The Last Option

When Louis Randall left Phil Wilcox's office he rushed to catch up with Rebecca, who was already in the parking lot getting into her car still in a rage. When he got to her side she pretended to ignore him for the moment, but then decided to take her anger out on him.

"What was it all what you said that we cannot deny his existence?" she demanded. "You've gone mad? I thought you would be with me on this!"

"You must calm down, Rebecca. I just said that so Phil would think I don't care about this whole thing. But yes, I'm with you, and we must be smart if we want to win the game. Facing him like this won't benefit us at all." "And what do you suggest then?" Rebecca was a little calmer; however she kept walking from one side to the other like a caged tiger. Louis took her by the shoulders and forced her to stay still, looking into her eyes. "Phil said he has already filed the petition in court, we have to find out which judge will take the case and see if it's someone we know. Some of them owe me favors, so maybe we'll get one that can help us." "What kind of favor could a judge owe you? Come on!"

"Believe it or not, they owe me favors and I'm not going to explain them to you because they are irrelevant, but trust me. In family court, I have a couple of judges who could help us. I will speak with them to see which one will take the case." "And do you think they can help us? Or rather, help me?"

"Let me make some calls and I'll let you know, okay?"

Rebecca nodded, as she lowered her gaze and tried to make a sad face, wanting to appear vulnerable to her cousin.

"You know that the pouts you make aren't worth it with me. Leave that to the courts, if necessary."

She looked up again and looking at him made her face furious again.

"I forgot you know me so well that I can't fool you," she opened the door of the car, a sport Mercedes Benz and before entering she turned to look at him again. "Thank you for helping me, I know you won't gain anything from the inheritance but somehow I will reward you."

"Don't worry, cousin, what is the family for if not to help us?" in that instant Louis remembered something else: "By the way: tomorrow is the shareholders' meeting to decide who will fill Nathan's position at the company. I hope you attend and propose me for the position, you know, so that everything continues to be in the family. Unless you want to take his place."

"You know I'm not interested in any of that," Rebecca made an annoyed face. "The best thing is that you take care of everything. I'll take care to convince the shareholders, especially this Robert Ickovitch, who I think doesn't like you." Rebecca closed the car door, started the engine, and started it with a mighty roar, heading for the exit. Louis watched her drive away as, with a smile, he caressed the idea of already being in charge of Southern Hilltop Gold. He made his way to his car as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. Before going up, a man answered him on the other side of the line.

"You have a new job. We will discuss the details tonight in your apartment."

"Okay, I'll wait for you here," Duncan closed the communication with a happy smile. It had been a long time since he had romantic encounters with Louis, and seeing him in his apartment meant there would be.

Luis kept his cell phone in his suit pocket, and when he was about to start the car engine, it rang. He pulled it out and saw the name of the caller.

"¡Wow! What a coincidence," he said with a surprised smile and answered immediately. "Hi, Charles, I was about to call you."

"For the same reason I'm calling you, I imagine," said a man named Charles Strickland, New York Family Court Judge, from the other end.

"Well, I suppose so, Charles, I recently received the summons from the court."

"Well, come to my house immediately so we can discuss the matter. I was surprised Rebecca wasn't the one who introduced the petition. I've been calling her but she doesn't answer."

"Yes, we both better discuss it, Charles. I'll be at your house in half an hour."

"Okay. Here I wait for you."

Half an hour later Louis entered Judge Strickland's house, a luxurious villa on the outskirts of New York. He received him with a glass of whiskey in hand. They went to the living room and sat on the spacious furniture in there. Louis took a good look at everything.

"I see you've been doing well, Charles," he said, pointing to some pictures on the walls and seeing other valuables around him. "The last time I came, you didn't have so many fancy things."

"Like you said, I've been doing well. But to get to the point: what is all that about the filiation petition Phil Wilcox introduced? I always believed that Nathan and Norma couldn't have children. Why didn't Rebecca make it through him?" "It's a matter that isn't very clear, Charles. Apparently my cousin and his wife rented a womb to have their child, but our family doesn't know if that's true because they never said anything about it. And since they are now dead, even less do we know about it."

"It's a pity what happened to them. By the way: I offer my condolences, I hadn't had the opportunity to offer you and Rebecca my condolences."

"Thank you, Charles. It was actually something very tragic."

"Oh! Excuse my manners," Charles said, getting up and going to a small bar at the back of the room and near the kitchen. "I haven't offered you anything. What do you want? Whiskey? Brandy? Sherry? Tell me." "A whiskey will be fine. Thank you."

