Chapter 146 - The Big Reveal (2/2)
The room explodes in excitement; cameras flash like crazy. ”Do you mean it's a love triangle?” ”Did you try to kill him?” ”Where is Miguel now?”
Gabriel raises his hands to calm everyone down. He waits until the room falls into respectful silence again. ”Miguel fell in love with Claire. I fell in love with Claire, too, but maybe I was just more fortunate. That's why I understood where Miguel was coming from. And although I was aware of his feelings, I did not take it badly. I was just waiting for him to move on, to get on with life. After all, he's still one of the most eligible bachelors on this side of town. He could get anyone else he wants, couldn't he?”
The crowd murmurs their ȧssent.
”But as fate would have it, Miguel continued descending into what we can call an emotional tunnel, until he couldn't seem to find his way back. That's when I tried to talk to him. Heart to heart. But sadly, I never got a good opportunity.” Gabriel pauses. He takes a sip from a bottled water. He appears to be weighing his next words. ”Until early yesterday morning, he arrived at my fiancée's home, and not in the finest moods and disposition. When I learned about it, I immediately drove all the way there. That's when I found him in what I thought was an act of ȧssault. So I grabbed him only to remove him from that situation where he might harm Claire irreversibly. And somehow, in the chaos of that moment, Miguel's head hit a table and was injured. That's the reason we're in the hospital. That's the reason why we're asking for blood donations from anyone who would volunteer. And if you all may know, the very first one who donated blood was Claire.”
Gary, still in the Muckraker office, feels his throat has run dry, parched, like a desert. Patrick stands so near the TV on the wall, his face inscrutable.
”Miguel is fine,” Gabriel continues. ”He's receiving the best possible medical care. We're all trying to solve this problem as a family, and by family, I mean also including Claire. We are going to have a good talk when he gets well, and I will continue to appraise you of any update regarding his condition. Which I will do just so there wouldn't be any nasty rumor circulating that is only meant to throw shade at my family's name.”
”Get up,” Patrick says to Gary at the Muckraker office. ”We're done. There's no story. Go out there and find a new one. We're deleting this goddamned thing.”
”But Pat—”
”Go,” Patrick says; he's so upset that his ears are red. When Patrick's ears are this red, you better vanish instantly or risk earning his volcanic wrath. So Gary jumps out of the chair. But as he's about to go, he takes one glance at the TV—and stays glued to it, especially when one reporter has the guts to throw a question everyone has been itching to ask Gabriel Tan.
”But is it true, Gabriel,” a reporter says. ”That Claire Monteverde isn't the world-weary, cosmopolitan, uber-rich and fashion-forward personality you painted her out to be? She—”
”Next question, please,” Catherine Buenavista buŧŧs in. ”We won't dignify such questions with an actual response, so please—”
”No, it's fine,” Gabriel finally says. ”Thank you, Catherine.”
”The persistent rumor is that you merely hired her to pretend to be your fiancée,” the reporter says. ”So is it true that she's not the person you've tried to make her out to be? That she's just a common girl?”
Catherine, who sits beside Gabriel, is gazing at him with that odd expression, like she's also dying to know the truth. She knows Michelle Alcantara had planted some of her people here, posing as reporters, paid to ask the most embarrassing questions. This last one was definitely one of Michelle's henchmen, and up to the last moment, Catherine believed that Gabriel would just laugh off the question and dismiss it like the dirty speculation it's supposed to be. But now Gabriel actually looks like he's about to give an actual answer.
Gabriel gazes at Claire standing on the sidelines; she's teary-eyed, but she manages to nod and mouth out the words, ”Go ahead.” Face the music, he said yesterday. And yes, he's tired of hiding, of telling lies. Claire deserves a day out in the sun, to be recognized for who she really is.
”Yes, it's true,” Gabriel finally says. ”And the truth is much more wonderful than fiction.”