Fated to my Stepbrothers Mate by Hopeless Romantic

CHAPTER ONE

Charlotte.

Life is really funny. One moment you're finally stepping out of your shell and letting your friends cajole you into attending your first party after spending four years in college, and the next, you're in a doctor's office being told you have pancreatic cancer and that you are not expected to live beyond the next twelve months. I thought it was a really funny joke life was playing on me, how it waited for me to pass through the exhaustingly rigorous process of acquiring my Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering before deciding to tell me it was all for nothing. As the doctor tried to let me down as gently as he could, I only felt slightly irritated that death had decided to come at such an inconvenient time. It had been three months since I got my degree and I had just been accepted to a scholarship program to further pursue my education and get a Master's, and now this. What now?

When I finally walked out of the kind doctor's office holding an ice pack to the spot on my head where I had hit it during my fall last night, accompanied by my teary eyed best friend, Mary, the rest of the friend group swarmed me to hear what the diagnosis was. There was myself, Mary, Jennifer, Martin, and my boyfriend, Lucas. From Mary's sniffling and constant eye wiping, they knew it was bad news we had to give them. Mary let go off me which was really just a transfer of the 'responsibility' of holding me from herself to my boyfriend, Lucas.

"Guys?" Jennifer asked, her eyes darting between Mary's tears and the nonchalance on my face. "What is it?"

"Mary?" Martin asked, going closer to my best friend. "What happened?"

"The doc- the doctor-" Mary tried to speak but her tears could not allow her to. It was a little funny to me, if I was to be honest.

"What did he say?" Lucas asked me gently. "What did the doctor say?"

Everyone fell quiet and leaned in to listen to me speak. I felt quite self conscious being put on the hot seat like that, so I just shrugged and tried to downplay the seriousness of the matter.

"Well... he might've said something about my pancreas having some sort of cancer or something like that."

Jennifer looked confused. "What?"

"Pancreas..." Martin said, trying to make sense of what I had just said.

"Pancreatic cancer?" Lucas asked me directly, his eyes begging me to say it wasn't true. Of course he knew. He was a medical student, a very bright one might I add. I could not stand it so I looked away and kept my eyes on the floor.

"Yeah..." I shrugged. "That was what he called it."

"Oh God." The words left his mouth involuntarily in a soft way.

"What?" Jennifer asked, impatient and seeming somewhat irritated about being kept in the dark. "What is it?"

"How long did he say?" Lucas ignored her and kept his focus on me.

I laughed nervously and looked at everyone's expectant faces, well except Mary.

"Uh..." I found it hard to repeat the doctor's words. "Well, he didn't specify a particular-"

"She has a year!" Mary blurted out amidst tears.

Martin and Jennifer gasped together while Lucas remained as stoic as he possibly could be.

"To- to live?" Jennifer needed to make sure.