Natalia
sat on the couch with one leg crossed over the other that bounced
uncontrollably with a mixture of anxiety and frustration. Olivia had persuaded
her to allow the detective in, stating it was best to try and calm down so they
could discuss the matter in private. The younger woman waited anxiously as the
lanky man seated across from her surveyed the grand suite.
"You know, I could probably fit my entire apartment in this place, twice over," he said as he eyed the wary brunette.
Natalia narrowed her eyes at him. "Are we going to discuss why you are holding my father's body hostage, or would you like a tour of the penthouse suite first?"
Olivia quickly interrupted. "Okay... I'm going to go and check on Emma."
Natalia quickly looked over and gave her slightly worried look. "You can bring her over. I mean... if you want..." Her sentence was rushed and sounded almost desperate, though Olivia wasn't sure if it was just her imagination.
"You sure?" she asked the woman who, just yesterday, had asked her to leave for good.
"Yeah, um... she could watch t.v. in my room."
Olivia glanced over at the detective with the same amount of speculation he was giving the two women, and then back at Natalia. "Yeah, okay." She said decidedly as she threw her purse strap over her shoulder. "I'll be right back then."
Natalia sat back in the sofa cushion, and glared at the man across from her. "So, where were we? Oh yes, you were about to tell me what the hell is going on!"
"Yes, and the simple explanation is that there has been a hold up with the release of your father's body at the request of the medical examiner. "
"I was told that the M.E. would be signing off on the paperwork today."
"The M.E. signs the report when he is finished with his examination," the detective stated in a dry tone.
"No kidding," was Natalia's sardonic response.
"I guess he isn't satisfied with his conclusions. It seems as though he believes there might be something he's missed. Something a bit more... complex."
The accentuation of the last word grated on Natalia's already frayed nerves.
"And that complexity would be...?"
"I'm not at liberty to say at that this point."
Natalia was just about to yell an obscenity when she saw Olivia re-enter the suite, with Emma in tow, and instantly she felt a bit more calm.
After pointing down the hallway towards Natalia's room and making sure Emma was out of earshot, Olivia made her way to a seat next to Natalia. She wasted no time in taking the lead in the staring contest with the detective. "So, what did I miss?"
"Mr. Monroe has just informed me that the cause of my father's death has all of sudden become complex," she said, mimicking the same annoying accentuation of the word. "Oh, and the best part is that he isn't going to tell me what the hell that means, or when he is going to give me my father!"
The detective took out a notepad from his jacket pocket and searched for a pen from the other. "Look, all I can tell you is that there has been a new development in the case and..."
"The case?" Natalia interrupted, her expression turning from one of anger to shock. "What case? Why is there a case?"
The man deflected the question and sat forward. "What is happening here, Ms. Rivera, is that everyone involved in this process – medical staff, local authorities – we're just trying to make sure that we are all on the same page and that all angles are covered so that we can come to a final conclusion about what actually caused your father's death."
Natalia immediately turned pale and her eyes lost their focus on the detective. Her mind flashed back to the last image she'd had of her father and her stomach lurched.
"I'll need to ask you a few questions."
The younger woman's heart starting pounding in her chest.
"From what I understand you were the last person to see your father alive, correct?" Murray asked.
"I brought him dinner," Natalia answered without hesitation.
The detective flipped open his notepad and began writing. "Who prepared the meal for the two of you?"
"I did."
"Was that a routine thing for you to do for your father?" The man looked up and Olivia could see how piercing his gaze was on the woman next to her. It caused a surge of defensive emotion within her.
"We often eat... ate... dinner together."
"And you would always do the cooking?"
Olivia finally raised her hand to halt the conversation. "Hold on... are you going to tell Ms. Rivera what this 'new development' is, or not?"
Neither of the other two took their gaze from one another, and Natalia continued to speak despite the interruption, knowing full well where the conversation was headed.
"No, I don't usually cook for my father."
The man continued his interrogation. "I see. Special occasion?"
"Not really?"
