Chapter 34

It has been three months since the Caulfields received the devastating news that Chloe has been diagnosed with lung cancer. The terrible news shocked the entire family and close friends of the Caulfields. Some of the family's friends such as Kate Marsh and Steph Gingrich have started visiting the family more often. Max's parents and Chloe's stepfather, David Madsen, have also paid them a visit. It was a rough first month, especially for Max Caulfield, who was overwhelmed with feelings of deep depression and desperation. She was so desperate and hopeless that she nearly broke an old promise she made to her wife. However, as always, it was Chloe Price, of all people, to rescue Max from her inner demons. Thanks to the tremendous support from their relatives and friends, the Caulfields have passed the stages of denial, anger, and depression. They have moved on to the acceptance stage, the fighting back stage.

Everybody in the immediate family has stepped up. Chloe has been compliant with her medical work up and takes it easy when she needs to. Max has been fully supportive and encouraging lately, keeping a positive outlook and being there for her wife at all times. Max has also started to be more involved with family matters and taking care of the small tedious tasks that her wife usually takes care of, such as grocery shopping, paying bills, driving Rachel to school, gardening, and going to parent-teacher conferences. Rachel has improved her bratty behavior and always does her chores when asked. William too has stepped up, by being home more often and researching her mother's disease and do everything he can possibly can to help her mother and family out.

Max has been so proactive lately, that Chloe has noticed that on some nights, Max is not in bed with her, apparently running errands, watching over Rachel, and taking care of business. Max even suggested at one point to dedicate her next photo exhibit to raise awareness of Chloe's condition, but Chloe refused, not wanting to draw further attention to herself. However, she was sincerely touched by her wife's idea. Although Chloe still undergoes severe stressful days by managing and overseeing an entire company and her financial investments while undergoing serious medical treatment, she still goes to sleep with a smile on her face, feeling grateful that she has her family by her side.

If it wasn't for the excessive specialist visits, lab work, radiology exams, and diagnostic testing, the Caulfields wouldn't even have the cancer on their minds. In fact, during Rachel's 11th birthday party, nobody even brought it up. If you were a party guest, you wouldn't even suspect a thing. Rachel's birthday party, completed coordinated and planned by Max and Steph, was exactly what the family needed. Usually Chloe's job to plan out such events, Max insisted on taking care of the party arrangements, to relieve her wife from stressful and tedious duties. Max and Steph booked a jumper, inflatable water slides, buffet catering, and entertainers dressed as popular characters for the kids to beat up and torment. They also planned games and events such as water balloon fights, NERF wars, musical chairs, squirt gun painting, and treasure hunts. Chloe was surprised to see her wife getting her hands dirty and taking charge. It's been a long time since Max was smiling and genuinely being social with her family, friends, and their invitees. Seeing the joy on Rachel's and Max's faces that night made Chloe feel better than any drug or drink could possibly can. That night was so fun, nostalgic, and unforgettable, it made Chloe cry from happiness. Max and Chloe made love that night. The next morning, Chloe felt more alive than ever.

Another person who is greatly helping Chloe as well, is her son's girlfriend, Rebecca Styles, who has agreed to take her offer to train her to become the future CEO. Rebecca's quick learning, attention to detail, and eagerness to learn more has sped up the process. Rebecca is doing so well in fact, that Chloe feels she could be ready a year or two sooner than expected. What Chloe didn't expect at all, is Rebecca's impressive knowledge of the stock market and current money trends. She predicated the rise and falls of several popular stocks to a tee, helping Chloe gain a decent profit and saving money in the process. In just a few months, Rebecca has helped her more with her financial investments than Mayra ever has. Chloe was so thrilled and impressed, she raised Rebecca's hourly wage by a couple dollars. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed and has re-ignited the tension between Mayra and Rebecca. Although there hasn't been an incident yet, Mayra's sarcastic and bitchy behavior towards Rebecca has intensified than ever before. The constant belittling, questioning, taunting, and fake smiles whenever they interact has completely irritated Rebecca, who filed an anonymous complaint against her. Mayra clearly didn't take this lightly at all and left a note on her desk, which Rebecca interpreted as a vague threat. 'Be careful. Your time is running out.' was written on the note. Although she doesn't fear Mayra, Rebecca has realized that she's becoming a problem, a problem that needs to be taken care of sooner than later.

Another problem created for both Rebecca and Chloe by their agreement is the fact that all the time being spent training after school and after work hours greatly displeased William. Rebecca and William's relationship have been driven to the point of almost being non-existent. The two of them barely interact with each other anymore. They haven't gone out on a date lately. The few times they do spend time together, it's all small-talk conversations and nothing more. Rebecca's either too busy or too tired to do anything lately, forcing William to go out more with his football friends and to parties to pass the time. He and Stephanie have hung out more too, going out for bowling, swimming, and playing tennis and video games together. William even brought Stephanie home for dinner one night, raising eyebrows and causing Rebecca to be concerned. However, William assured everybody that she was just a friend and he was simply being courteous. Feeling a bit jealous and afraid about possibly losing William, Rebecca reluctantly agreed to take a break from Chloe's training and from the stock market, to spend more time with him. To make her son happy, Chloe obliged with the idea and agreed to suspend their private sessions for a month.

