The sound of the doorbell jerks me out of my thoughts and I almost fall off the couch. I'm quick on my feet, the consistent sound of the ringing poking at my anxiety.
I make it to the front door and pull it open and Sophie appears in front of me.
"What happened?" Her eyes are wide with alarm and she clings on to her brown leather backpack.
"I need you to calm down first because I'm panicking and we can't both panic."
"Yes, yes, one of us needs to be comforting and rational." She nods her head slowly as she walks past me into the house. "I'm sorry I couldn't see you yesterday, things just got very busy at the house."
"Tim's brothers are still there?" I ask sympathetically. Only a select few enjoy visits from their in laws but Sophie's boyfriend's family are an even bigger pain to be accommodate.
"Forget them." She swiftly shakes her head. "Let's focus on you. What's happening?" She pushes my files aside to make space for her bag on the couch.
"Okay, I'll get straight to the point. You remember Bertha, right?"
"The witch who should be rotting in the deepest parts of hell?"
"Yes, the woman who raised me at the orphanage." I nod my head.
"Her son came to see me yesterday and earlier today."
"What?" Her eyes widen. "She has a son? What did he want?"
"His mom sent him. Bertha wants my help with something."
"What the hell? Help with what?" She arches her eyebrows.
"A job. Some Ponzi scheme or whatever. I have to go to Iowa to meet up with her and discuss all of this. I'm hoping I can convince her to change her mind and leave me alone."
There's a part of me that knows going all the way to Iowa is a waste of time and money. Bertha isn't easily swayed. It's near impossible to change her mind where money is concerned. I just feel like I have to meet her demands so far. I have to do something and sitting on my hands is only going to send them in Nico's direction.
"Why you?" Sophie asks after a moment of silence. "Why now?"
"I don't know why she's decided to crawl out of whatever hole she was in now with her secret son but..." I sigh and rub my temples. "Apparently I was her best apprentice. It was either Nico or I."
"Has the son gone to see him as well?" Her eyes almost pop out of their sockets.
"No..." I grin sheepishly. "I made sure he doesn't."
"What do you mean?" Her forehead wrinkles with confusion.
"They just wanted one of us so I told them I'll do it."
"What!? Olivia why would you do that?"
"What do you mean?"
She slaps my forearm and I stare at her accusingly as I rub the spot.
"Why would you do that. You could've thrown the rich man to the wolves and saved your skin." She looks at me like I'm a mad woman.
"I can't do that. Nico really doesn't want anything to do with his past. He asked me to pretend not to know him yesterday and asked that I never bring up our history."
"He did what?" Her mouth falls agape.
She sits back on the couch, her mouth still hanging open as she appears to be taking everything in.
"Call this man if you have his number and tell him he can go deal with Nico."
"Sophie, I can't do that." I sigh.
"Why not?"
"I thought about that!" My eyes widen but I calm myself down. "That's the first thing I thought about but I know Bertha. She's a leech, what I imagine a steroid induced one acts like. Once Nico pays her off, she'll come back for more. He'll never be able to get rid of her."
"Didn't you just say he asked you to pretend you don't know him?"
"Yes but..." Another sigh escapes my lips.
"Then let him deal with his own problems. Why are you trying to help a stranger?"
"It's not that easy, Sophie."
"Olivia, this person has enough money to pay this woman and get her off your backs. If it means it becomes a lifetime commitment for him then so be it."
"I can't send these people to him."
''He's a grown man, Olivia. He'll call the police if he doesn't want to go with plan A. Don't make this your problem."
"But if the police get involved then everything will come out. What happens when they investigate Bertha and dig out my past, dig out Nico's past? That's the last thing he wants, the last thing he needs. I can't do that to him, Sophie."
"Olivia." She sighs defeatedly and runs her hands through her orange-red curls. "I'm calling Ama; maybe she can knock some sense into you."
"You can't call Ama!" I look at her like the crazy woman that she is. "Do you want to stress out a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy?"
Her face falls and she seems to reconsider. I'm right, she also knows this. She's also realizing that it's only up to her to convince me not to do this and she has never succeeded in doing that.
"Why do you want to do this?" She narrows her eyes at me as she sits up. "Do you...Do you still love this guy?"
"Of course not, Sophie." I shake my head. "I told you, I betrayed him before and I've always felt guilty about that. This is like a way of clearing my conscience."
"Since when do you have a conscience?" She rolls her eyes and I slightly elbow her.
"Ow!" She dramatically rubs her ribs.
"I can deal with this on my own."
We sit in silence once more as she lets my words die down in the air. I look away from her, staring into nothingness as I let my thoughts consume me once more.
"I don't know why you called me here if you weren't even going to take my advice." She pouts. "You just want to turn me into an accomplice."
"You've been to jail before, you always brag about it."
"It was from a party and I just happened to get caught because I couldn't run fast enough." She rolls her eyes at the chore of retelling this story. She doesn't say the rest, the part about her being out of the cell within an hour because her parents came and demanded her release.
"So did he really tell you to pretend like you don't know him?"
"Mmm hmm..." I nod my head, pushing down the disappointment growing in me. "This was after he ignored me after he sent an email saying it was nice to see me again."
"What email? Why is it my first time hearing of this?"
"It just... it slipped my mind."
It didn't. I've been thinking about it since I received it. I was just worried it wasn't real. I was worried it was almost too good to be true to be just be able to reconcile with Nico like that. To act like everything is okay, has always been okay, and we're just old friends who time has brought together again. Things are never that easy. Well, at least not with me.
"Can I see it?" There's a glint in her eyes.
"Why?" I narrow my eyes in suspicion.
"I just can't believe it."
"Well, believe it." I reach for my laptop on the coffee table and place it on my lap as I search for the starred email.
My thoughts wander off again as I hand the laptop over to Sophie. I have to leave things unattended at the office for a while. I trust my team and they've taken care of things before when I couldn't physically be present but there have just been so many recent changes. There's also Kimi. I always hate leaving her alone. She's no longer 7 and doesn't cry when I leave anymore but my own internal tears haven't been able to stop. I can't tell her anything. She remembers almost nothing about Bertha's and I want it to stay that way. Even if it means she doesn't remember much about her mom and dad, at least it also means she doesn't remember the fire. Very little before the fire is worth remembering.