Monster

Chapter 9 - Geneva, Switzerland

The doorbell rang and I opened the door with a smile. "Alphonse," I greeted, gesturing for the well-dressed elderly man to enter. "Thank you so much for coming."

"Thank you for flying me out here," Alphonse replied as I closed the door. He shook my hand. "I've never managed to take a trip to Switzerland so I'm looking forward to the visit."

I took his coat and led him into the sitting room. "I'm glad you get to see it then. Geneva is a beautiful city. Francesca loved it here and I really wanted to visit again, myself. It seemed fitting to finalize Her affairs in Her favorite place. How was your flight? Can I get you something to drink?" I walked to the bar across the room.

The attorney nodded with a sad smile. "The flight was long of course, but nice. I'll take some water, if you don't mind. I'm so sorry I wasn't able to make it to the funeral or memorial. Francesca was a friend as well as my client and I'm going to miss her terribly."

I handed him a bottle of water and sat down in a chair at the coffee table. He sat on the couch opposite me. "Please don't be sorry. I think Francesca, out of everyone in the world, would have understood the need to miss Her funeral for heart surgery. And I'm thankful that you are here today, instead of sending a representative, even if we had to wait a few weeks to do this. If anything, I was happy to delay thinking about this."

Alphonse nodded again. "I don't blame you. I know how close you two were. When you were a kid, she'd show me pictures of you and tell me all about the things your father told her you were doing. She was so proud of you, and when she told me you were coming to live with her, she was absolutely radiant with joy." His eyes crinkled at the corners and his smile was misty as he recalled the old memories.

A pang of regret shot through my slowly-beating heart. The pictures had not really been of me. Of course they couldn't have been. I had written letters to Her while I was away, sending Her pictures of a little boy, my colleague's son. I'd written all about the things he was doing, giving Her a glimpse of a life She'd never have. She wasn't particularly maternal, but occasionally I had seen glimpses of wistfulness when She saw small children. I'd once suggested that we adopt a child, but She turned the idea down, saying She didn't have time for parenthood and that it would only raise more questions.

She'd used the letters and photos to reinforce our story, claiming them to be from Henry, about his son, Victor. Another, different pang of regret hit me again, this time in my gut. I was so sick of all the lies. I was sick of being my own father, grandfather, and child. I had never enjoyed hiding our relationship, even if I knew why it was so important that we do so. And I'd never liked lying to the people in our lives whom we'd trusted with nearly everything else, including Alphonse.

I looked at his neatly-combed, grey hair and faded blue eyes. He was a good man and he had indeed been a good friend to my Goddess, especially while I was away from Her. He deserved the truth about me and our situation. I sighed, knowing I'd never be able to give that to him.

Alphonse took my sigh as one of grief, which was mostly the truth, and patted my hand. "Why don't we get this over with? It's pretty straight forward, so it shouldn't take long, and then maybe you could show this old man Francesca's favorite sights around the city."

I smiled wryly at his term, "old man." Technically, I was older than Alphonse by seven years, if you counted the age of my body when I woke up. Though, I usually considered that day as my birthday and began counting there, making me 53. Francesca never told me the birthday of the man who became me, but She had mentioned that he was 30 when he came to Her to be preserved, Her age at the time.

Going through the paperwork was pretty quick, as he'd expected. Having no other relatives, Francesca had left nearly Her entire estate to me. It was a pretty substantial estate, too, as She was the sole heir to both Her parents' fortunes, as well as having made Her own fortune selling Her cryopreservation research to a company that preserved people waiting for medical procedures. On top of all that, She had made several lucrative investments and had been living off the interest of Her wealth alone.