"This way ma'am,"
Olivia held on tight to her pouch as hard as she could, taking deep breaths as they got to the dock. She was so nervous, too nervous right from the time she got off the limousine.

God!

The eyes that looked at her, she was so embarrassed. Why on earth did he have to go all the way? Thinking about how he went all the way to get her a limo that picked her up from the hospital made her go red in amusement. Her heart was flustering already, it was the most romantic gesture she had ever received.

She could remember the excitement in both Grace's and Amy's faces as they watched her get into the limousine. Happy memories, she just prayed it got happier from there on. She checked her tiny silver wristwatch.

One forty-five PM.

Olivia checked her yellow dress one more time. She knew Amy had put in a lot of effort into making her look so beautiful that she couldn't afford to let her down.

She looked up again just so she could see the large yatch in front of her. She could see a man in a white uniform and a white hat standing beneath it wave to her. A huge smile appeared on her face. Olivia hurried to the man, taking easy steps so she didn't fall off her four inches black Stilettos.

"Welcome ma." He stretched out his arm to Olivia

"Thank you." She took it gently and raised her head to the stairs

"He's waiting for you."
The man led her up the white stairs gently till they got to the top of it. Olivia's smile widened the moment she saw Rafael standing there, looking really handsome with the huge smile on his face. He always looked so good in a suit.

Rafael's smile widened as he moved towards her, it was almost as if he couldn't take his eyes off her. He didn't. Olivia was getting really nervous, did she look ridiculous or over dressed?

"You look beautiful." He said raising his head to meet hers.

Olivia's heart flustered again. She walked towards him, returning his beautiful smile.

"Thank you." She held his arm and walked away with him the moment the violin started.

༛༛ ༛ ༛༺༻༛ ༛ ༛༛

An hour later,

Olivia laughed so loudly that her voice almost echoed in the sea. She was having an amazing time just sitting right there on that table filled with all that food, and candles. For the first time in a long time, she wasn't scared of romantic gestures.
Not only was this man a smooth talker, he was also funny and a good listener and the way he stared at her and cut her off in conversations just to remind her of how beautiful she was just made her so proud of herself. What was this side of him? Was it how the real Rafael Okonkwo really was? Why had he hidden this part of him and for how long?

The soft tune from the violin and harp from behind them made everything even better.

"So let me get this straight," Olivia continued, trying so hard to laugh less this time, "You can speak seven languages fluently?"

Rafael managed to raise his head up a little bit from where he sat on the ground. His upper body halfway on it while he held them slightly back up with his elbow firmly on the ground, his eyes on Olivia.

"I didn't say fluently," Rafael had a huge smile on his face, exposing the perfect dimples Olivia never knew he had.

"But you said you can speak seven languages besides English,"

Rafael shrugged his shoulder.

"Now I'm dying to know what they are, name them?"

Rafael cleared his throat.

"Uh, there's French, Dutch, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Chinese and Uh," he let out a tiny smile counting his fingers till he got to the seventh one. "Igbo."

"Woah," Olivia was amazed. "So which can't you speak fluently?"

"Dutch and Portuguese."

"Huh?" Olivia gasped "I didn't see that one coming."

Rafael scoffed
"You were expecting me to say Igbo weren't you?"

Olivia nodded her head

"I thought you were-"

"My last name is Okonkwo, not Silver." He chuckled Olivia sneered at him jokingly "My father made me take Igbo classes since I was knew how to walk, made me learn all the alphabets, made sure we communicated in Igbo language till I was, I think fifteen years old?"
He thought for a while

"And then I learnt German and French way later, I learnt Spanish in my early years in high school back at the states, Constance knew Chinese so-"

He stopped talking for a while.
Olivia watched the look on his face change quickly as he glared into his plate. His mouth became extremely heavy the moment he had called her name. It always was.

Olivia frowned too.
She leaned closer to him and gently placed a hand on his.

"Are you okay?"
Rafael scoffed looked at her.

"I'm fine." He faked a smile. "Let's move over to the next question."

Olivia swallowed hard. She really wanted to talk about it but not unless he wanted that too. She exhaled.

"What did you think of me the first time you saw me?" Olivia let out a tiny smile. She just wanted to change the conversation so it looked less awkward. "I'm not talking about on TV or anything like that, I mean the first time you really saw me, in jail, you looked like you could pluck out my eyes if you had the chance-"

"Olivia," Rafael called her name circling his hand around his wine glass. She raised her wine glass to her lips just so she could have a sip. "The interrogation room wasn't the first place I saw you," he looked at her "It wasn't the place I really saw you."

