tried to calm her down but her body was already trembling at the wild thoughts that ran through her mind.

"But what if something had happened to him? He.. he.. this isn't like him Sofia" she slummed down on the bed and put her face in her palms and let out a shrill.

Sofia sat beside her and hugged her tightly. "Everything will be fine. Everything will be alright" she cooed.

It has been two day since Lilly heard from Nick, she could not get a hold of him either, the last time she saw and heard from him was the day they saved Sofia from that guy, his roommate had no idea too. It was unlike Nick, he had never done anything like this before and Lilly was freaking out.

"I feel like i should call Nate, he would know what to do" Sofia said going to her phone. She called Nate and explained everything to him, he urged them to remain calm and promised he would try and find him. It made Lilly feel a little better. However, she didn't get a wink of sleep that night.

The first thing that she did in the morning was report the case to the cops. She cried as she reported that her boyfriend has been abducted. On the forth day, Nate called and informed them that Nick was alright and at his parents. Lilly felt relieved and angry at the same time, she got in the car that very night and said she would drive for over three hours to go see him, Sofia stopped her. She pled with her to calm down and go in the morning.

The next day, Sofia drove Lilly to Nick's family house. She was super jittery, she could not sit still. She practically jumped out of the car before it stopped the moment the got to the house. She ran inside and found him seated in the living room with his mother and sister.

They were having a conversation but stopped once she burst through the doors, he was on his feet immediately. His mom got up after him, exchanged a look with his sister and exited the room. Lilly walked towards him carefully with teary eyes, she has never stayed this long without seeing him, not since middle school.

She hugged him tightly and cried, he just held her with a lot of sadness in his and when she finally stopped crying, she pulled away and slapped him so hard. He wasn't surprised by her actions just by the strength it carried. "I'm sorry" he simply said as he rubbed his buzzing cheek.

"You cannot do that to me!" She said angrily.

"I'm sorry" he repeated.

"You have n... you have no idea how scared i was that maybe... maybe something had happened to you" she cried, her emotions were all over the place. "I cannot even believe you! Why would you do that to me? Why? Are you trying to tell me something?" She asked in between sobs.

He looked away from her gaze, it broke his heart to see her like this. "Nick i can handle you telling me if you don't love me anymore but i cannot handle you disappearing like this ever again. So tell me! Do you not love me anymore?!" She asked fiercely.

He looked at her briefly and his eyes filled with so much panic. He did not know what to tell her, it would kill her to know the truth, it would absolutely destroy her. "Answer me!" She demanded.

"I love you." He stated. "I love you" he repeated, moving close to her, he placed his hands on each side of her face and kissed her gently but with so much passion, his tears started slipping down, they mixed with hers as they kissed, Lilly knew there was a big "but" coming but she wanted to never stop kissing him.

He pulled away but her eyes remained shut. "I love you but i have to let you go" he said with a heavy heart.

She felt as if something sharp was plunged into her heart, she opened her eyes and let out a loud shrill. Hearing that broke his heart into a million pieces.

"No!" She protested moving closer to him.

He took a step back making her eyes widen with shock, "Nick" she said with a shaky voice.

"I'm sorry" he said again.

"Stop saying that! Tell me what is going on! This isn't like you Nick. What the hell is going on?!" She was beyond angry.

"I'm sorry" he said earning a heated glare from her. "You have to go, you have to leave and forget about me Lilly, i am not going to come back to Uni. You will be fine, you will be alright without me" his voice was breaking too but he was trying to remain brave for her.

"That is such bullshit Nick! You know it is. So drop the act and tell me what the hell is going on." She demanded from him, he knew Lilly and this isn't who she is. She doesn't curse and she doesn't get angry like this but he knew it was all warranted.

"Please! Don't do this to yourself. You are the daughter of a royal duke, you are so beautiful and amazing and i am so happy to say that you were once mine but Lilly you cannot be anymore." He was in tears now. "If you truly love me, you would not ask me why and you would not make this harder than it already is. Please let me have this... the memory of your love has kept my heart beating so please let me have this.. My pretty lady" he said the last part in a painfully sweet tone.

She sobbed, covering her mouth. She shook her head vigorously. "You cannot ask this of me! Why? Why Nick? Te... tell me what it is and we will figure it out together but i will not leave you just like that. This is us were are talking about" she said stubbornly.

He let out a chuckle through his tears "there is no us anymore Lilly, wether you like it or not. You will have to come to terms with it but there is no us anymore"

All her anger surged through her at once, she let out a scream not caring anymore "how can we be fine not less than a week ago and over just like that?! Huh? TELL ME!" She yelled.

He flinched a bit at the harshness of her voice, she was not one to ever raise her voice while talking. He recovered from that quickly and shrugged "it's just the way things are and i wish things could be different" he said trying to sound nonchalant but she saw right through him.

She wiped her tears aggressively. There was silence, silence and the sounds of her cries "Nick" she whimpered. As if his heart wasn't broken enough, he felt it shatter at the way in which she called him name.

"I'm sorry" he whispered. She took a step forward again and when he moved a step back, she spun on her heels and dashed out of the house. She couldn't handle it anymore, he wasn't seeing reason, he was bent on hurting her and she was too weak to fight him.

She met Sofia by the door and was so sure she heard everything "let me talk to him, Lilly" Sofia suggested.

