Chapter 180
Nico had always been a mama’s boy, always wanting to be close to
her, to hold her hand, to climb onto her lap when he needed comfort.
But now, Amber could feel the distance between them growing, even
though he never said a word about it. She could see the way he would
sometimes watch her, his small brow furrowing in concern when she
looked too pale or too tired, his little hands reaching out hesitantly,
unsure if it was okay to be close. It broke Amber’s heart to see that.
She had always been the one to pick him up when he fell, to comfort
him when he was sad, and now, she felt like she was the one who
needed comforting. She wanted to hold him close, to assure him that
everything would be okay, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she
was letting him down.
And then, there was Luca. He had been her partner, her equal, her
support through every twist and turn of their life together. But even
he was showing signs of wear. His easy smile had become more
elusive, his usually confident gait had faltered, and the weight of
their situation was becoming more evident in the quiet moments
when he thought she wasn’t paying attention. Amber could see the
way his hands would tremble when he handed her a glass of water or
the way his shoulders would tense when he sat beside her during chemotherapy, the nervous energy that always seemed to pulse between them. He was doing everything he could to stay strong, to be the rock she needed, but Amber could feel the cracks forming, the
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quiet resignation that seemed to creep into his every gesture. He was
scared, and she knew it.
Yet, despite all of this, despite the sickness, the fatigue, and the
uncertainty, there were moments of clarity, moments where Amber
could see the love that surrounded her. It was in Luca’s quiet words of
reassurance, in the way he would gently rub her back after a chemo
session, in the small things he did to make her life easier. It was in
Nico’s small gestures of love, in the way he would sit beside her,
pressing his small hand against her arm as if offering comfort in the
only way he knew how. And even in her weakest moments, when she
felt like giving up, she could still feel the strength of their love, a
steady force that kept her going.
But it wasn’t easy. It was never going to be easy. Amber would be
lying if she said she wasn’t scared–scared of the treatment, scared of
the unknown, scared of what this disease might take from her. There
were days when the fear felt suffocating, when the nausea and the
weakness were too much to bear, and all she wanted was for it to end.
There were moments when she questioned whether she could keep
fighting, whether she could keep going. But when she looked at Luca,
when she looked at Nico, she knew she couldn’t give up. Not for them.
Not yet.
She knew the road ahead was long and uncertain, and there would be more days of exhaustion and pain. But there would also be moments of beauty, moments of joy, and moments where the love of her family
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would lift her up, even in the darkest of times. And that was what she
had to hold on to–the love that connected them all, the love that had
carried them through so much already. It was this love that gave her
the strength to keep going, even when everything else seemed to be
falling apart.
