How Did Walter White Get Cancer -

It began with a cough.

"Walt? What's wrong?"

"How long?" Walter asked.

It was the last honest thing he ever told her.

The world didn't shatter. It contracted—into the tick of the wall clock, the smell of antiseptic, the weight of his own hands resting on his knees. Walter thought of the stack of unpaid medical bills on the kitchen counter. He thought of Skyler's part-time accounting work. He thought of Walt Jr., who would need a car, college, a future. He thought of the baby—Holly—who would never remember a father who didn't cough blood into a laundered towel. how did walter white get cancer

"Adenocarcinoma of the lung. Stage IIIA. It's in the right lower lobe and has spread to the hilar lymph nodes."

The breaking point came on a Sunday. He was folding laundry—a chore he actually liked for its quiet geometry—when a spasm bent him double. He caught himself on the dresser, and when he pulled his hand away, his palm was stippled with fine red mist. It began with a cough

At fifty, Walter had long since stopped listening to his body. His body had betrayed him once before—with Grey Matter, with the Nobel snub, with the buyout that bought his house but sold his future. So when the cough lingered into the third week, he told himself it was stress. When he lost twelve pounds without trying, he told Skyler he was cutting carbs.