Chapter 42

Chapter Rating: Is sad, but is G

Natalia stood still for long moments before she slowly moved towards the empty hospital bed. Blinking away tears in order to see her way around to the other side, she pulled a chair from the corner of the room and sat down beside the bed. The sheets had been changed, the corners were tucked, and wrinkles had been smoothed away. It upset Natalia; the care and concern that had been taken made it look as though nothing had happened. That this room hadn't just witnessed the last breath of a once valiant patriarch. A determined leader of a multi-billion dollar company... the only 'loved one' Natalia had left.

Her family.

Gone.

A million thoughts began to flood her stalled brain.


Did he suffer? Did he know? Was he scared? Did he call out for me? Should I be crying harder?

The shrill sounds of monitor alarms interrupted the steady flow of unanswerable questions. She knew that they were too loud to be coming from outside the closed door. Looking over her left shoulder she saw a flat line going across the EKG machine. The voices of nurses and doctors yelling out varying codes and stats all around her. The electrical whine of shock paddles being charged.

"No!" Natalia cried out loud. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she closed her eyes tightly. She wasn't going to turn around. She was terrified of what she would see.

She grasped the cold metal railing of the hospital bed, and as she did, a warm hand covered hers.

Natalia screamed.

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Isn't it supposed to rain when someone dies?

Olivia wondered as she sat at the small table by the living-room window of her suite. She had her arms folded and her feet up on the edge of the chair across from her. One knee bounced uncontrollably. She was impatient at the best of times, but this overwhelming need to rush to comfort Natalia was still new to her. She tried to stop analyzing her feelings. Now wasn't the time for that. She looked out into the beautiful, sunny sky and couldn't help but feel as though it just didn't fit the day. She thought it would be more ideal for it to be raining; as if it were only fair that the sky should mourn with the mortals below.

That would be stupid, though, she thought. If it rained every time there was grief, we would never see sun. She closed her eyes and shook her head a couple of times.

"Get a grip, Spencer." Olivia said under her breath. As she stretched her arms out in front of her and changed her position, she caught the happy sounds that were coming from the television. A quick glance at Emma, who had chosen cartons over the confusion of the day, caused Olivia's eyes to well up with tears. Memories of the pain of loss she had felt when her own mother passed away joined the worry and heartbreak she felt for Natalia.


We are just children at times like this, no matter how old we are when they leave.

She wiped away a stray tear that had wandered down her cheek and took a deep breath. Rising out of the chair, she slowly made her way over to the vacant end of the couch.

"So," Olivia said in a relatively normal tone. "What are we watching?"

Emma, who was sitting at the other end with her head resting heavily on her hand, made no move to hide her disappointment over missing out on a day at the pool.

"Spongebob Squarepants," was the doleful response.

"And which one is he?" Olivia asked. She knew her daughter was still upset and didn't quite know what to tell her about the situation. Emma was old enough to know about death, but aside from the occasional pet worm – and subsequently the odd question about the 'food-chain' – the subject had rarely been discussed.

The little girl was currently full of the 'Spencer attitude'. She gave her mother a sideways look and answered very slowly. "He is the one that looks like a sponge and is wearing square pants."

The sarcasm would normally have made Olivia try and suppress a smile while telling Emma to mind her manners. Instead, Olivia's eyes began to water anew and she lowered herself to the floor and directly in front of the youngster and reached forward to draw her into a tight hug.

"Mommy loves you so, SO very much!" Olivia tried to hide the true depth of emotion in her voice but it was causing her to choke on her words. "You know that, don't you, Baby?"

Emma hugged back though she wasn't quite sure whether to be comforted or worried. "Yeah, I know," she said warily.

Olivia drew back from her daughter and smiled, not wanting to frighten her with the tears that had formed once again. "And you know that no matter what you do, or where you go in this life, I will never stop loving you... whether I am near to you or far, far away?"

"Uh huh," was all that Emma could say as she examined her mother's expression. She knew that the tears had something to do with Natalia but she didn't know why her mother was hugging her and telling her that she loved her when she should be yelling at her for being rude.

"Are you okay, Mommy?"

Olivia smiled reassuringly once again. "Yes, Baby. Mommy is just a bit sad today."

"Is Natalia sad today too?"

As Olivia was deciding what to say next her cell phone rang from the coffee table behind her. She swung around in her crouched position and grabbed it, flipping it open, and answering it without looking at the screen.

"Natalia?" She asked.

"Ummm, a little bit taller and not nearly as graceful in high heels."

Olivia let out a long sigh and rubbed her forehead. Covering the phone, she told Emma that they would talk about everything in a few minutes. She rose and walked back over to the window.

"Hi Andrew. "

"Hey. How are you doing?" her friend asked sincerely.

"Oh you know..." she held out her right hand and surveyed the nails that she had been biting incessantly for the last half hour. "Just sitting here, giving myself a manicure with my teeth. Do we know where Natalia is?"

"Hospital."

"I should go, shouldn't I? To the hospital... should I go?" The worry in her voice was obvious and she started chewing on a new nail.

"I think she may be back at the hotel by the time you get there. Anyways, Jacques said he is with her."

"I’m not, though." Olivia said quietly.

"Pardon?"

Olivia once again drifted away in her thoughts as she stared out the window. "I'm not with her."

