Chapter Eight
Liam Blaine
I am skydiving in Seville. The wind slaps my face, and It's exhilarating. I admire the mountain tops and the dips of the valleys. I slant slightly to the right, and my glider slants with me and passes between two high peaks. I feel limitless. I feel invincible. In this moment, I know what the man of steel feels like every day of his life. But I feel it today, and nothing can slow me down now. I let out a loud shout, and my voice echoes over the valley as though all of the universe agree that nothing can stop Liam Hemsworth.
I am skiing in Saint Moritz.
It is a very steep and tricky slope. There are sharp edges of rocks sticking out of the snow.
There are sudden bends too dangerous for an average skier. I dig my skiing poles deeper into the ground and give myself a hard thrust. I almost fly down the slope. I am going very fast, and pushing myself to go even faster. Faster. Faster. I see some skiers stop to watch me. I smile because it is when I take greater risks that I feel strongest.
Yet, I do not risk recklessly because I check every turn and every rock before I begin. Only a stranger, an onlooker, would think I'd go as fast as I am going on an unfamiliar, dangerous slope.
Everywhere I am, women turn to stare at me. I am tall, I am handsome, I am well groomed, and I am a billionaire. A gentleman by any standards, and in one evening several women will try to flirt with me.
Yet that is not what sets my adrenalin level high. It is not in the natural consequences of doing something or being someone. It is in knowing that you have what it takes to make what you want to happen.
I am Liam Blaine. Self-made, American billionaire.
Even if I hadn't met Emilia, I would have fought this cancer in any way possible. Meeting this incredibly gifted, wonderful woman made the fight even more worthwhile.
I had tried to speak to Emilia and convince her to come live with me but somehow, the whole conversation had gotten out of hand and she had run off. So I called Dr. Robinson and told him to make sure it got done.
He tried to talk me into taking someone else, but I'd barked 'get it done', and put down the phone.
The next day, I handed my driver an address, leaned deep into my car's soft leather interior and tried to focus on the music playing. After more than an hour's drive, the car pulled up in front of a huge but unmarked, unpainted building. From the outside, it could have been any old warehouse, but I knew it was more than that.
This was where I was going to fight for my life and hopefully go back home a man with a chance of survival.
A well-dressed young man appeared from nowhere and asked me to follow him. Without a word, I nodded at my driver, who drives away and I walk quietly behind the man.
He turned to me and smiled, his eyes wide with raised one brow, "I can assure you Mr. Blaine, you are in the best hands. No other facility in the world does this as accurately as we do."
He is expecting me to smile or to say something but I ignore him. He glances over his shoulder and paused.
I know my face is grim, but my heart does not race because I have calculated the odds and decided I have nothing to lose except my relationship with Emilia and I have everything to gain if I live to love Emilia.
He continued to walk down a long hallway and finally pauses in front of a glass door. He raps lightly but firmly. The voice that says, "Come in" is as sober as I feel.
He pushes the door open but stands aside to allow me to enter then shuts the door gently behind me.
The voice matched the man perfectly. He stood up and walked toward me, his hand extended for a shake. I studied the white crown, golden eyes and slim frame. I decided I did not like this man.
"Ah, Mr. Blaine. Our most- priced client. Nature is a bitch isn't she?"
He smiled when I didn't respond, and extends his hand. "I'm Doctor Manho."
He motioned for me to sit down, then took the chair beside me instead of going around the desk to his chair.
"You see, cases like yours are exactly the type of challenge we long for. Young men like you shouldn't have to lose their lives just because destiny hands them a curve ball. They grab that ball and fling it back and change their destiny."
He opened a portfolio. "This is Angela." He pointed at before and after pictures. It was of a young girl who couldn't have been more than twenty. In the 'before' she was gout, her eyes were sunken, and her hair had fallen off. She was a female version of me.
But in the after, she was a healthy, pretty smiling girl with bright eyes and lush hair.
He saw my surprise and spread more pictures across the mahogany desk. It was unbelievable, almost miraculous, the transformation in the people I saw.
"Is this?..."
He nodded and smiled.
I ran a finger over a man who looked to be in his mid forties. By all accounts, this man had no hope of living for much longer. Yet there he was in the after picture, healthy and vibrant.
"Can you do this for me?"
"Absolutely. There's no case that our science cannot cure."
"What are the figures like? For me to survive the procedure?"
His smile faltered. "You have a higher chance of surviving than you have of losing your life."
"Side effects?"
"Negligible."
He stood up. "Let me take you to the clinic where the procedure will take place."
I nodded, and we walked out of his office then turned in the opposite direction I and the other man had come.
At the end of the long hallway, we entered an elevator that took us, it seemed to me, underground.
When the door dinged and opened, it was into another world.