Finding Hope (Love's Compass Book 2) by Melanie D. Snitker Read Free Book Online Page A

weren’t unlike this one.
    Laurie seemed to enjoy every single one of them. He knew that she hadn’t had much of a childhood and she appeared to find the Chandler stories entertaining.
    He checked his watch. Lexi had been in surgery for just over an hour. The doctor said it could take as little as an hour and as long as three, it would depend on what situation she faced once she got inside.
    Serenity had taken Gideon down to the cafeteria a little while ago and they were walking around. The boy had been getting restless. She’d planned to be back soon as she didn’t want to miss the doctor when she came out with a report. 
    Lance had a difficult time sitting there waiting for news himself. He’d been tempted to get up and wander, except he didn’t want to leave the rest of her family. He took comfort knowing Lexi was asleep and unaware of what was going on. He prayed that God would make His presence and peace known to her when she woke up.
     
    ~
     
    Lexi caught a few words as they filtered through the fog. Stable. Minimal. Dressing.
    People were talking, but she couldn’t tell how far away they were. She couldn’t open her eyes.
    An unfamiliar sensation in her lower abdomen made her flinch. Or at least she thought she flinched. It was a hot pressure, as though a heavy iron were sitting on her skin and slowly making its way through to the organs within. She tried to squirm but it made the pain worse and added a pinch of nausea to the mix.
    Or maybe she only thought she was squirming.
    Where was she, anyway?
    She searched through the murkiness of her mind and finally grasped onto a memory. She tried to pull it out of the dark just before everything faded again.
    The next time she woke up, she felt a hand on her arm. It was a struggle, but her eyelids lifted. She recoiled from the bright lights in the room.
    “Mom?” Her voice croaked and she cleared it. “Hey.”
    “Take it easy, sweetie. You’ve been coming in and out of the anesthesia for a while. Do you remember anything from before?”
    Lexi shook her head. “No. How long was I under?”
    “Two hours in surgery. It’s been about an hour since you entered recovery.”
    Lexi struggled to clear her head. She blinked her eyes rapidly and took a sip of water that Patty offered. It helped, though she thought she’d have to drink a gallon before the rough feeling in her throat would go away.
    “Two hours — that can’t be good.”
    Patty gave nothing away. “I’ll go let the nurse know you’re awake. The doctor wanted to come and tell you how things went herself. I’ll be right back.”
    Apprehension pooled in the pit of Lexi’s stomach. She tried to tell herself that, good or bad news, the doctor would want to relay that information personally. There was no point in assuming the worst and she needed to relax. It wasn’t working.
    A moment later, there was a touch to her arm. Had she fallen asleep again? Her eyes flew open to find Doctor Ravenhill checking her monitor while writing something down in her chart.
    “How’s your pain level, Alexis?”
    “It’s okay. I’ll live.”
    “Good. If it gets worse, let one of the nurses know and we’ll increase the medication.”
    The doctor paused and Lexi steeled herself. “How’d it go?”
    “I’m sorry to tell you that the mass was malignant. You have ovarian cancer. The good news is that I removed the entire tumor along with the ovary, which means that the chance of cancer cells escaping into the blood stream was kept at a minimum. I performed a complete hysterectomy like we spoke about. I checked the lymph nodes and there were no signs that the cancer had spread beyond the ovary.”
    Lexi felt numb, her heart hammering painfully in her chest. It wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear. It was, she quickly realized, what she’d expected.
    They had gotten the mass out and the cancer hadn’t spread. That was the important part. If one had cancer, it was the kind of news you hoped to hear.
    She felt