Halfway to forever by Karen Kingsbury

him overnight. Then they would all meet at the hospital again
tomorrow to visit jade and see her baby.
Before they left, Tanner thanked them again for coming. "And
give my future son-in-law a big kiss, will you?"
It was a happy moment, and as Hannah and Matt left the hospital,
she prayed that memories of this day would stay with
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inner for weeks to come. Because there was no question about ne thing: The hardest days for jade and
Tanner were right
ground the corner.
The next twenty-four hours passed in a blur for Tanner.
Hannah and Matt brought their new baby boy to the hospital and gave Tanner a chance to hold him. It was
strange, really. Here he was at the hospital having his own child, but the baby he got to spend more time
holding was Matt and Hannah's.
The constant twist of events was enough to make him dizzy. Jade seemed to know what was going on
around her, but she was tired most of the time and that worried Tanner. She passed her congratulations on
to the Bronzans, and after Matt and Hannah got a chance to see Madison through the window of the
neonatal intensive care unit, they did the same. It was a giddy time-a time when doctors assured them
Madison was thriving, given the timing of her birth. She had no lung problems, no cerebral palsy, and no
serious dangers. They would keep her in the hospital only as a precaution until she reached five pounds.
Then she could go home.
Jade's situation was another story
Though she had survived the surgery without seizure or signs of trouble, her white count was high. Dr.
Layton explained that was because she was fighting an infection somewhere. Maybe at the site of her C-
section, maybe in her brain. It was hard to tell.
Either way, an MRI done late the previous evening showed that the tumor had grown a fraction of an inch
in the past week. Enough to cause Dr. Layton to worry. Treatment couldn't wait any longer, and the doctor
detailed the plan they would follow
"First of all, we're keeping jade in the hospital." He directed his comments to Tanner, because even now,
with so serious a discussion
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going on, jade could hardly stay awake. "We'll start massive chemotherapy and radiation tomorrow and
administer treatment for two weeks." He paused. "I'd hoped for three. But I think it's more important to get
the tumor out. A woman's hormones change radically after a baby's delivered. Sometimes that can cause a
stable tumor to double in size overnight, which in this case would have grave consequences for jade.
Other times it can cause the tumor to send tentacles into the brain. In which case the tumor would become
inoperable."
He went on to say that they'd do an MRI each day to monitor
the tumor's behavior throughout the two-week treatment phase.
"By then the most we can hope for is that the tumor will have
shrunk and stayed intact."
Tanner stared at the doctor, speechless. Sometime around the
point where Dr. Layton started describing treatment, the floor had
shifted. Since then, he'd had the constant feeling that he was
falling.
Why hadn't the doctor explained these things before? The
tumor could double in size? With grave consequences? What was