"No!" She protested "just take me home"

"Home?" Sofia asked.

She nodded and got into the car, the whole car ride was filled with her quiet sobs. She was truly broken and did not think it would get any worst than it already is but little did she know.

Nick watched the car drive out of the gates and knew he had done the worst thing he could possibly do in his life. He let out a loud bellow as all his emotions rushed at him, he picked up a glass vase and chucked it at the wall. He watched it shatter into a million little pieces yet he knew that that was nothing compared to his heart or worst, Lilly's.

He slumped down of the ground and cried, he cried until he couldn't anymore. He felt a presence and when he looked up he met his sister's sorrow-filled eyes. "I still think she deserves to know Nick" she said sadly.

He got up on his feet "it's better this way, she will get over me before my corpse is cold" he said a tad bit harshly.

"You think? That girl isn't going to get over you anytime soon! Open your eyes Nick and even if she does, don't you think she'll ever find out?" She asked him.

"People die all the time. Lilly will forgive me for being one of them" he brushed passed her and went up. Giya did not agree with Nick's decision but she hadn't no other choice but to respect it.

Lilly was fading in front of her parents eyes. There was no getting through to her, they all knew that Nick isn't the type to hurt her like that but that was all they knew. Her father tried to get through to his parents for an explanation as to what could possibly be going on but they did not want to talk.

Three weeks passed but Lilly's condition only got worst, Nate was informed about it and decided to come home from college and talk to her but it was all futile. She had shut everyone out. Nate decided to pay Nick a visit, he swore that he would hurt him badly for this little stunt but he met the biggest shock of his life.

Nate told his parents about what had happened, that night nobody in the Duke of Elma's household got a wink of sleep. They were at war with theirselves, they knew she deserved to know the truth but it would break her beyond repair. The duke and duchess decided to hide the truth would be better but Nate disagreed.

"Hey." Nate said to his sister. She was at the creek, sitting on a rock, looking lifeless.

She looked at him briefly then turned away. He sighed "Lilly you don't have to talk, just listen to me ok?" He said.

When she did not reply him, he continued, "there is something important that you need to know about, Mom and Dad disagree that you have a right to know but i think otherwise, so please get up and come with me before they realize what is happening" he said with the outmost urgency.

She did not hesitate, she trusted her brother and knew it had to be very important for him to disregard their parents. They drove in silence, she wondered were they were going. They drove a little bit further and she realized they were heading towards the children's oncological center.

He parked and turned to her, she was still clueless as to why she was here. "Promise me something" he said.

"Ok" she said groggily.

He sighed, his heart was already breaking for her "Know that everything happens for a reason. Please don't loose yourself to what i am about to show you" he said. She just nodded and got out of the car.

Nate walked her to the ICU and led her in, Lilly looked at the image in front of her and her knees gave out. She fell to the ground and covered her mouth, the people seated in the room turned to her with sad expressions on their faces.

Nate held her up and moved her further into the room while whispering words of encouragement into her ear. Her whole body felt weak, her lips were trembling but nothing was coming out. Nick's mother stood up and held Lilly "i'm so sorry dear" she said warmly.

Lilly moved away and fell to the foot of the bed, she moved her body up and hugged him, she didn't care about the tubes attached to him, she just wanted to hold him, her Nick. His body felt cold but by the beeping of the monitor she knew he wasn't dead. She cried, it was the only thing she could do.

Nick's family slowly cleared out of the room, it was too sad for them to watch. Nate stuck by the door along with Giya. She cried for so long until Nate came and pulled her away, he sat her down to talk.

"Lilly i'm so sorry, we wanted to tell you but we had to respect his wishes" Giya said wiping her own tears.

"Wh.. what ha..happened to him?" She asked in between hiccups.

Giya let out a shaky breath "about nine years ago, while we were away Nick got diagnosed with osteosarcoma, he underwent chemotherapy and a bunch of surgeries for the year and by some miracle he was cured. His only wish after the whole incident was to come back home, we all knew it was because of you, Lilly he has always loved you." She paused when Lilly let out a whimper. "Not too long ago, the symptoms started coming back. We found out that not only the cancer is back but it has metastasized to his liver and lungs. It wasn’t good”

“Lilly he didn’t want you to see him like this, he said.. he said..” she tried but could not finish the sentence as her tears choked her, she pulled out an envelope from her bag. She stood up and said “He has been on life support for two days now, he will be taken off it tomorrow. Nick..is... gone but he wanted you to have this” she handed her the envelope and ran out of the room crying.

Lilly wiped her face for the umpteenth time and carefully opened the letter.

“My pretty Lady,

By the time you read this my corpse is cold and in the grave. I never wanted you to go through the pain of loosing someone you love, if i had known i would not have allowed you to fall in love with me.

Dying is painful but the idea of not being with you makes cancer feel like a splinter, mildly painful and inconveniencing. I cry as i right this letter the same way you will cry when you read it. Ironic! It will be hard at first, i know. You will be hurt and sad but please don’t be too sad for me, your life is full of people who love you, please don’t loose sight of that.

I love you but maybe our love is too perfect for this world, maybe it is love meant for the heavens, maybe that is why i had to die. I know you will be angry, you have every right to be but please do not let it stop you from being great my flower. You are destined for great things and hopefully one day you’ll cure cancer and maybe name the cure after me.

My sweet Lilly, if love was enough i would be with you right now.”