The Last Option
Chapter Sixty-Three: Taking the Bait

After spending the morning walking around and getting to know the city, to pass the time as if he were at his "business meeting", Bernard returned to the Burj Khalifa. At the reception, Rebecca and Bernadette had each left him messages, both inviting him to lunch again but separately. The thing is serious, Bernard thought, with a smile on his lips as he read the messages. He hadn't made a significant effort to make them think he was a millionaire and he was glad about that, since he wouldn't have to spend much of Phil's money to impress them, especially Rebecca.

Who apparently had already fallen into the trap.

Now all that was left was for her to fall madly in love with him, although from what he knew of her that might not happen. If she did fall in love, it would be for his money, not his, so now he would begin to carry out a new phase of his plan. He sent a message back to Bernadette excusing himself for not being able to have lunch with her, claiming now a "business lunch", and immediately contacted Rebecca, accepting her invitation. They arranged to meet at another restaurant in the Dubai Mall, and at the agreed time he entered the restaurant. Rebecca was already waiting for him.

They had lunch and then talked at length about many things. Unlike the previous day, Rebecca was much more sociable and talkative. She was telling Bernard many anecdotes about her travels, the places and people she had met. They were again admiring the artificial lake in front of the Burj Khalifa.

"I wish I could travel as much as you," Bernard commented. "My parents were the ones who traveled, and on rare occasions they took me with them when I was a kid. When I came of age, they gave me a trip to Spain for a week, the only one I could take on my own, because with college I couldn't enjoy those things much. As soon as I graduated, my father found me a position in the company and there I was trained until I became his assistant. Can you imagine a young man of twenty-six working as his father's assistant? That built my character and gave me the opportunity to take over part of the company with my mother when he died."

"You've had a lifetime of hard work," Rebecca said admiringly. "You should take a break to rest. Don't you have anyone to take over the company while you're gone?"

"That's what worries me most," Bernard sought to give more theatricality to what he was going to say next. "I have no wife, no children, no parents, no siblings, no one. My family was very small, and in the United States there's no one left on my father's side. On my mother's side, I think I have some uncles, but they are in England, and I know them very little. I don't count on them. I don't count on anybody."

"I don't know, but it seems to me there's something else," Rebecca said, noticing a somber attitude in Bernard. "Is there something else going on in your life?"

"I don't know if I should talk about it, especially with a stranger. No offense, please, but it's very personal."

"It's okay," Rebecca said, a little embarrassed. "I shouldn't have asked that. I'm being very intrusive. We hardly know each other."

Bernard looked at her for a few seconds, pretending to think about whether to keep talking to her or not.

"Even though you were very difficult with me at first, I always liked you, and in a way I trust you. I'm going to tell you, but you mustn't say anything to anyone, not even Bernadette."

"Is it that serious?"

"Very serious. I'm worried about the fact that I have no family of my own, and no one to leave my company to when I die."

"For God's sake, Bernard! Was that it?" Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief. "You were scaring me already. That's not so serious. I'm sure you'll replace someone to have a family of your own. You're still so young. You don't have to worry about that." Bernard was silent again for a few seconds, staring at her. It was then that Rebecca thought she understood what he wanted to tell her.

"Bernard, don't tell me you're-"

"Yes. I have a rare, incurable disease. My doctor gave me only six months to live, four months ago."

Rebecca stared at him in surprise, yet disbelief. Bernard showed no emotion, turning then to look at the people walking around him. Rebecca turned to look at the lake for a moment, then back to face him. "Are you serious? You don't look sick."

"But I am. My internal organs are degenerating at breakneck speed. On the outside, I look like a man of forty, but inside I'm an old man of almost ninety. My doctor said that at any moment, after six months, I will suffer cardiorespiratory arrest. My heart will stop beating and that's it. That's all."

Bernard gave his words just enough dramatic flair to make her believe everything he was telling her. Would she finally believe it? He didn't know. But he would have to convince her by all means that he was sick if he wanted his plan to work. She seemed to ponder Bernard's words a bit, and he liked that.

"I don't have to lie to you," he said, going along with the plan. "I hardly know you; I don't know anything about you or your family. We'll soon stop seeing each other when I return to New York and we'll go on with our lives, or at least I'll go on with mine until it's over. We don't have and won't have any interests in common, so this conversation we are having now will pass into history and will only be a memory in your mind."

"Unless we're still friends," said Rebecca. "We're both from New York. We can meet as soon as I get back there."

"I didn't have to tell you this. Now I'm forcing you to be my friend, and I don't want that. I would have kept my mouth shut."

"You don't have to regret telling me. Many times people need to tell about their problems to get rid of some of the tension they cause them."

"I would like to dedicate myself to travelling like you, you know? To spend my last days getting to know new places, and somehow end up in a place in front of a lake or a mountain, admiring the landscape without worrying about work or illness. Alone, because I won't have anyone to share that with. I would have liked to have a child, but I think it's too late for that. It's the only thing missing in my life to feel that I did something for someone, and that I left my mark on the world."

Rebecca listened to Bernard in silence, thinking that the situation was turning out better than she expected for her. Despite her words and the condescension with which she treated Bernard, she did not feel the pain he was expressing to her at that moment. She was incapable of feeling empathy for the man who was opening his heart to her, and instead she was thinking of ways to take everything she had from him, coldly, without feeling remorse of any kind. And that way of thinking and that coldness would end up playing a bad trick on her. She was not able to assimilate that every bad action had its consequences, and that sooner or later she would pay in the worst way for being so materialistic, greedy and without feelings.

For his part, Bernard thought that perhaps he had been too melodramatic and had exaggerated the acting out of his illness. He came to believe for a moment that she might actually be moved by his words and thought that maybe he shouldn't go through with his plan if he were to compromise her emotionally and sentimentally. Could he be making her change her attitude, and make her less selfish and think of others? He didn't really believe that, but anything was possible. He wouldn't feel good if he hurt her after making her change for the better.

But nobody changes overnight.

And much less Rebecca Hicks, who had already devised a new plan.