"Was it a special request from Mr. Rivera?"
"No, I surprised him."
"Natalia, I think we should just..." Olivia once again tried to slow the conversation down to give Natalia more control, but she was cut off before she could finish.
"How did your father seem when you left his suite last night?"
The brunette couldn't answer, her eyes welled up with tears.
"Enough!" Olivia commanded. "This conversation will have to continue at another time. Unless you decide to give Natalia any further information, I'm going to ask you to leave." She stood up and made her way to the door.
Detective Murray hesitated a moment but then flipped his notepad closed and clicked his pen. "Yes, well, maybe I should come back later, Ms. Rivera. Thanks for your time."
As Olivia held the door for the approaching man, she gave him a rather unfriendly look and did her very best not to slam the door behind him as he left. When she went back over to the sofa, she noticed Natalia staring blankly into space.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Did that really just happen?"
"Unfortunately." Olivia sat down beside the stunned woman.
"Why do you think that happened?"
Olivia shook her head. "Well, you know how it is... wealthy businessman, media coverage, sensationalism... the usual. It's probably just like he said, everyone just needs to make sure they have all their i's dotted and their t's crossed. Don't let him get to you."
"I saw the way he looked at me, Spencer."
Olivia had seen it also. She'd noticed the intense suspicion in the man's eyes as he questioned Natalia, and it made her skin crawl. "Natalia, how many lawyers do you have representing your company?"
Natalia let her head fall back against the cushion and she sighed heavily. "A boat load."
"Well, I doubt you'll need the whole boat but maybe we could get a couple of them to paddle ashore and give you some sage advice?"
Natalia slowly got up and made her way over to the window and stared down at the growing crowd of paparazzi.
"It doesn't matter," she replied sadly.
"I don't mean to be an alarmist, but you did just have a detective show up at your door. I think it may matter slightly."
"No, it really doesn't."
Olivia stood up and went over to Natalia. "What does that mean?"
Natalia turned to face the confused woman, her eyes were eerily void of any emotion. "It means I think I killed my father."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Jacques was being dropped off at the hotel entrance, he was instantaneously swarmed by the flashbulbs and barraged with dozens of questions from a sea of reporters and tabloid journalists. Apart from being a nuisance, he also perceived it as being a little unusual that there would be a larger crowed that afternoon than there was the day before. Normally the media attention would start to die off but there seemed to be a new fervor amongst the group. He pushed through to get into the hotel and listened closely within the buzz of voices to try and pinpoint what they were asking him.
"Is it true that charges have been laid?"
"Are you the one who called the police?"
"What are your thoughts about the possibility of foul play?"
Jacques made his way to his office and slammed the door. Immediately he went to his phone and dialed a number. As he waited for the other party to answer, he looked out of the office window at the mass of people forming and shook his head in anger. A voice came through on the other end of the phone and Jacques wasted no time with formalities.
"Who the hell mentioned the words 'foul play'?!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Olivia was speechless as she tried to make sense of Natalia's comment. She could see that – regardless of the insanity of the statement – the other woman was wearing a rather matter-of-fact look on her face.
"You can't possibly believe that you're to blame for your father's death."
"Does it seem like I'm joking?"
"No. What it seems like is that you've let that detective intimidate you."
Natalia turned around to face the window. "You heard him. They're keeping my father's body in the morgue because they think someone killed him."
Olivia shook her head in confusion behind Natalia's back and went to sit on the arm of the sofa. "Actually, what I heard was that they are simply trying to be thorough and need to cover all the angles... whatever that means. How did you get from there to 'I'm a big bad murderer' in less than three minutes?"
Natalia folded her arms and leaned her left shoulder against the glass pane. "I was the last one with him."
Olivia threw her hands up in mock enlightenment and brought them back down to slap the tops of her thighs. "Well, for heaven's sake, why didn't you demand to be hand-cuffed and thrown into the slammer... you heinous fiend."
"I'm being serious," Natalia snapped.
