Evan frowned.
“What do you mean?”
She swallowed.
“I start chemotherapy next week.”
Every bit of strength left my body.
For several seconds, I wondered if I had heard her correctly.
Evan stared at his sister.
“What?”
“I was diagnosed three weeks ago,” she said.
“No.”
“The doctors wanted to begin treatment quickly.”
“You didn’t tell us.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Her smile was sad.
“Because I wanted a few more weeks where I wasn’t the woman everyone looked at with pity.”
A tear slid down my cheek.
Viki continued.
“The oncologist told me the treatment would make my hair fall out.”
She touched her smooth scalp.
“I kept imagining waking up and finding it on my pillow. I couldn’t bear the thought of watching it disappear a little at a time.”
Her voice trembled.
“So I made the decision myself.”
Nobody interrupted.
“Cancer is already taking so much from me,” she said. “This was one thing I could still control.”
She glanced toward the suit.
“If my hair had to go, I wanted it to mean something. I wanted a wigmaker to use it, and I wanted Tony to have the night he’d worked so hard for.”
Tony crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m so sorry.”
Viki held him tightly.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“I didn’t know.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
“I would never have asked you to do this.”
“You didn’t ask.”
He pulled back and wiped his face.
“I still can’t wear it.”
“Yes, you can.”
“How?”
She placed a hand against his cheek.
“Because I didn’t lose my hair for nothing. I chose where it went and what it gave someone I love.”
I kept replaying the last few weeks in my mind.
Viki’s tired smile.
The moments she had seemed distracted.
The beanie.
How had I missed it?
Evan pulled his sister into his arms.
“You should have told me.”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
“When I knew how.”
He held her tighter.
“You don’t have to figure this out alone.”
“No,” I added, stepping beside them. “You never did.”
Viki looked at me.
“I didn’t want my diagnosis to become everyone’s burden.”
“It isn’t a burden,” I said. “It’s our fight too, because we love you.”
