The Last Option
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Face to Face

"I thought you hadn't been paying attention when I gave you my address last time," Camila said, lying naked next to Bernard on her bed with her head on his chest, as she caressed his abdomen with her hand.

He smiled slightly, feeling her delicate fragrance invading his nostrils, a mixture that seemed to him to be jasmine, rose, coconut and musk, which pleased him and made him feel relaxed. Though delicate, he felt it was a powerful libido booster for him, drawing him into her body until he sated the long-consuming desire for her.

"As silly as you make me feel, I paid attention when you told me, and memorized it for a long time until I no longer forgot."

"I'm happy that you came. Can I ask you something, even if I feel it's wrong to do so?"

"Ask me."

"I don't want to sound insensitive or anything, but what made you decide?"

Bernard kept looking at the ceiling of the apartment looking for an answer for her, but he decided to be frank and tell her his reasons.

"A first reason is you left me shocked with your beauty when I met you, and believe me I tried to get you out of my thoughts but I couldn't. Despite being very much in love with my wife, you did what no other had done up to that moment, and was precisely to notice another woman. I loved Margaret very much, and for her I did my best to put you out of my mind and not think about you anymore."

"And the second reason?"

"Margaret," he said after a few seconds. She raised her head and met his eyes, confused.

"Yes, my wife, my Margaret," he went on. "She and I loved each other very much, you can't imagine how much, and she always tried to see me happy despite the difficulties, and I her, of course, and I'm convinced that she would have wanted me to continue with my life, to continue being happy, even though she's gone from my life forever."

She put her head back on his chest.

"Her death still hurts a lot," Bernard continued, "you can't imagine how much, but I can't let this pain lock me in a dungeon and throw away the key. She wouldn't have wanted it, and to celebrate her life I must go on living mine. Try to stay happy."

She was flattered to hear she could make him happy, although she had reservations about it, as she didn't think she could replace Margaret in his heart so easily. Rather, she didn't want it. That kind of love is not replaced, she thought. "I can't promise to make you happy," she finally said, "what I can promise you is that I'll do my best to make you happy. I also won't try to make you forget Margaret because she wouldn't deserve it; there are people in our hearts that shouldn't be replaced."

"You don't have to promise me that, because you would put me in the position of depending on you, and that's precisely what I'm trying to avoid. Do you remember what you said to me recently in central park? That no one should depend on anyone to be happy? Well, that's what I want to do right now, and I apologize if I'm being too honest with you. I'm just trying to listen to you and take the advice you gave me back then about wondering if Margaret wanted me to move on with my life."

"Don't worry, I'm glad you've reflected on all this that's happening to you, and that you feel better."

She turned to see the alarm clock on the nightstand, it was already going to be ten. She thought about Bernard's date with Louis Randall the next day, and the fact he hadn't finished arriving at his house.

"Although I would like you to stay with me all night, you must go home. Thomas and Laura must be waiting for you with little Nathan, and remember you'll see Louis Randall tomorrow."

"I wouldn't want to leave either, but duty calls, and his name is Nathan."

She smiled as he got up from the bed and started to get dressed again to leave.

As was his custom, Bernard arrived ten minutes early for the meeting with Louis Randall. Camila saw him arrive and gave him a flirtatious smile, telling him that he was already there. As he walked past her, he grabbed her by the waist and placed a brief but firm kiss on her mouth.

"Be careful!" she whispered between laughs. "He could see us."

Bernard released her and continued toward the front door of the office that had once been Nathan Hicks's and where he had been so many times. He thought again of his friend and immediately his countenance changed, beginning to feel resentment towards the person on the other side. He decided to calm down so as not to lose control. Anyway, he had so far only suspected Randall's involvement in Nathan and Norma's deaths, and he shouldn't jump to conclusions. Camila walked past him to announce it, she wiped the lipstick she had left on his lips and noticed his somber countenance, which scared her a bit. She knocked on the door and announced him, Bernard listened as he told him to let him in and then went inside. Camila closed the door behind him and then walked over to her seat, thinking of Bernard's face and wondering why his countenance. She knew of Bernard's problem with little Nathan's family, which in this case was Louis Randall and Rebecca Hicks, but that wasn't reason enough to take such a somber countenance. She thought that maybe there was something else he hadn't told her yet. "Come in, Mr. Sullivan," Louis said, getting up and shaking his hand. Bernard shook it with some force, to which Louis seemed to pay no attention. "Please sit down." Bernard sat up and stared at him.

"I asked you to come because it called my attention that you haven't come to pick up your settlement. Didn't they notify you?"

Bernard thought about being upfront with him, but then decided it was better to wait and see what he put on the table.

"Yes, I was notified, but I've been a bit busy, you know, with my recovery."

"I thought you hadn't notified. We have also not received the bill for the hospital expenses for your operation, did you pay that debt?"

"Yes, I paid it. I thought perhaps the company wouldn't assume that expense."

"It's not an expense when it comes to our staff, Mr. Sullivan. In addition, you had medical insurance that covered any eventuality that might arise, and you didn't use it." "Frankly, I didn't remember. I just wanted to get out of that hospital fast to take care of contacting my wife's family and making sure they came to her funeral."