"I am aware of that. That's what is making this conversation incredibly disturbing."
Natalia spun to face the blonde. "We argued! Okay?" Her eyes, now full of remorse, could only look into Olivia's for a few seconds before she had to close them to stop herself from crying. "The very last conversation I ever had with my father... we fought. I fought, to be exact."
Olivia watched the other woman slump towards the window once again. Even though there wasn't a reflection in the window, she could tell that there was agony in those beautiful brown eyes, and it made her own heart ache.
"I upset him. I judged him. I blamed him, and then I left him... broken." She took a deep breath in and held it until the threat of tears passed again. Moving to the chair next to Olivia, she slumped down and put her head back against the cushion.
Olivia sat there watching Natalia, not knowing what – if anything – she could do to comfort her.
There was a long pause of uneasy silence until Natalia spoke again, this time with a little less emotion in her voice. "All he wanted was my forgiveness."
The blonde's brows furrowed. "Forgiveness," she repeated. "Forgiveness for what?"
Natalia kept talking, almost oblivious to the other woman's question. "And what did I do? I just had to throw everything in his face... again! Blamed every horrible mistake I ever made, on him."
Olivia waited a moment to be sure Natalia was done speaking before moving back around to the sofa and sitting down only a foot away from the other woman. She sat on the edge of the seat and rested her forearms on her lap. "Okay, listen," she began slowly, "while it is unfortunate that the two of you argued that night, you can't pin his death on a conversation, Natalia."
"And I left the place where my father is dying – avoiding all of my responsibilities – to go off and pretend that I can have a normal life. To trick myself into believing that I could ever be happy."
"Natalia..."
"And I was, you know?" Natalia looked over at Olivia. "Seeing you with Emma. Watching you be 'Mom'." The corners of her mouth turned upwards slightly. "I was happy that day... with you."
Olivia let herself smile very briefly before returning to the seriousness at hand. "You can't blame yourself for wanting to get away for a few hours and having a good time," she said sternly. "You didn't know what was happening here."
Natalia still seemed to be unable to hear what Olivia was saying. "All I was concerned about was trying to prove myself wrong."
The other woman sighed heavily. "Wrong about what?" she asked, though not expecting to get a straight answer.
The two women looked at each other for several long seconds before Natalia finally looked away.
"It doesn't matter," she said quietly to the coffee table. "What matters is that I upset my father. I left. He died. End of story."
"And there is still a very big difference between feeling guilty and being guilty."
"Tell that to the Detective Monroe."
"Look, now is not the time for self-defeat."
"Seems as good a time as any."
"Instead–“ Olivia held up her hand and ignored Natalia's retort. "Here is what I propose we do..."
"We?" Natalia asked with a raised eyebrows.
"Yes, we, " Olivia replied as she sat back into the couch and crossed one leg over the other. "Okay look... You asked me to leave and I was fully prepared to do that. But the fact that I am in your room right now... at your request... do you see where I'm going with this?"
Natalia did of course see Olivia's point but didn't answer. Instead she closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead.
"If you tell me, yet again, that you want me to go away, I will. But I'm just going to make a bold presumption here and guess that you're not going to ask me to leave, are you?"
Natalia clamped her lips tightly together and drew in a long breath. She answered Olivia on the exhale. "No, I'm not." She saw the other woman's smile and just had to add, "Not today at least."
"So instead of leaving California, OOLLIIVVIIIAAAAA, I think you should..." Olivia attempted to coerce Natalia into finishing the sentence.
Natalia rolled her eyes. "You're really going to make me say it?"
"You bet. Kick 'em while they're down, that's my motto."
"Apparently."
"Come on... humor me! You can even leave out my first name, since you seem to have a phobia of intimacy that defies all logic."
"Fine! Instead of leaving, you should stay!" Natalia half pretended to be annoyed. "Stay, stay, stayyyy! God! Happy now?"
"More like content. I'd have been happier with the addition of my name, but we'll let it slide this time." Olivia winked.
