19

"Yes, and so as not to create another misunderstanding as gigantic as the one we'd been immersed in for months, yes, it was the real Nicky, not his brother Ronald."

Crystal bit her lip, conscious of her incorrigible inconsideration.

"It was Ronnie who had been with us all those months, Ronnie who had become our friend, and I hadn't even gone to see him. I didn't even think about it. I forgot all about him."

Crystal laughed bitterly. She'd been having a few too many of those lately.

"How ironic, you really don't need to lose your memory to completely forget someone."

"Don't worry, you're just confused, that's all. I've been there. When Nicky left, I went to visit him, our friend, even though he's not Nicky. And he's fine. We were able to extract the bullet easily. Before long, his accident will be a bad memory again."

But the young woman wasn't listening to him anymore. She was preoccupied with only one thing, one being.

"Nicky, how long did he stay?"

Leandro took his time before answering, staring intently at his beautiful friend. He had the dark feeling that history was inevitably going to repeat itself, only worse, because this time there were other people at stake, especially Nathan, a formidable and loyal friend whom he deeply appreciated almost as much as Nicky, Nicky who had pushed him out of his life for the last five years. And now, this morning, he'd appeared right in front of him to see him, not to try and repair the damage he'd done him by disappearing as he did without a word of explanation, and without any regard for their long friendship, but simply to be the first to point out his supposedly incomprehensible return. His friend had also made clear something that was still etched in his mind like red-hot iron: that when the time came for him to know, and that time would come quickly given their relationship, if he were ever to fail to understand, then he would understand that Leandro would want nothing more to do with him.

So for all his affection for Crystal and his unspeakable first love, he refused to see the actual fiancé suffer, and through their fault. And yet, he could already see from the look on his guest's face that she was already slipping away from the great Bowen.

And in the end, there was nothing he could do. Neither he nor anyone else, for no one could control his emotions.

"Leo, could you tell me what Nicky said to you?"

Leo raised his eyebrows.

"What do you want him to tell me other than the fact that he's him and that Ronald, with whom we've been so close lately and who we've all mistaken for him, was actually his twin. And that he was in hospital because of a rather dramatic accident that happened last night."

"Did he tell you that I was present at the time of the accident?"

"More or less, you and Nathan, right?"

"Yes."

"He mentioned it indeed, but he didn't go into much detail. And I didn't dare insist."

"Why?" Crystal needed to hear it, she needed to know that someone other than herself at least, someone who bore for that person a sincere attachment also felt the same as she did today. And her friend, who was also this being's friend, gave her the answer she'd been waiting for.

"Because he's not the same. He's so different from what he once was that I'd come to wonder if he wasn't Nicky after all, that he was Ronald and Ronald was Nicky."

He shook his head, confused.

"Well, this is really getting out of hand here. I think I'd better stop."

"And yet, we both know perfectly well it's Nicky."

"Of course it's Nicky." confirmed Leandro forcefully, although he didn't need to. "It's just that he's too different from the person we both knew before, to the point of wondering which one is the real one. And I'd bet half my club that the present one is. And that inevitably begs the question, had he been acting once, or if.... "

Leandro didn't finish his sentence; he ran a weary hand through his hair, which was as black as his friend's, as if he were extenuated by the subject.

"It doesn't matter what he is now. What's done is done. However, what matters to me is how you're going to treat Nathan."

"I love him!" asserted Crystal with unmistakable conviction.

"And who are you talking about?"

"My fiancé, of course."

"And of course, that's why you didn't let him accompany you here today, because he's the one you love."

This time Crystal couldn't answer, yet if there was an answer at all. The club owner ran his hands over his face, then tried again to smooth things over.

"Listen, darling, you loved this man, and I can understand why you'd be upset to see him again. But you now have with you a man who loves you, and in a way, loves you even more than this person ever has, and ever will. So, please, take some time to get things clear inside you, because you already have everything a woman could dream of."

"He killed people."