They are currently in Vancouver, British Columbia, in a five-star hotel, both exhausted from the long weekend they just spent together. Spending a full day biking at Stanley Park, exploring Yaletown, visiting the popular gardens, walking at the beach, going to Grouse Mountain, and crossing the Capilano Suspension bridge, has definitely taken a toll on the couple. William is fast asleep and snoring, but Rebecca is wide awake, unable to sleep. She has far too many things on her mind. Although she is truly exhausted, she has the urge to get out of bed. However, it's only 5:20am, too early to wake William up or go outside. Hardly any store is open at this hour. Unable to fall asleep, Rebecca gets off the bed, gently removes William's arm around her and decides to stare out the hotel's window to get a good view of the city. She takes a seat on the window sill and observes the beautiful early morning sky on top of the Vancouver skyline. She starts to reflect on current events and her life in general. She thinks of the day she just had with her boyfriend, her friends, her adoptive parents, Max Caulfield, and her future.

In a way, she is glad and relieved to get out of Seattle for a while, but at the same time, feels she is wasting valuable time and money. She has gotten incredibly lucky lately, winning small lottery jackpots and accurately predicting the stock market trends. Somehow, all those weird numbers and dates she wrote months ago have started to add up and make sense. However, the majority of it is still gibberish to her. Despite the recent successes, it's not all sunshine and rainbows for her. Mayra has become an issue once again and according to Roger, a mysterious person has been following him lately and even asked him about their Arcadia Bay visit. Thankfully, he refused to disclose any information and acted oblivious, keeping his promise to Rebecca. Her other best friend, Stephanie, has also reported a similar incident last week, but she too kept her promise not to share any information with anybody. Rebecca was honestly surprised that Stephanie kept her word, due to the recent tension and misunderstanding between the two of them. She honestly now feels bad for what she did to Stephanie and fully understands that she was taking her friendship for granted and taking advantage of it. The two girls met up the night before William and Rebecca left for Vancouver and had a heart to heart conversation. The two of them have truly reconciled. Rebecca once again thanked her friend for not spilling the beans.

So, it's not only Mayra and her relationship with William that's keeping her up,it's also the mysterious person that both of her friends spotted. They described the person as an average height male, wearing a baseball cap and heavy makeup. He was wearing sunglasses too, but apart from that, looked like any regular college student. They both said that the guy was following them around campus and when confronted, he explained that he simply wanted to know if they were the ones who were in a video he saw. He showed both of them a short video about a group digging up apparent treasure at the Arcadia Bay's Lighthouse Memorial Site. He wanted to ask a few questions about the treasure and was curious to see if they really found something. Roger and Stephanie were shocked to see a video of them being at the lighthouse on that day. Although it was difficult for the two of them to do, they somehow managed to persuade the person they weren't the same persons in the video. The mysterious person eventually left them alone after that and they never saw him again. Before he left, however, both Stephanie and Roger gave out their full names to the individual, which worries Rebecca.

Who was that mysterious person...and why was he following around my friends? The man showed them a video of us hanging out at the lighthouse when we visited Arcadia Bay. Did he film it? If not, who did? How did he discover that video? I can't even find it online! I don't recall anybody filming us either! Why in God's name would anybody be interested in looking for two strangers who were in a random treasure video? Who would care so much about that? I'm honestly worried. Somebody out there knows more than they should. But...how is that even possible? There shouldn't anybody out there, except for Roger and Steph, to have a clue of what I'm up to. The only possible explanation I can think of is the Portland police, going after me and spying on me. Are the cops behind this? I didn't notice any strange person following me or William around this weekend though. Whoever is behind this, they are clearly tracking me step by step. What's the motive, though? Why would the police waste their time and resources spying on me? Are they really that desperate to get a suspect on my parent's case? Well, if they are, they aren't going to find anything because I sure as hell had nothing to do with the murders. It was Max Caulfield! But that's just it! If the police somehow manages to uncover my plot, I'm going to be in trouble. I just have to extra careful from now on, watch my back, and keep everything to myself going forward. I can't trust anybody anymore. Not even Stephanie or Roger. I just have to play it cool and carefully obverse my environments, for any suspicious activity. Oh, man, I'm going crazy just thinking about this. I don't like the idea of somebody spying and investigating me. I don't want my plans to be ruined! I still have work to do! I'm getting closer and closer but I'm still not ready yet to finalize everything. As the old saying goes, I have to keep my friends close and my enemies closer. Damn. Who was THAT guy? Err. Apart from the police, the only person I can think of that could be stalking me and my friends is that bitch Mayra. Is she that crazy though? Does she hate me THAT much? Would she really go that far? I have to keep an eye on her. She wrote that note after all. She's up to something. I just know it.

Note: Because of Season 2 coming up, I'm going to try to write the rest of the story before it comes out. There's still around 20+ chapters left. Once I'm finished, I will release each chapter every Saturday morning.

Enjoy!