Natalia let her weary head shift back towards the ceiling. A bit of the panic of the last half hour was receding. "So as you were saying... about what 'we' should do."
"Ah yes. What we should do is come up with a plan of action. We need to make some well-placed calls and get some answers. Do you have any favors you could call in with anyone in law enforcement?"
Natalia gave her a derisive look. "I'm a hotelier, not a mobster. I don't usually deal with the justice system; I have a whole panel of lawyers who worry about it for me."
"We need to figure out what exactly prompted the change in direction over at the coroner's office."
"How does that help?"
"Knowledge is power, Natalia."
"Well." Natalia rose from her chair slowly. "Do you mind if I go spend the next twenty minutes crying in the shower before I have to be faced with any more 'knowledge'?"
Olivia rose with her. "Go right ahead," she replied sympathetically. The majority of her being wanted to reach out and draw Natalia close to her, but there was a small part of her that had become guarded and nervous. And since neither woman knew what to do next, both moved in opposite directions. Natalia moved towards the hallway that led to her room. Before making her way around the corner, she stopped and turned to face Olivia who was leaning against the island in the kitchen and flipping through contacts on her phone.
"I know that I don't deserve your help," she said genuinely.
Olivia looked up at her and smiled, recognizing the statement as an indirect way for Natalia to show her gratitude. Just then Emma came bounding past Natalia and toward her mother.
"The most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I'mmmmm the only one!" The girl sang loudly with a huge smile on her face. And just as quickly as she had made her entrance, she hopped back down the hall.
Both women looked surprised and a bit confused.
"Winnie the Pooh," stated Olivia.
"Ah, I was wondering."
"And you are right. You don't deserve my help. But I didn't deserve to have such a wonderful child who has given me a second chance at happiness. So you know, sometimes we just get lucky."
Natalia took in the meaning of that heartfelt response but then smirked. "As soon as you said that you wanted to make a dirty comment about 'getting lucky', didn't you?"
Olivia chuckled. "Maybe just a little, yeah."
Natalia shook her head and turned to walk down the hallway. "I will be out in a few minutes. Make yourself at home."
Olivia watched her disappear, secretly loving the sound of those last words.
"You know, I could probably fit my entire apartment in this place, twice over," he said as he eyed the wary brunette.
Natalia narrowed her eyes at him. "Are we going to discuss why you are holding my father's body hostage, or would you like a tour of the penthouse suite first?"
Olivia quickly interrupted. "Okay... I'm going to go and check on Emma."
Natalia quickly looked over and gave her slightly worried look. "You can bring her over. I mean... if you want..." Her sentence was rushed and sounded almost desperate, though Olivia wasn't sure if it was just her imagination.
"You sure?" she asked the woman who, just yesterday, had asked her to leave for good.
"Yeah, um... she could watch t.v. in my room."
Olivia glanced over at the detective with the same amount of speculation he was giving the two women, and then back at Natalia. "Yeah, okay." She said decidedly as she threw her purse strap over her shoulder. "I'll be right back then."
Natalia sat back in the sofa cushion, and glared at the man across from her. "So, where were we? Oh yes, you were about to tell me what the hell is going on!"
"Yes, and the simple explanation is that there has been a hold up with the release of your father's body at the request of the medical examiner. "
"I was told that the M.E. would be signing off on the paperwork today."
"The M.E. signs the report when he is finished with his examination," the detective stated in a dry tone.
"No kidding," was Natalia's sardonic response.
"I guess he isn't satisfied with his conclusions. It seems as though he believes there might be something he's missed. Something a bit more... complex."
The accentuation of the last word grated on Natalia's already frayed nerves.
"And that complexity would be...?"
"I'm not at liberty to say at that this point."
Natalia was just about to yell an obscenity when she saw Olivia re-enter the suite, with Emma in tow, and instantly she felt a bit more calm.
After pointing down the hallway towards Natalia's room and making sure Emma was out of earshot, Olivia made her way to a seat next to Natalia. She wasted no time in taking the lead in the staring contest with the detective. "So, what did I miss?"