Louis was surprised to hear that. He really didn't know that Bernard's wife had died, and now he would have to replace out how long ago it happened to replace out if she was the one who carried Nathan's baby in her surrogate womb. "Your wife? What happened to your wife?"

"You doesn't know?" now the surprised one was also Bernard, if that man knew about Margaret's death he hid it very well. "My wife died a day after I was injured."

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Sullivan. May I ask how she died?"

"She died giving birth to my boss's son."

Louis stared at him for a few seconds, Bernard felt that this conversation would go nowhere, because apparently that man was just making a sterile conversation with the excuse of knowing him, since perhaps he had found out he was the one who had the son of his dead enemy. It was time to be up front.

"Your boss?" Louis leaned back in his seat, pretending to be surprised to hear that. "I don't understand, your boss was Nathan Hicks."

"Enough of the acting, Randall, you know I have Nathan's son with me. Did you want to meet me? I'm here. What are you looking for?"

Louis was puzzled by Bernard's sudden attitude, but he still thought to carry on as if nothing had happened.

"I don't know what Nathan told you in life, Mr. Sullivan, but I'm sure you have the wrong image of me."

"Really? And what was all that about the court?"

"Excuse me, but that lawyer wasn't representing me, he was representing Rebecca Hicks, and she's not aware the child you say you have is from her brother Nathan. Tell me something, Mr. Sullivan: why the secrecy around that child? Why didn't Nathan and Norma announce to the family that they were going to be parents, if they really were going to be?"

"You better than anyone should know the reasons."

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you mean, Mr. Sullivan."

"How it feels?" Bernard asked, Louis saw in his eyes a brief flash of hatred, or at least that's how he thought he interpreted it in his eyes. "How does it feel to be sitting there, owner of everything, like nothing happened, knowing the cost of getting there?"

They stood in silence looking at each other for a brief period of time that seemed to both of them an eternity.

"I suppose you also know that I recognized this child as mine," Bernard continued, while Louis remained unmoved, "so neither you nor Rebecca Hicks need to worry. I won't longer try to get that boy to be recognized as a true Hicks, his fortune will remain in your hands."

Bernard said that last thing thinking maybe that man would stop his plans, if he had them or was planning them, to try something against little Nathan.

"As I told you, neither Rebecca Hicks nor I know this child belongs to Nathan and Norma."

"So I hope you leave him alone," Bernard cut short.

"Look, Mr. Sullivan, I don't know what's going through you head," Louis pretended to be offended, "but I'll say you again: I think you've got the wrong picture of me and Rebecca."

"You're not interested in all this stuff about my settlement or the hospital that you told me, Mr. Randall, I know that your real intention was to meet me and convince yourself that I'm the one with Nathan's son, and as I told you, you don't have to worry about, we'll leave you two alone and I hope you'll leave us alone."

Bernard got up from the chair and went to the door, before leaving he turned to see him, again with a somber countenance.

"If for any reason I replace out that you or Rebecca Hicks had anything to do with the deaths of Nathan and Norma, I swear I won't rest until I make you pay for it."

Louis got up violently from his chair, this time furious at what Bernard said to him; he was going to reply but he couldn't, because Bernard had already left the office. He put his hands on his hips akimbo as he paced back and forth in front of the desk, furious. How dare that asshole threaten him? He looked at the intercom and thought about making him stop at the security of the building, he took the receiver but then he regretted it, he took the device and angrily threw it against the wall.

Camila saw Bernard rush by without saying anything, wondering what had happened in Randall's office, a few seconds later she heard the noise of something falling on the floor and she went scared to see what was happening. When she entered she saw Louis in front of the office window looking at the buildings in front with his hands on his hips. She saw the device on the floor in pieces.

"Is something wrong, Mr. Randall?" she asked going to pick up the pieces of what was once the intercom.

"Nothing's wrong," he answered, trying to feign serenity, "it just fell that device. Find a new one." "Immediately, sir", Camila put the pieces back on the floor and got up, "I'll send someone to pick this up." Then she left. She was really intrigued and worried about whatever happened in that office between Bernard and Louis.

Meanwhile, Louis slowly regained his composure, thinking about what he would do from now on. Although it was true that Bernard had promised him that he wouldn't do anything more so Nathan's son would be recognized as such, his last words as he left made him suppose perhaps he wouldn't do it, and that's why he was confused. Maybe he suspects something, he thought, and so he threatens him. He would have wanted to ask him the reason for his words about him, but that would have fueled his suspicions; he had to replace out how much that man knew about the death of Nathan and his wife. He remembered the question he had asked him about what it felt like to be sitting there knowing the cost it had taken and that unsettled him more. Perhaps he was referring to the fact it went at the cost of his cousin's death, or perhaps that he knew something.

What he was convinced of was that he had to replace out how much Bernard knew.

"With what you said, I can't leave you alone like you asked me to, Bernard," he said to himself in a low voice. "Not at least for now."