The dinner table was laden with starch heavy dishes. There was a giant lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs in a bowl, and a baked salmon. Valerie took her seat across from her sister and adjacent to her father. She looked at the table with wide eyes, which she quickly had to get under control.

            “What was that look for?” Reina astutely asked.

            “Well, I’m on a low salt diet.” Valerie replied immediately without trying to sound weird.

            “Why are you on one of those? It’s not like you’re unhealthy right?” She replied while serving herself a little bit of each dish.

            “Yeah, only people with heart problems eat like that. A few of my friends whine and pout because they have to eat like that,” their father replied.

            The two of them had Valerie caught. She thought for a second.

            Perhaps, it was time to start telling some truth, Valerie contemplated.

            “Well, I’ll tell you this. I am not on a low salt diet because I want to be,” she replied.

            Her father and sister who had just began eating their dinners simultaneously dropped their forks. They swallowed whatever food was in their mouths and tried to speak all at once.

            “What do you mean?” Valerie asked, while her father asked, “Are you sick!?”

            “Yes, I’m sick. I can’t handle too much exercise and if I don’t take my medicine, I’ll get a fever and…” Valerie let out a huge sigh. “It’s my heart.”

            Neither her sister nor her father said anything for a few minutes. Valerie believed they were in disbelief, just as she was for months before it set in.

            “Did you come back, because you’re dying?” Reina managed to mumble between tears and trembling.

            “I- I…” Valerie stopped herself. She wanted to tell them the whole truth, but she knew she wasn’t ready to talk about death with her family, and it had only been the second day she had been with them. What she wanted the most in the whole world right now was to just be with her family, to reconnect and make up for lost time.

            “It’s just a heart condition. I’m managing it well and if anything changes, I’ll let you know,” she replied fighting back tears in her eyes. “When I received my diagnosis, I was overcome with grief and after coming out of it, I realized that I wanted to be here with you all. Ever since I had left, I had worked so hard, I had no friends and no loved ones and the prestige I worked so hard to achieve didn’t mean anything without anyone to share it with. With my diagnosis constantly on my mind, nothing mattered to me anymore and eventually, I couldn’t handle being alone. And that is why I came back.”

            Valerie had tears running down her face as soon as she had mentioned receiving her diagnosis and they didn’t stop. She had lowered her head from a combination of feeling shame and not knowing how to meet either her sister’s or father’s eyes. It had been decades since she had cried in front of her family or anyone else for that matter. But when she could hear the sniffles coming from behind her chair and feel the sudden embrace from her sister on her right and her father on her left, she was able to calm down some, feeling safe in their arms.

            They all cried while holding Valerie for half an hour. It was enough crying that when they all had stopped everyone’s eyes were red and puffy and the food was too cold to eat comfortably, that Reina had decided to reheat the food on everyone’s plate in the microwave. Valerie ate while under the watchful gazes of her father and sister, who were acting as though she would be gone in a second if they left their eyes off of her.

            Valerie cleared her throat before speaking, “By the way. Could you not tell the Griffins about my condition? At least let me tell John first, and then let him tell his father.”

            “Shouldn’t we bring it up now? And cancel the arrangement with them?” Reina asked her father.

            “I would love to cancel the arrangement with David knowing Valerie’s condition. But I know David. He’s going to want the year to go on anyways,” their father explained.

            “I think it will be fine. I’m only going to think of him as a roommate. In reality I feel bad for John, what if he has a girl he’s interested in and he won’t be able to be with her because of me. But you guys should be happy he’ll be with me for a year. He’s practically a doctor, that I’ll have around all… the… time…”

            “That’s a good point. We can ask him to look out for your health and let us know if you get sick or worse or something,” Reina said nodding in agreement with her father.

            Valerie sighed at this. This is really what she was trying to avoid by not outright telling her family the truth. They were already focusing on her disease rather than her. But still she was happy with how things were going. She was just going to have to get John on her side, to keep more and more of her secrets for her.