"Mr. Monroe has just informed me that the cause of my father's death has all of sudden become complex," she said, mimicking the same annoying accentuation of the word. "Oh, and the best part is that he isn't going to tell me what the hell that means, or when he is going to give me my father!"
The detective took out a notepad from his jacket pocket and searched for a pen from the other. "Look, all I can tell you is that there has been a new development in the case and..."
"The case?" Natalia interrupted, her expression turning from one of anger to shock. "What case? Why is there a case?"
The man deflected the question and sat forward. "What is happening here, Ms. Rivera, is that everyone involved in this process – medical staff, local authorities – we're just trying to make sure that we are all on the same page and that all angles are covered so that we can come to a final conclusion about what actually caused your father's death."
Natalia immediately turned pale and her eyes lost their focus on the detective. Her mind flashed back to the last image she'd had of her father and her stomach lurched.
"I'll need to ask you a few questions."
The younger woman's heart starting pounding in her chest.
"From what I understand you were the last person to see your father alive, correct?" Murray asked.
"I brought him dinner," Natalia answered without hesitation.
The detective flipped open his notepad and began writing. "Who prepared the meal for the two of you?"
"I did."
"Was that a routine thing for you to do for your father?" The man looked up and Olivia could see how piercing his gaze was on the woman next to her. It caused a surge of defensive emotion within her.
"We often eat... ate... dinner together."
"And you would always do the cooking?"
Olivia finally raised her hand to halt the conversation. "Hold on... are you going to tell Ms. Rivera what this 'new development' is, or not?"
Neither of the other two took their gaze from one another, and Natalia continued to speak despite the interruption, knowing full well where the conversation was headed.
"No, I don't usually cook for my father."
The man continued his interrogation. "I see. Special occasion?"
"Not really?"
"Was it a special request from Mr. Rivera?"
"No, I surprised him."
"Natalia, I think we should just..." Olivia once again tried to slow the conversation down to give Natalia more control, but she was cut off before she could finish.
"How did your father seem when you left his suite last night?"
The brunette couldn't answer, her eyes welled up with tears.
"Enough!" Olivia commanded. "This conversation will have to continue at another time. Unless you decide to give Natalia any further information, I'm going to ask you to leave." She stood up and made her way to the door.
Detective Murray hesitated a moment but then flipped his notepad closed and clicked his pen. "Yes, well, maybe I should come back later, Ms. Rivera. Thanks for your time."
As Olivia held the door for the approaching man, she gave him a rather unfriendly look and did her very best not to slam the door behind him as he left. When she went back over to the sofa, she noticed Natalia staring blankly into space.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Did that really just happen?"
"Unfortunately." Olivia sat down beside the stunned woman.
"Why do you think that happened?"
Olivia shook her head. "Well, you know how it is... wealthy businessman, media coverage, sensationalism... the usual. It's probably just like he said, everyone just needs to make sure they have all their i's dotted and their t's crossed. Don't let him get to you."
"I saw the way he looked at me, Spencer."
Olivia had seen it also. She'd noticed the intense suspicion in the man's eyes as he questioned Natalia, and it made her skin crawl. "Natalia, how many lawyers do you have representing your company?"
Natalia let her head fall back against the cushion and she sighed heavily. "A boat load."
"Well, I doubt you'll need the whole boat but maybe we could get a couple of them to paddle ashore and give you some sage advice?"
Natalia slowly got up and made her way over to the window and stared down at the growing crowd of paparazzi.
"It doesn't matter," she replied sadly.
"I don't mean to be an alarmist, but you did just have a detective show up at your door. I think it may matter slightly."
"No, it really doesn't."
Olivia stood up and went over to Natalia. "What does that mean?"