Olivia slowly dropped her wine glass.
"Really?" She asked him. Now she was more interested in knowing what he was about to say. Rafael studied her for a while, tilting his wine glass side by side. He needed to know if it was okay to come clean to her, to tell her the truth. The truth he had been hiding from her.

He exhaled and turned to his wine glass. He stopped moving it.

"It was at the AMA's six years ago, Nairobi kenya." He continued. "I and Constance had had another fight and I walked to the bar to get a drink. "

He dropped his glass and raised his head to hers.

"It was then I saw you. This fragile lady who didn't look like she wanted to be in that party, around all those people that really didn't care about her at all. I saw you walk up to that writer and then you guys got talking about all sorts of things writers talk about, and then I saw him, your husband." He paused. "Ex husband." He corrected himself. "I saw how angry he was, the way he grabbed your arm and pulled you out of that building. I just knew it had to be no good and so I tried to go after him, after you both but I couldn't find him or you and the thought of it all haunted me so much, I wished I had done something about it, I wished I had stopped him or something." He inhaled sharply.

"I got to hear about his death after a few days and I just knew you were going to be framed for it.  I was going to reach out to you, to try to help you and uncover the truth but I had promised Constance I'd give more attention to the family we were trying to build, then it got from one excuse to another excuse until I just thought maybe she really did it, maybe I didn't have to interfere. If I just had at least tired, you would not have lost all those years—"

"That was why you jumped at the chance to help me after six years?"

Rafael sneered.

"I didn't exactly jump. It took a lot of thinking- and Tony," he grunted "God, Tony was all over my case." Olivia chuckled

"You're such a smooth talker, how did all your women in the past four years deal with you?"
She left a tiny smile on her face. Was that her way of asking if he had feelings for anyone else after his wife died?

Rafael glared at her, a tiny frown hovering around his face.

"Who said I had any women in the past four years?"

Olivia's raised her brows and her wine glass to her lips again. Did he expect her to believe that?

"Come on, there must have been someone you had eyes for at a point. Your pretty assistant for one, what's her name again? Susan?"

Olivia took a sip from her drink, staring at Rafael as he left a wry smile on his face. His eyes still focused on his glass right before he raised it gently to look at her.

"You're the only woman I've had eyes for."

Olivia spat her drink out so she didn't choke on it.
The music stopped just as Rafael sat up quickly and rushed to hand her a glass of water as she coughed.

"Are you okay?" He leaned towards her as she slowly turned to look at him, dabbing her lips with the napkin.

Rafael scoffed as he let out a tiny chuckle, falling himself back to sit on the ground.

"How can something so little and cheap as what I said throw you off balance like that?" He asked her

Olivia exhaled. Did he try to play with her just now?

"It's not funny."  She feigned anger and turned to clean her dress.

Rafael watched her for a second then he got up slowly. He straightened his sleeves and stretched out his hand. Olivia slowly turned to it. She knew he wanted her to take it, she smiled and placed hers in it as he helped her get up to her feet.

Rafael walked with her away from the room to where the cockpit was as the cool breeze swept Olivia's dress from side to side. They came to a stop some paces beside it, close enough to see the sea.

Olivia stared at him with a huge smile on her face and turned to the sea. She took a deep breath, she loved the way she felt being so close to the water, watching the waves as they gently rocked the Yatch. But she loved being with him more, Rafael just relaxed on the railing with his eyes glued on her.
He couldn't help but admire how beautiful she looked while she appreciated nature, how perfect she was with her eyes closed and a perfect smile carved on her lips. She opened her eyes and exhaled .

"It's so beautiful." Olivia couldn't take her eyes off the water. She loved how the ship pulled the water back as it moved on it.

"Do you know how to waltz?"

She turned to him and smiled a little, pulling her hair behind her ears.

"Andrew thought me the basics."

"Good." He told her and stretched out his hand to hers. "Dance with me," he waved his hand and bowed with the other behind him. Olivia chuckled so loudly just as he managed to stand again. She reached for his hand. The music changed as Billie Elish's ocean eyes started to play in the background. Rafael gently pulled her to him, wrapping his fingers into hers and his other hand, gently resting itself on her waist as they started to dance slowly. Olivia placed her other hand on his shoulders, looking into his eyes so hard that she could see her reflection in them. She had only just noticed how black they were, and shiny.

"What's on your mind?" He asked her, staring into her eyes too. Olivia shrugged her shoulders

"Just somethings."