There was a moment of silence following those words that were spoken in such a tone of helplessness. Andrew didn't quite know how to respond, and although he was curious about Olivia's feeling for Natalia, he thought it best to stray away from the subject, for her own sake.

"Do you have any idea what we should do about the merger?"

"The what?" Olivia quickly regained her composure just long enough to feel herself becoming slightly agitated. She had heard him clearly, but couldn't quite believe that he was bringing up business at a time like this.

"The reason why we are here... the deal you just about closed with a now deceased billionaire?"

"Are you serious?" Olivia tried to keep her voice down. Emma was already upset enough; she didn't need to hear her mother yelling angrily into the phone.

"I'm sorry, but we have quite a mess to sort through now. I'm not sure what is going on with you, but you really need to try and focus on what our next move will be. Especially now that everything is about to be left in the hands of a woman who wants us all out of her hotel."

"I'm going to hang up now."

"Hey... I'm sor – "

Olivia couldn't listen to any more. She knew that Andrew was making a valid point. The thought of dealing with business, however – particularly a merger that could once again pit her against Natalia in a war of wills – nauseated her. She went and sat back down on the couch next to her daughter.

What troubled Olivia wasn't whether or not she would win the multi-billion dollar deal. Perhaps it should be, but it was not. What was concerning her was whether Natalia would allow herself to accept support through her grief. Although they had shared some very nice moments this morning, there was a very real fear growing within the older hotelier as she tried to figure out what to do next.

"Mommy?"

Olivia didn't turn away from TV they were both staring at – though also ignoring – and answered her daughter.

"Yes, Baby?"

Emma scooted over to her mother's side of the couch and laid her head down on Olivia's lap.

"If you're worried about Natalia, you should go be with her. You can cheer her up again."

Olivia smiled slightly and stroked the little girl's hair. "I would really like to, Sweetie, but I'm afraid it's not that simple."

Emma sighed heavily. "Somebody needs to make it simple, real soon!"

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The hand on Natalia's squeezed tighter and she felt its counterpart touch her right shoulder.

"Natalia! It's only me!"

Natalia recognized the voice. She found herself being both comforted yet overwhelmingly disappointed by it. She opened her eyes and looked up into her father's longtime friend and assistant.

"Ma Chère," Jacques said sympathetically. "I didn't mean to startle you. I think maybe this isn't the best place for you to –"

"Did you talk to him?" Natalia asked, cutting him off.

"Who? The doctor? You can talk to him yourself if you –"

"Did he try to call me?" Natalia once again interrupted the Frenchman.

Jacques could see panic overshadowing the woman's expression.

Natalia continued with her list of frantic questions, one after the other, the moment they popped into her head.

"Did he say anything to you before... before he...? Why couldn't they bring him back, they have those machines?" she pointed to the defibrillator that had been left in the room. "Was he... was there pain?"

"Natalia, your father was unconscious when your brother found him. They are still not sure exactly what happened, but they are fairly certain that his heart started failing as he slept."

"My brother?" Out of all that was just said, that her half-brother was mentioned was the only thing that stood out in Natalia's mind.

"Yes. Your father did not show up to his office..." as Jacques spoke, Natalia remembered his earlier phone call this morning, when he said he had told her that he couldn't get a hold of her father – the phone call that she brushed off. Her stomach turned. "I sent Mateo to his room to check and see if he was there," the older man continued. "Your father went... peacefully, I believe, my dear."

Peacefully? Natalia knew that the statement was meant to try and calm her. Denied forgiveness by his only daughter? Guilt ridden and defeated? Where is the 'peace in that?

She tried to push her last conversation with her father out of her mind for the time being. There were so many things that she was supposed to be thinking about now, yet she couldn't focus on anything at that moment. She wanted to go to her father's suite. She wanted him to be there. She wanted him to wrap his arms around her like when she was younger; when he could make her believe that he would do anything to take all her fears away.

"What do I do now?"

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The nurse was most likely in her mid twenties. She was attractive, which was most likely why she immediately caught Mateo's eye as he waited in an obscure corner of the hallway. Her long blonde hair covered her name tag. He didn't need to know her name, however. He knew that by the end of the evening he would have not only her name, but anything else he wanted from her. All he needed to do was figure out how to get to her without letting anyone witness them speaking to each other.

Tricky, he thought. Keeping a low profile was not his forté.

One more moment was all he needed to decide to go ahead and make his move. There were so many things that he wanted to do, and doors of opportunity that he wanted to open.

The beautiful blonde, who was looking over a list of medications in the doorway of an examining room, was at the top of his long list of things to do. He was going to thoroughly enjoy 'doing' her. Mateo looked around the hall and saw that it was, for that moment, completely empty. He smiled an evil grin and surveyed every inch of the tall, unsuspecting woman. Moving forward from the wall he had been leaning against, he began to walk towards her when the door to the room beside her opened and out walked Natalia. Freezing momentarily in his tracks, he knew that he had no choice but to keep walking past the nurse.

Later. He thought as he purposefully brushed his arm against the woman on his way by.

"My sincerest apology," he said and waited until she looked up before flashing his charming smile.

The nurse smiled back and held his gaze for a few extra seconds. Mateo turned back around and continued on his way, trying to contain his smile.

Oh yeah... Definitely later.