Natalia turned to face the confused woman, her eyes were eerily void of any emotion. "It means I think I killed my father."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Jacques was being dropped off at the hotel entrance, he was instantaneously swarmed by the flashbulbs and barraged with dozens of questions from a sea of reporters and tabloid journalists. Apart from being a nuisance, he also perceived it as being a little unusual that there would be a larger crowed that afternoon than there was the day before. Normally the media attention would start to die off but there seemed to be a new fervor amongst the group. He pushed through to get into the hotel and listened closely within the buzz of voices to try and pinpoint what they were asking him.
"Is it true that charges have been laid?"
"Are you the one who called the police?"
"What are your thoughts about the possibility of foul play?"
Jacques made his way to his office and slammed the door. Immediately he went to his phone and dialed a number. As he waited for the other party to answer, he looked out of the office window at the mass of people forming and shook his head in anger. A voice came through on the other end of the phone and Jacques wasted no time with formalities.
"Who the hell mentioned the words 'foul play'?!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Olivia was speechless as she tried to make sense of Natalia's comment. She could see that – regardless of the insanity of the statement – the other woman was wearing a rather matter-of-fact look on her face.
"You can't possibly believe that you're to blame for your father's death."
"Does it seem like I'm joking?"
"No. What it seems like is that you've let that detective intimidate you."
Natalia turned around to face the window. "You heard him. They're keeping my father's body in the morgue because they think someone killed him."
Olivia shook her head in confusion behind Natalia's back and went to sit on the arm of the sofa. "Actually, what I heard was that they are simply trying to be thorough and need to cover all the angles... whatever that means. How did you get from there to 'I'm a big bad murderer' in less than three minutes?"
Natalia folded her arms and leaned her left shoulder against the glass pane. "I was the last one with him."
Olivia threw her hands up in mock enlightenment and brought them back down to slap the tops of her thighs. "Well, for heaven's sake, why didn't you demand to be hand-cuffed and thrown into the slammer... you heinous fiend."
"I'm being serious," Natalia snapped.
"I am aware of that. That's what is making this conversation incredibly disturbing."
Natalia spun to face the blonde. "We argued! Okay?" Her eyes, now full of remorse, could only look into Olivia's for a few seconds before she had to close them to stop herself from crying. "The very last conversation I ever had with my father... we fought. I fought, to be exact."
Olivia watched the other woman slump towards the window once again. Even though there wasn't a reflection in the window, she could tell that there was agony in those beautiful brown eyes, and it made her own heart ache.
"I upset him. I judged him. I blamed him, and then I left him... broken." She took a deep breath in and held it until the threat of tears passed again. Moving to the chair next to Olivia, she slumped down and put her head back against the cushion.
Olivia sat there watching Natalia, not knowing what – if anything – she could do to comfort her.
There was a long pause of uneasy silence until Natalia spoke again, this time with a little less emotion in her voice. "All he wanted was my forgiveness."
The blonde's brows furrowed. "Forgiveness," she repeated. "Forgiveness for what?"
Natalia kept talking, almost oblivious to the other woman's question. "And what did I do? I just had to throw everything in his face... again! Blamed every horrible mistake I ever made, on him."
Olivia waited a moment to be sure Natalia was done speaking before moving back around to the sofa and sitting down only a foot away from the other woman. She sat on the edge of the seat and rested her forearms on her lap. "Okay, listen," she began slowly, "while it is unfortunate that the two of you argued that night, you can't pin his death on a conversation, Natalia."
"And I left the place where my father is dying – avoiding all of my responsibilities – to go off and pretend that I can have a normal life. To trick myself into believing that I could ever be happy."
"Natalia..."
"And I was, you know?" Natalia looked over at Olivia. "Seeing you with Emma. Watching you be 'Mom'." The corners of her mouth turned upwards slightly. "I was happy that day... with you."
Olivia let herself smile very briefly before returning to the seriousness at hand. "You can't blame yourself for wanting to get away for a few hours and having a good time," she said sternly. "You didn't know what was happening here."
Natalia still seemed to be unable to hear what Olivia was saying. "All I was concerned about was trying to prove myself wrong."
The other woman sighed heavily. "Wrong about what?" she asked, though not expecting to get a straight answer.
