39 Albert’s story (2)

'Great. Just great.' Queen thought sarcastically at Albert's proclamation.

"Why do you say that Mr.Albert?" Queen put up an extremely shocked and surprised expression and asked Albert the question.

"There was a conflict between them Miss Meilleure." Albert gulped before replying.

"What sort of conflict could possibly motivate someone to kill another?!" Queen asked, her mouth hung wide open. 'Man I am getting good at this.' she thought.

Meanwhile Quince merely sat beside her and watched her quietly. His little girl was certainly blessed in the art of acting. She looked so convincing that if he didn't know better, he would have believed her.

"It started with money. They had a row about it." Albert said. He had a dark expression on his face as he thought about what happened.

"What happened?!" Queen asked softly.

"This is really hard for me to talk about..." Albert sighed as he said those words. He hung his head down, making Queen and Quince unable to see his face.

In the next moment, he abruptly raised his head up with a determined look on his face.

"I will tell you. But you must promise not to tell anyone." Albert said.

"We promise." Queen immediately replied with a firm resolution in her tone.

"Bernard is actually a gambler. He is in debt up to his ears." Albert began.

"He tried but he couldn't stop his habit of gambling. Eventually, he ended up messing with the wrong people. He owes the underground mafia a total of 1 million US dollars."

"He was hunted down by them. First they stalked his usual whereabouts. But things turned serious as they started following him to work and even went to his house!The company was badly disrupted." Albert took a deep breath at this.

"One day we found that the company glasses were shattered and finally decided to talk to Bernard. We knew he was a gambler but we didn't know it was that bad. He wept and told us about it."

"All of us had issues of our own and we couldn't lend him a helping hand. Except for Stuart. He immediately loaned out his money to Bernard. Bernard promised he would not gamble again and would return the money to Stuart."

"A year went by and we thought he had turned over a new leaf. Stuart had no immediate need of money so he didn't pester Bernard about it. He merely waited patiently for Bernard to return it." Albert paused. He had a painful expression on his face before continuing.

"But Bernard never did. Unknown to us, he was still gambling and the amount was crazier than before. He was still in debt and it's only gotten worse."

"Didn't he get in trouble again?" Queen asked.

Albert had a wry smile on his face as he said,"Ironically he never got caught this time because he was smarter and knew how to avoid problems."

"One day Stuart needed the money back. His mother was hospitalized and he needed the money to pay for the costly operation. He asked Bernard about it."

"Bernard claimed that he never took any money from Stuart. There were no written documents as Stuart trusted Bernard. Stuart kept pestering Bernard for it and they had an terrible row."

"I wish he came to us." Albert continued sadly. "But he never liked bothering people with his issues so he kept quiet about it. His mother's condition was still alright and he thought he could wait till he managed to convince Bernard to return the money."

"But after 3 days, his mother's condition suddenly worsened and an operation was of utmost importance. Stuart couldn't get the huge amount of money within a short time frame and thus, failed to save his mother."

"She died that very night." Albert had a lost look on his face. Regret and pain was etched deeply on his face.

"What was Mr.Bernard's reaction?" Quince asked.

"He apologized profusely but Stuart never accepted it. He punched him before storming out the door."

"Oh my god!" Queen's gasp at the story. She didn't expect such a tragic and sad story.

"How long ago was this?" Queen asked.

"Just 2 months ago. Stuart became an alcoholic for a while. But one day he became totally sober and had a smile on his face. We thought he was finally willing to forgive Bernard and move on. I...I never thought..."

The room went dead silent and Albert had a heavy atmosphere around him. That is until Quince opened his mouth.

"Mr.Albert, we sympathize with what had happened. However, we had a talk with Mr.Noah and he told us about Tom." Quince suddenly cut in.

Albert looked startled at Quince's question. He wasn't expecting that they already talked to Noah. However, what made him most surprise were Quince's words.

"Pardon me Master Quince....but who is Tom?l"