THE ONLY HEIR

Beautiful eyes

I walked into my office and I sat down, the office was too neat, everything seemed too much, the smell of the lavender, the formerly gentle hum of the air-conditioner was now disturbing.

For a long while, everything was quiet, too quiet, I could hear the sound of my breath, the sound the ruffles of paper made, I heard the sharp tink when I dropped the pen on the glass table.

I loosened my tie and dropped it where I had dropped my pen, I stood in front of the big glass wall and I looked down to the world I once enjoyed watching, now all I saw was a myriad yellow cars and people, people that I didn't know. I didn't know people, but, they knew me, they always knew who I was. I looked to the sky and it was grey…sad empty clouds moved along it, where the fuck was the silver lining in the cloud, now?.

“Good morning sir."

I turned to see Lisa standing in the doorway, holding the door, open, for a few moments I stared at her, without finding anything to say to her.

“I knocked a few times, but, you weren't responding, so I just thought maybe, I should open the door." She said.

“Come in."

“Thank you."

“I have a few things to discuss, it's about business."

“Okay."

“You don't say much, do you?."

“No."

“Oh, okay, I'll just go ahead and lay these on the table, I've mapped it all out, you can review it later, you don't look like you are ready to speak to anybody."

" No, no, stay, please.“

" Oh, okay.“

" Let's forget business for now, tell me something.“

" Okay, what do you want to know?.“

" What's your middle name?.“

" Claude, my middle name is Claude.“

" That's a really nice name.“

" Yeah, but I don't think so.“

" Why?.“

" Well, my parents, they had four kids, three boys and me, so I had three older brothers, my names aren't really girly, Lisandré, that's my first name, I short it to Lisa so that people can easily pronounce my name.“

" Lisandré is a beautiful name, I'll call you that from now."

“You're the boss " she said….well, not for long.

Then there was silence.

“I'm not much of a conversationist, usually I dive straight in to the point, but, I have no point, there's no point in this, we're just talking.“

I watched her laugh and for the first time in days, I felt happiness.

" You're funny.“ She said to me and I felt my cheeks burn.

" Thank you, my full name is Darwin Soniva Charleston Andersons.“

" That's a long name.“

" Yeah, I didn't ask for it, it was shoved at me, so I short it to Darwin.“

I watched her maroon eyes take colour and reflect it back into a deeper kind of red, mixed with golden brown.

“Your eyes are like terracotta, it's like it was made and forged from it, it's beautiful, you have beautiful eyes."

" And your eyes are like the colour of the horizon where the ocean meets the sky.“

" Thank you.“

I was about to ask her if she was going to be free this evening, I would have loved to show her some paintings at the museum, there was going to be an auction sale, but then Mark walked into the room, his presence bore a strong hatful feel.

“I'll talk to you another time, Lisandré." I told her and she stood.

“Bye, sir."

I saw the way he watched her walk out of the door and I hated it.

“Mark." I said questioning his reason for visiting my office.

“ Darwin, you're still angry at me because of the incident?.“

" You expected me to act cool about it, and pretend like I didn't hear you talk about killing someone.?“

He shut the door.

“Darwin, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said all those things, c'mon, we've been friends for forever, I'm not just going to push it out of the window over a shitty argument."

“Mark, I appreciate your apology, believe me, but I can't act as if I'm dumb, I'm actually going to be busy throughtout the week, I'm leaving and I'll not be back until the day for the family 'reunion'.“

" Where are you going.“ He asked me.

I watched him intently.

" Sure, it's none of my business.“ He said backing off and turning the door knob but he didn't pull the door.

He turned to me, took his hand off the door knob and came closer to say.

" We're actually trying to protect you and you're acting ungrateful, imagine Hensley comes into the family, everything changes, I mean everything, your dad's reputation, your own reputation, that of your mum, the family name would be dragged down, and your father would go down in history as the man that fucked a waitress, gave her a baby and left her when he was swimming in wealth.“

" Okay.“

" Think of it….“ He paused and waited for a reaction from me.

" Mark, what you just said to me, it doesn't make total sense, he is the man you just described, you said it with your own heart, he should go down as anything he wants to go down as, how is it going to affect me?“

" The man that went from the Only Heir to the other brother, that's who you're going to be.“

" That would be interesting, wouldn't it be?. Because that's exactly what I am, there's nothing more, I was actually busy before you came into the office, I would appreciate it if you left, I'll just go and and complete my work.“

“You're very stubborn."

“Okay, Mark, please, leave."

“ You'll be nothing without our support, Darwin."

“Is that a threat?."

“Take it anyhow you want to take it, but that's all I'm going to say and I'm leaving, I wouldn't come back to apologize for anything."

“I didn't ask you to give an apology at the initial stage."

" Have a nice day.“ He said walking out and closing the door, finally I was alone and at peace.