Riven Lomax never really got along with the eldest Fisher brother, Conrad, he'd always teased her, annoyed her and spent most of his time with the boys and Belly. When she arrives at Cousins for the summer, as she always had, the atmosphere is diffe...
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The pain was excrutiating, it had pinned Riven to her bed. After Jeremiah had punched Conrad the reason why soon followed; Susannah had cancer.
The woman who she'd spent every summer with since she was a baby, who acted like her second mom, who snuck her candy and treats when her own mom wasn't looking. The woman who helped her when she was sick, or sad, or lonely. Who loved her and her brother like they were her own.
This strong, beautiful, independent woman who loved and laughed with every beat of her heart... she was dying.
As Riven cried, her mother and brother had joined her. They held onto each other tightly, trying to provide as much comfort as they all needed.
Riven sobbed against her mother's chest, soaking the material of her shirt, "All summer long I've been thinking about myself, and this whole time Susannah's been sick and I didn't even know."
"That's how she wanted it." Nancy pressed a soft kiss to Riven's forehead and then Spencer's, "Exactly how she wanted it."
"She's not gonna get better, is she?" Spencer questioned, his voice raspy from crying.
"No." Nancy responded, hugging her children tighter to her chest.
A couple of hours passed and Riven was still laying on her bed, now alone. The tears had started to run out but that gut-wrenching pain wasn't going anywhere. It felt so similar to when she had lost her dad.
She'd managed to change out of her white deb dress and into something more comfortable but then she'd fallen back onto her mattress and continued to stare at the wall through blurry eyes.
Through the cloudiness a figure in a half undone dress shirt underneath a black blazer appeared. Riven blinked away the blur and pushed herself into a sitting position. Her eyes focused on Conrad's face, he looked utterly defeated.
Without even a second thought she got up and lunged towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Conrad immediately accepted her into his arms, his head dropping onto her shoulder.
Riven couldn't bare to think about what Conrad had been going through, to have kept his mother's secret all this time, to know she was dying and to still act like everything was okay. He was hurting, badly, and Riven couldn't make it better, no matter how much she wanted to.
