Chapter 26 - The Confrontation (2/2)

”But didn't she ask you to buy it all for her?”

”I rest my case, your honor,” Claire says, grinning slyly as she turns to Gabriel. ”But that doesn't get you off the hook, Russell. That doesn't mitigate the fact that you tried to **** me just an hour ago.”

Russell blanches. His face turns white as sheet. ”I…I didn't mean to…”

”He what?” Gabriel is instantly incensed. ”Did you say '****'?”

”Almost,” Claire says. ”He almost succeeded in doing it.”

In a flash, Gabriel's hands are upon Russell's neck. ”What did you do to my fiancée?” He slams a fist against the side of Russell's face, sending him sprawling to the floor. Karen screams and throws her arms over her boyfriend, protecting him from Gabriel's ȧssault.

”I know you, Russell,” Gabriel mutters. ”I can destroy you, your family, your company.”

”I didn't mean it, man,” Russell stammers, his lip bleeding. ”I'm…I'm really, really sorry. It happened all too fast. I liked her and—”

Russell doesn't finish what he's saying as Karen hard-slaps him across the face. ”You moron! What did you see in this ordinary woman?” That sends the man comically sprawling again to the floor.

Russell would have answered, ”I saw that she's sėxy and vulnerable and desperate,” but he has the good sense to shut it.

Is he serious? Claire wonders. Or is this Gabriel Tan the bullshit master hard at work again?

Karen scoffs at that. ”You must be seeing things, because I've never seen any of those qualities during all the time we've been roommates.”

”Oh, that's so rich coming from you,” Gabriel says. ”Aren't you two the very best of friends?”

Karen says nothing.

”Anyway, it doesn't matter. Nothing here doesn't matter.” Gabriel turns to Claire. ”I'm taking you to your new place, my love.”

My love. Oh, my God. Why does Gabriel have this tendency to be so cheesy and fake right when you need him to be simply authentic. ”My new place?”

”You can't live in this apartment, anymore. Protocol. I need to protect you from—” he throws Karen and Russell a glance—”opportunists.”

Shouldn't we talk first about compensation? Shouldn't we discuss the changing terms and conditions of my employment? Isn't this excessively interfering in my life? These and a million questions are dying to come out of Claire's mouth, but she feels there might be a better moment for it. So all she manages to say is, ”Okay.”

As it turns out, everything she owns can fit in four bags. As they walk out of the apartment—Karen and Russell still on the floor, having their silly argument about who did what to whom—there's the Bentley again waiting for them. Gabriel is driving. As they roll out of the place, he's even extra-cheerful, humming a tune that sounds familiar to Claire.

Gabriel smiles and nods.

It is a thirty-minute drive to her new place. And of course, Claire is expecting maybe a new apartment, a new condo. But no: he brings her to the former Ilustrados Hotel.

”I'm not going to live in a hotel room, Gabriel,” she says as they stand facing the hotel's façade. Claire knows Ilustrados is a boutique hotel, catering to business people and celebrities.

”You're not living in a room,” Gabriel says. ”This entire hotel, this whole building, will be your place of residence.”

Claire says nothing at first, then it hits her: she's living in a ten-story luxury hotel. While being employed as Gabriel Tan's personal ȧssistant-slash-fake fiancée. Her throat feels suddenly dry, and the only thing she manages to utter is: ”Are you crazy?”