"You'd like to share?"

"If you won't freak out."

Rafael scoffed.

"I promise, I won't. You get to do whatever you want today and I won't get upset."

"You promised." Olivia reminded him. Rafael chuckled. He nodded, still trying to dance according to the music and not miss his balance.

There was silence for a while.

"It wasn't your fault." Olivia told him. Rafael squinted, wondering what she was talking about. "What happened to your wife and your daughter, I'm saying it's not your fault, you did nothing wrong."
Rafael exhaled.

"You don't know that."

"No I know," she interrupted him "You did all you could to be the man she wanted you to be but she didn't understand that sometimes, people don't have to give up what makes them happy for something else that makes them happy, in cases like that, there is always a loophole, a balance to bring those two things together without completely getting rid of any of them. Your practice meant the world to you and so did your family, and even though you weren't always there to show them, I know you must have loved them very much. If I can see that, if everyone else can see that, she should have been able to."
Rafael let out an exasperated sigh and looked away.

"Rafael, " she slowly reached for his face and pulled it back to her so he could look into her eyes closely. "You're a good man, one of the few good men I've ever met, kind of like the only. You don't deserve to put yourself through all the pain you're currently going through, you deserve to be happy again, to be really happy. I'm sure they would both want that for you and I'm not saying this because I'm trying to smooth talk you into being with me but because I want you to be happy and okay, even if it's not going to be with me. You've given me my life back, I'm happy and at peace with my life again and it's because of you, now it's time for you to chase your own peace and happiness."

Rafael stopped dancing. He slowly reached for her hand and pulled it down to his lips, he kissed it and exhaled, Olivia looked at him closely.

"Don't you want that? To be happy?"

"Olivia-" he cut her off and sniffed loudly. Olivia narrowed her gaze to him the moment she realized the sadness in his eyes and the tears that were beginning to cloud up in them. She frowned. Something was wrong, she could see it. She wanted to wait, to wait until he just told her.

"I'm going to have an euthanasia." He slowly raised his head to meet hers.

Silence .

Olivia needed a second to understand what he had just said. She knew she had come across that word before, she just didn't know why she was hearing about it again in first person narrative.

"W-What?" She stammered almost in a whisper.

"Euthanasia is when you-"

"I know what Euthanasia is." She snapped. "I just don't understand why you'd say something like that." She hoped he still had something else to say. "Is this some kind of a joke?" She asked him "It has to be a joke isn't it?" She forced a chuckle. "You can't mean that."

Olivia prayed so hard in her heart that he just admitted to it being a joke. Rafael shook his head.

"It's not." He whispered to her, trying so hard not to let a tear drop from his eyes. Olivia took a deep breath and pulled her trembling hand away from his. Her eyes, too welled up to even keep them focused on him.

"I need you to hear me out," he continued,

"How can you-" She exhaled "How would you-" She looked at him.

"It's something I've always wanted to do for a while. It's been a while since I made this decision and my request was only approved just yesterday— I thought I could move past this, that if I just waited I could heal but I can't, I can't move past what happened."

"You're talking about suicide, assisted suicide, how on earth is that the right thing to do?"

"It isn't." He cut her off   "But trust me, it's for everyone's good. I'm quite useless to everyone right now, I'd only cause more problems and hurt more people with my sick attitude." He paused for a minute. "I'm sick Olivia, I'm really sick and I'm not talking about some physical illness, I'm talking about my mental state. Emotionally-"

"Then let me help you," she pushed herself closer to him. Rafael cut her off, shaking his head continuously.

"You can't." He told her. "No one can."
Olivia shook her head

"This," She looked at him as the tears she had been forcing back dropped from her eyes. "You don't have to do this. I won't let you." She glared at Him. "I won't let you go on with it. I'd report it to the police if I have to. It's illegal in Nigeria isn't it-"
Rafael exhaled.

"The law should be able to stop you." She had a confrontational tone in her voice, hoping to see some sort of change with the look in his eyes, there wasn't any. It was then she realized.

"You're not doing it in Nigeria are you? The police won't be able to stop you?"

He shook his head

"I leave for the airport in two hours, my plane leaves in three hours."

"Then this," She continued, taking a quick scan at the whole ship, part by part. "Why did you," Her voice broke "Why did you bring me here if you knew you weren't going to be here tomorrow? Is this some kind of a farewell outing?"

"Olivia-"

Olivia scoffed.
It was only then she had just realized how stupid and desperate he must have thought she was, a complete joke.