The judge prepared the drink and returned to the living-room, handing the glass to Louis and sitting down again.

"Tell me Charles, how are Julia and the children?"

"They're fine, Louis, thanks for asking. Right now they are in New Jersey visiting Julia's aunt who is ill."

"You salute them from me."

"Sure! I'll do it with pleasure."

A brief moment of silence. They both took sips of the whiskey in their glasses, seeing each other from time to time. In the environment it could see how the tension was increasing.

Louis Randall and Judge Charles Strickland had known each other for years, when they both attended college and were roommates, but not from the same degree. Louis was enrolled in business school while Charles was in law school, and they forged a friendship that arguably was strong, until a girl they met through a Louis classmate who wasn't a student like them, got in his way.

Seeing Charles was the son of a prominent New York judge who had launched his career for governor of the state, the girl, named Heather, a troublesome twenty-something who was extremely greedy and ambitious, thought she could make a lot of money by becoming his girlfriend, but he didn't count on Louis advising his friend not to give in to the eccentric requests of the girl, who, seeing she couldn't get everything she wanted, devised a plan together with an ex-boyfriend, a ruffian of the worst kind, to blackmail him and get money.

One night, after they attended a party where the girl made Charles take drugs and drink a lot to the point of losing consciousness, in the company of his ex-boyfriend they took him to a seedy motel and in the room they filmed videos and took snapshots of all of them naked and in different positions, making it look like Charles was bisexual.

The next day, when Charles woke up in the motel room feeling very bad and worried for the moment that he didn't know where he was, he found taped to the door a note written by the girl along with a photo that told him if he wanted the rest of the photos and the video didn't come to light and hurt his father's career, he would have to pay them five hundred thousand dollars in two days.

Charles didn't know what to do at the moment, feeling terribly bad for letting all this happen to him and regretting he hadn't listened to Louis when he advised him to leave the girl. Thinking he could help him, he called him at the motel and in a few minutes Louis was there with him, seeing the disaster his friend was at that moment.

Quickly, and to help his friend, Louis devised a plan to end the extortion. He told Charles not to tell his parents anything about what happened, and when the girl called him two days later he told her that he already had the money and he would deliver it there in that same motel room, so that she together with her ex-boyfriend came looking for it; to tell them if they didn't bring all the photos and the video they wouldn't have the money.

"And what will happen when they arrive and see I don't have the money?" The boy asked, still tearful and heartbroken.

"Don't worry about it," Louis said coldly, "I'll take care of everything. You won't be here."

In his face Louis could see his friend didn't understand at the moment what he was going to do.

"Are you going to convince them not to continue extorting me?" He asked innocently.

"Something like that, Charles. You don't have to worry about anything. Now let's go so you can clean yourself up and get some sleep."

Two days later the local news reported that a criminal couple was found dead in a motel room. They had apparently been stabbed during an argument with other criminals over a drug affair.

And the next day, in a vacant lot of an abandoned industrial complex, Louis handed all the photos and video to Charles, and he, still amazed at what his friend had done, threw them into a small makeshift bonfire they had made on the floor. When he handed over the photos, Charles could see bruises and scratches on his friend's knuckles.

"Are you going to take the case?" Louis asked, breaking the silence.

"Otherwise I wouldn't have called you."

"I'm going to be clear to you, Charles: I need this request to fail."

"Aren't you going to recognize that child as a Hicks? Wilcox appears to have strong evidence to support his request."

"He may have, but neither Rebecca nor I are willing to recognize that child as Nathan and Norma's son. They are already dead and don't need another heir."

"It will be very difficult for Rebecca's attorney to get me to dismiss this case, Louis. Phil will present DNA evidence and reliable witnesses as evidence."

Louis was beginning to get annoyed with the man's attitude; the least he expected was he would tell him there was nothing he could do.

"Do I have to remind you that you owe me a great favor, Charles?" Louis took another gulp of the drink to ease his annoyance. "Well, this is the time to pay it off." The judge also took another drink, emptying his glass. After a few seconds he said:

"I will accept the allegations against that Rebecca's lawyer will present and I will dismiss the case."

Hearing that, Louis got up and handed the glass to Charles.

"That was what I wanted to hear from the beginning, Charles."

Then he hurried to the door, opened it, and went out.

Judge Charles Strickland remained motionless in his seat for a moment longer. Then he went to pour himself another drink.

That day, as he watched the photos and video disappear into the flames, Charles decided to remain friends with Louis, while keeping a certain distance.