Chương 8
“You know.”
She did not pretend.
“Yes.”
“About the payment?”
Her face tightened.
“So you found that.”
“You knew?”
Claire stepped back.
“Come inside.”
That was not an invitation.
It was surrender.
They sat in the living room.
The same room where Gabriel had watched their sons play earlier.
The same room where he had felt like an outsider.
“What happened?” he asked.
Claire looked down at her hands.
Five years disappeared.
Not because she wanted them to.
Because some memories never really left.
“After I signed the divorce papers, someone contacted me.”
Gabriel did not move.
“Who?”
“I didn’t know at the time.”
“What did they want?”
Claire looked toward the hallway where the boys’ bedrooms were.
“They wanted me to understand that you had already chosen.”
His jaw tightened.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning Serena.”
The name sounded different now.
Less like a rival.
More like a warning.
“She told me you were going to marry her.”
Gabriel looked confused.
“I never said that.”
“I know that now.”
The sentence hit him.
Now.
Not then.
He had to sit with that.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Claire laughed softly.
There was no humor in it.
“Tell you what?”
“That someone interfered.”
She looked at him.
“Would you have believed me?”
The question was not cruel.
That made it worse.
Gabriel opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Because he remembered.
Five years ago, he had been so convinced he understood everything.
Claire had become the obstacle.
Serena had become the person who understood him.
He had chosen the version of reality that required the least discomfort.
“I was angry,” Claire continued.
“But I wasn’t stupid.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“I knew if I called you and accused Serena, you would think I was trying to get revenge.”
“That’s not true.”
Claire gave him a tired look.
“Gabriel.”
He stopped.
Because it was true.
Maybe not the man he wanted to be.
But the man he had been.
“What did she say exactly?”
Claire looked away.
“She said you were done with me.”
Silence.
“She said you had already made your choice.”
Gabriel swallowed.
“And you believed her.”
“I believed what I saw.”
The answer was quiet.
“What did you see?”
Claire’s eyes met his.
“You.”
The word hurt more than anything else.
“You looked at me like you had already left.”
Gabriel looked down.
Because he remembered.
He remembered being cold.
He remembered believing distance would make everything easier.
He remembered telling himself that feelings complicated decisions.
“I was wrong,” he said.
Claire looked surprised.
Not because he apologized.
Because he did not defend himself.
“I know,” she whispered.
The room became quiet.
Then Gabriel said, “Why didn’t you tell me about the boys?”
Claire closed her eyes.
There it was.
The question that had been waiting.
The one neither of them wanted to ask.
“I was scared.”
“Of me?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt.
But he needed it.
“What were you afraid I would do?”
Claire looked toward the hallway.
“I was afraid you would come back because you felt obligated.”
Gabriel frowned.
“And that was worse?”
“Yes.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
“Because children know when they are tolerated.”
He looked away.
“And you thought I would do that?”
“I didn’t know.”
That answer was harder.
“You were a man who could be gentle one day and unreachable the next.”
Gabriel sat with that.
Because he could not argue with someone’s memory.
“I would never hurt them.”
“I believe that now.”
The words surprised him.
“But?”
Claire looked at him.
“But I don’t know if I believe you would have stayed.”
That was the truth underneath everything.
Not whether Gabriel loved them.
Whether he could remain.
Whether he could choose them when life became inconvenient.
Gabriel looked at the hallway.
At the rooms where three boys slept.
“I don’t know if I would have either.”
Claire stared at him.
He continued.
“And I hate that.”
For the first time, she saw something she had not expected.
Not guilt.
Not regret.
Shame.
Real shame.
The kind that did not ask to be forgiven.
It simply existed.
Then Gabriel’s phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
His attorney.
He answered.
“What?”
The voice on the other end was urgent.
Gabriel’s expression changed.
Claire watched him carefully.
“What happened?”
A pause.
Then Gabriel looked at her.
“Serena wasn’t the only person who knew.”
Claire felt cold.
“Who else?”
Gabriel listened for another moment.
Then he said the name.
And everything she had spent five years trying to protect began to fall apart.
The name was one Gabriel had not expected.
“Thomas.”
Claire stared at him.
For a second, the name meant nothing.
Then it did.
Thomas Reed.
Gabriel’s former security director.
The man who had worked beside him for almost ten years.
The man who knew the routines of the estate.
The man who knew which doors opened, which people entered, which problems Gabriel considered dangerous.
“He knew?” Claire whispered.
Gabriel nodded slowly.
“He was involved.”
The room felt smaller.
Claire looked away.
She remembered Thomas.
Not well.
But enough.
He had always been polite.
Quiet.
The kind of person who made people comfortable because he never seemed interested in being noticed.
“How?” she asked.
Gabriel’s phone was still in his hand.
“My attorney found a connection between the payment and one of Thomas’s accounts.”
Claire sat down.
A thousand small memories moved through her mind.
Thomas holding an umbrella during a storm.
Thomas opening the car door when Gabriel was too distracted to notice.
Thomas saying, “Mrs. Cross, Mr. Cross is running late.”
Always calm.
Always professional.
“He helped her.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Looks like it.”
“Why?”
That was the question neither of them had an answer for.
Gabriel ended the call.
“We’re going to find out.”
Claire looked at him.
The old version of Gabriel would have already made a decision.
Already chosen a target.
Already planned consequences.
This version sat still.
May you like
That scared her more.
“What are you going to do?”