The two women looked at each other for several long seconds before Natalia finally looked away.
"It doesn't matter," she said quietly to the coffee table. "What matters is that I upset my father. I left. He died. End of story."
"And there is still a very big difference between feeling guilty and being guilty."
"Tell that to the Detective Monroe."
"Look, now is not the time for self-defeat."
"Seems as good a time as any."
"Instead–“ Olivia held up her hand and ignored Natalia's retort. "Here is what I propose we do..."
"We?" Natalia asked with a raised eyebrows.
"Yes, we, " Olivia replied as she sat back into the couch and crossed one leg over the other. "Okay look... You asked me to leave and I was fully prepared to do that. But the fact that I am in your room right now... at your request... do you see where I'm going with this?"
Natalia did of course see Olivia's point but didn't answer. Instead she closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead.
"If you tell me, yet again, that you want me to go away, I will. But I'm just going to make a bold presumption here and guess that you're not going to ask me to leave, are you?"
Natalia clamped her lips tightly together and drew in a long breath. She answered Olivia on the exhale. "No, I'm not." She saw the other woman's smile and just had to add, "Not today at least."
"So instead of leaving California, OOLLIIVVIIIAAAAA, I think you should..." Olivia attempted to coerce Natalia into finishing the sentence.
Natalia rolled her eyes. "You're really going to make me say it?"
"You bet. Kick 'em while they're down, that's my motto."
"Apparently."
"Come on... humor me! You can even leave out my first name, since you seem to have a phobia of intimacy that defies all logic."
"Fine! Instead of leaving, you should stay!" Natalia half pretended to be annoyed. "Stay, stay, stayyyy! God! Happy now?"
"More like content. I'd have been happier with the addition of my name, but we'll let it slide this time." Olivia winked.
Natalia let her weary head shift back towards the ceiling. A bit of the panic of the last half hour was receding. "So as you were saying... about what 'we' should do."
"Ah yes. What we should do is come up with a plan of action. We need to make some well-placed calls and get some answers. Do you have any favors you could call in with anyone in law enforcement?"
Natalia gave her a derisive look. "I'm a hotelier, not a mobster. I don't usually deal with the justice system; I have a whole panel of lawyers who worry about it for me."
"We need to figure out what exactly prompted the change in direction over at the coroner's office."
"How does that help?"
"Knowledge is power, Natalia."
"Well." Natalia rose from her chair slowly. "Do you mind if I go spend the next twenty minutes crying in the shower before I have to be faced with any more 'knowledge'?"
Olivia rose with her. "Go right ahead," she replied sympathetically. The majority of her being wanted to reach out and draw Natalia close to her, but there was a small part of her that had become guarded and nervous. And since neither woman knew what to do next, both moved in opposite directions. Natalia moved towards the hallway that led to her room. Before making her way around the corner, she stopped and turned to face Olivia who was leaning against the island in the kitchen and flipping through contacts on her phone.
"I know that I don't deserve your help," she said genuinely.
Olivia looked up at her and smiled, recognizing the statement as an indirect way for Natalia to show her gratitude. Just then Emma came bounding past Natalia and toward her mother.
"The most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I'mmmmm the only one!" The girl sang loudly with a huge smile on her face. And just as quickly as she had made her entrance, she hopped back down the hall.
Both women looked surprised and a bit confused.
"Winnie the Pooh," stated Olivia.
"Ah, I was wondering."
"And you are right. You don't deserve my help. But I didn't deserve to have such a wonderful child who has given me a second chance at happiness. So you know, sometimes we just get lucky."
Natalia took in the meaning of that heartfelt response but then smirked. "As soon as you said that you wanted to make a dirty comment about 'getting lucky', didn't you?"
Olivia chuckled. "Maybe just a little, yeah."
Natalia shook her head and turned to walk down the hallway. "I will be out in a few minutes. Make yourself at home."
Olivia watched her disappear, secretly loving the sound of those last words.
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