"Why do you keep doing this to me over and over and over again? Do I really mean nothing to you? Am I just some kind of toy you can play with when you like? When you're bored? Why did you bring me here? Why did you do all this? Why?"

Rafael exhaled.

"Of course not." He took a step closer to her "You mean so much more to me than you can ever imagine."

"Then stay." She begged him. Her tears becoming worse as she grabbed his hands "Don't go, don't do this really scary thing you're planning to. Stay here, stay and prove it to me, give me a chance to make you change your mind, to make you happy."

"It's not that easy,"
She slowly reached for his cheek and placed her hand on it.

"I love you." She told him "I love you." She repeated. "I just started to get to know you, to really get to know you, how can you leave like this? How can you choose to die like this? It's not right."

"Olivia-"

"I love you, isn't that enough reason to make you change your mind? To make you stay?"

Rafael closed his eyes for a second as a drop of tear fell. He couldn't say a word. He didn't know what to say.

"Once Grace is discharged in three days, you both can move into the mansion." He looked at her. "The house and the cars are yours now.

Olivia sniffed

"No."

"Nanny Benita is going to help you settle in and get you through this-"

"Rafael, I don't want to." She said, her hands trembling even more. "I don't want any of those things if it means I won't get to ever see you."

"Look at me," Rafael put both his hands on her face "Look at me."
Olivia couldn't.

"You deserve all of them, you and Grace. I already talked to a friend at the embassy and he has promised to give you a job, a great job there. You don't have to worry about that anymore."

Rafael exhaled and then reached for his pocket slowly. Olivia's vision were so blurred by her tears so much so that she could barely even keep her eyes focused on anything but she knew this, she knew he was stretching something that looked like a tiny card in front of her.

"Call this number." Rafael pulled her hand to his and gently placed the card in it. "Her name is Eunice, she's a doctor, a therapist, the best I've seen, she tried her best to help me and she could help you too. I know you don't think you do but you need help."

Olivia scoffed.
Says the man who just confessed to her about wanting to kill himself.

"Look at me." He pushed her face to his again, this time staring into her eyes "Anyone that went through half of what you did both then and now, shouldn't have to go through it alone, call that number and tell her I sent you-"

"Rafael," Olivia exhaled slowly shaking her head, her tears falling again. He was trying so hard not to cry too. He sniffed. Inhaling sharply to push back the snort in his nose.

"It's not you, it has never been you, it is me, I've always been the problem. Let me make up for that."

"Don't go." She told him "If you go I'd hate you and I'd never forgive you, not even in death. I'd curse you and you'd never find peace."

"Olivia."

"I mean it. I'm never going to forgive you," She glared at him "If you do something this horrible. Rafael exhaled. "if you have any atom of care for me at all, you'd listen to me and respect me-"

"I'm sorry."

Olivia froze.
She now understood perfectly. He meant it. She saw how the look in his eyes didn't change. He wasn't going to change his mind, not even for her.
She nodded and slowly reached for his hands. She dropped them from her face and turned to the captain of the ship

"Turn the boat around." She ordered him.

"Olivia-" Rafael rolled his eyes.

"Don't let me say it twice." She warned the man who just stared at her, wondering if she really meant it. He turned to Rafael. Rafael nodded slowly.

She needed time, he could see it. Time to heal from all she had just heard. She scoffed and turned back to him. She wasn't done.

"You know for once, I really hoped I was right. I thought I really knew you but it looks like I didn't. I know the real you now." She continued.  "And you're not a good person."

Rafael exhaled

"You're a bad and an extremely selfish man and you know what, your wife was right. You don't care about anyone but yourself. You never have and you never will. That's why you're willing to leave everyone and everything that has really cared about you behind just so you can run from your past, taking the easy way out like a coward. Maybe you were right about yourself after all, maybe you really did kill your wife and daughter."

Rafael looked at her, he didn't say a word. He wasn't angry or surprised either. He deserved it.

"So go. Do it if it's going to make it all go away and make you feel better. Do what you want and the rest of us would surely find a way to keep living without you eventually. It'd be hard but someday we'd forget. I'm done begging you to save yourself, from now on just do whatever you want."

"Olivia,"
Olivia shook her head and stormed away from him. She hurried as fast as she could back to the room leaving him there all by himself.

Rafael waited for a second and then slowly turned . He wasn't going to go after her. He knew he didn't have to. He knew he shouldn't.

Someday she was going to understand why he made those choices.
He turned to the sea.

At least he hoped she did.