Chapter 139 - The Escalation (1/2)

”How do you mean not a single one?” Gabriel says incredulously.

”I meant exactly that,” Mrs. Gomez says. ”No one from The Residence staff was compatible enough to be a donor.”

”Alright,” Gabriel mutters. If this were a simple thing, he would have called up his mom or his relatives—the Tans are quite a big clan, although his relatives only gave them recognition as they went up the social ladder. But the circumstances surrounding Miguel's situation can be seen as scandalous, and their reputation could be damaged.

”And we can't ask your relatives or friends because of the sėnsɨtɨvė nature of this issue, correct, Sir?” Mrs. Gomez says, reading his mind.

”Yes,” he says. ”I'm afraid so.”

”At one point we'd have to call up your mother, Mr. Tan.”

”I'm very much afraid so,” Gabriel says, glancing at Claire. ”Although if possible, we should do some damage control. We'll try the office first. Maybe you can say something along the lines of 'a handsome reward awaits those who becomes a qualified donor'. But please, don't say it too bluntly like that. I don't want them to feel like I'm bribing them to help out.”

”I understand,” Mrs. Gomez says, the gears of her mind crunching. ”I can go there, right away. I will—”

”I'll call up Catherine from public relations,” Claire buŧŧs in. ”Tell her to plug up any information leak about what happened. Control the media as much as possible. What do you think, Gab?”

Gabriel gazes at Claire, mild surprise in his face. ”That's brilliant. But word must have leaked out by now. Maybe they're writing the story, or probably posting it on social media. What if we're already past the chance of correcting this or denying it ever happened?”

”Then we spin it in another direction,” Claire says. ”We'll call it an 'unthinkable accident', totally unforeseen. We should seed this version of events proactively.”

Mrs. Gomez looks at her. ”That actually makes sense. So just to be clear, we have two urgent problems here: Miguel's health and welfare and the blood we need right now, plus the story that revolves around this, knowing that the Tans are public personalities.”

”Yes, exactly,” Claire says. ”We need to handle this more strategically. I'm sorry to be so calculative, but we're running out of time.”

”That's quite a revelation, Claire,” Gabriel says. The truth is, he's been waiting for the ”real Claire” to come out for a long time; the Claire who had made men fall on their knees on the debate stage back in college, if her background was any useful reference. ”Thank you so much.”

She smiles. She wants to say, I'd be more vigilant and aggressive, moving forward. But she doesn't want to say that in front of Mrs. Gomez; for some reason, she still feels a bit awkward in front of her.

”You're quite right about the running out of time bit,” Mrs. Gomez says, standing up. I'd better be going, then. Time is critical, so I'd need to be doing this fast. You take care of yourselves here, Mr. Tan, Claire. I'll be back.”