Chereads / Contract with the CEO / Chapter 173 - Pulling the Threads

Chapter 173 - Pulling the Threads

As she walked in, she paused.

"Rosa?" She said the woman's name in surprise. Rosa laid across the sofa with her eyes closed.

"Sorry." Rosa mumbled as she tried to sit up.

"If you need a rest, go ahead." Claire smiled in her most charming way.

"It's fine, thanks." Rosa rubbed her temples. "Did you have a nice night?"

Claire scoffed as she sat beside Rosa and started to take her shoes off.

"It was a client's dinner. Went down a memory lane. Bumped into Christopher…"

"Oh." Rosa's eyes widened.

"He acts as if he didn't remember me and it hurts so much." Claire said quietly as she threw her heels across the room. "He accused me of being with Christopher, and for money at that."

"Christopher Hayden?" Rosa asked curiously. "Is there something between you two?"

"We both have been abandoned by our partners." Claire said calmly. "No, there isn't."

"He seems like a nice guy, maybe you should give him a try." Rosa suggested, partially teasingly, as she leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes, visibly exhausted.

"I had Gabriel."

"I had Edmund."

"Did something happen?"

"He worked out part of our history. The bad part. I am staying away until I can face him again." Rosa said honestly. "It sucks and I'm so tired of it."

"It really sucks." Claire agreed.

"I have spend the last few weeks working with my colleague Grace to get all of the CCTV footage we could. She developed some amazing AI tool that matched all the footages of the same person together. We filtered the results by people we knew and were matched to the records."

"That's sounds like an amazing bit of tech."

"Amazing but tedious." Rosa smiled weakly. "But it worked. I've managed to get a hold of Pierre."

"Oh. How is he?"

"He is in France. Once the mission was compromised and then you and Gabriel went AWOL his task force was dissolved."

"That's unfortunate."

"Well, yes, I suppose. But importantly, he had some photos of your friends and family that we could use to match up the footage." Rosa fidgeted uncomfortably. "I've spent weeks on it and still nothing."

"Any suggestions?" Claire tried to conceal her worry.

"I suspect that they are under witness protection."

"Do you think I can find them?"

"Sure. Eventually. But it is taking it's time."

"Thank you, Rosa." Claire smiled at Rosa, leaning back in the sofa as well. "You can have a rest here tonight if you want. You seem exhausted."

"Thanks." Rosa smiled with her eyes closed.

"Would it make you feel safer if I stayed up next to you?" Claire offered remembering how terrified she was when she was continuously tracked and hunted.

"It's okay." Rosa mumbled before she fell asleep.

Claire was thankful to Rosa for how hard she worked to help her, likely off the books. She covered Rosa with a blanket and went into the kitchen where she made a pot of tea and prepared a warm dinner for Rosa.

Once Rosa woke up, Claire offered her the dinner which she seemed to really appreciate, and then she spoke with Claire about her own experiences.

"You mentioned that Edmund forgot you." Claire touched on the subject again.

"Yes. At first it felt like a cruel joke, but it turned out to be a thing. He had amnesia after an accident. It damaged his amygdala and hippocampus which resulted in the memory issues. He doesn't recall much from before his brain tissue started healing which means that he has no recollection of most of his life."

"Do you think it is possible that Gabriel forgot too, or do you think it is likely that he is pretending?"

"I cannot tell for sure but it is very plausible." Rosa seemed calm around Claire. Maybe it was because she bonded with her over the life experiences they had.

"If he forgot me, isn't it cruel to remind him of his past?" Claire asked quietly.

"I don't know what is more cruel, telling him of his past or having him live with a belief that there was nothing worthwhile in his life before."

"What do you mean?"

"After Edmund recovered, he believed that he was all alone in his past because no one came back to tell him of it. He felt abandoned." Rosa explained. "On the other hand, it must be equally painful to have all those people around you who care for you but you don't even remember them. I would feel guilty if it were me."

Claire barely nodded as she considered that possibility. In her mind, it still made more sense that Gabriel pretended that he didn't know her to keep himself safe.

Rosa bid Claire goodbye early in the morning, after agreeing to spend a night sleeping on the sofa. Her sleep was restless, as expected of someone who has been covered in scars.

Claire went back to the storage several more times in the weeks to come. She read the letters that Gabriel once gave her. Letters that he wrote while he missed her when she was away from him. She didn't know why she tortured herself so much but some days she needed a reminder that she wasn't crazy and what was between her and Gabriel wasn't solely a pigment of her imagination.

After one particularly bad day of crying over the letter, Claire made the hardest decision in her life. She decided to forget Gabriel and she focused all her energy on finding her family.

Every weekend she travelled across the country in hope that she will bump into someone familiar, without success.

Clinging onto the last threads of hope, she went to the place that Michael Moore never knew of. Making sure to not be followed she made her way to see Cecilia again. But even that house stood empty.