Since Claire came to see Gabriel months earlier, something about what she said struck a note with him. He didn't remember her, of course. But then, his mind was broken in a way that he couldn't fix. He didn't remember more than Claire.
A lot of things were hazy, including his memories of childhood, growing up, university. He hardly recalled the people he was related to, never mind Claire.
He had an accident which affected his memory by damaging the temporal lobe of his brain. He didn't recall the accident. He was told about it. He had teams of doctors that tried to fix him, and a support of his father. He tried to hide it from the public because what would they think of Diamond Corporate if they knew how vulnerable and weak the CEO was.
Claire seemed crazy. At least at first.
He didn't recall ever being married. Why would he be married? He swore off women many years earlier, after Francesca. And then, why would his father hide it?
There were many unanswered questions that he didn't dare to ask out loud.
Before Claire spoke to him directly, he saw glimpses of her: by Diamond Corporate, sidewalk, streets, the square, even near the parking lot.
Something about her drew his attention. Then, he saw her when Claire almost harassed her way to him at the Diamond Corporate, he was certain that she was crazy.
The first time he questioned whether she wasn't crazy was when he spotted her in the soup kitchen where she was volunteering.
She served others with a wide smile that seemed more genuine than anywhere else.
That image was opposite of what he saw when she approached him.
But that wasn't the breaking time.
When Gabriel saw Claire wearing an elegant dress looking up in awe at the ceiling of the Horton club when she spoke to Christopher Hayden, it was the first time his heart stopped. Her eyes glistened with inexplicable emotion of wonder interwoven with pain.
Throughout the night Gabriel kept glancing over while she had dinner with Christopher and two other people. The two people left quite soon leaving Claire with Christopher. Gabriel never felt the mix of emotions quite like that. He felt envy and anger, annoyance and sadness, excitement and flutter in his stomach, and all of it at once.
He watched a warm light fall onto Claire's face. She was very slim and she had dark circles under her eyes but she was naturally beautiful. Her lips curved into a stunning smile and her eyes shone with captivating intelligence. But even when Claire smiled, her eyes didn't.
Once Claire left the table, Gabriel followed. His feet carried him before he even thought it through.
He thought to himself that no crazy person could hide their crazy this well.
Gabriel stood by the wall fighting his inner dialogue. Once Claire came out into the corridor and looked at him, her stormy eyes glancing at him before she averted her gaze giving him a shy nod, barely acknowledging his presence, that's when his emotions amplified.
He couldn't admit that he sought her out and instead he tried to tease her. His words snapped something inside of her. She was nervous then irritated, then angry.
Her anger was a mask for her hurt and Gabriel could see it. He could see it in her eyes, in her body language as she was trying to withdraw from the conversation. Her angry tone wasn't matched by her body which deceived her.
Gabriel watched every bit of her as she spoke. She was defensive about his suggestive tone over her and Christopher. It felt reassuring.
He didn't remember Claire but she made him feel a certain way and that was like a burning hole he didn't even knew was there.
During that conversation, Claire named several buildings that she supposedly designed. Gabriel memorised all of the buildings she named and as soon as he got into the office the next morning, he found them all in the system. Every single one was designed at Diamond Corporate and every single one of them was missing the designer's name which was against the usual requirements within the company.
Gabriel stared at the design files, the neatly handwritten notes, the speckless calculations. Whoever designed these was a mastermind. And their name wasn't in the system.
He asked the head of the department about it but they didn't knew anything.
No one did, so he stopped asking.
Was Claire exploiting the fact that this information was missing and she somehow knew of it, or did she speak the truth and everyone else lied?
What if one crazy person was right?
The question appeared in his mind one late night as he listened to a song that he didn't remember knowing before but which felt familiar.
He dreamt that song, the lyrics to it. And then he listened to it on repeat, every single day. And every time it was on, he asked himself the same question.
What if one crazy person was right?
The answer was simple - everything that he thought he knew about his life would have been a lie.
He wasn't ready to face that possibility.
As crazy as Claire seemed in front of him, she didn't seem crazy anywhere else and that was reaffirmed during the business meeting with
the Gold Investment Limited representative. He was in awe of her strong words and how she had the guts to bring up the difficult topic without an ounce of concern. He was so in awe of how she interacted with the person, how she used manipulative tactics, that he didn't even attempt to gain the shareholder back.
In that moment, he truly saw that it was possible that she was the person that could've worked in Diamond Corporate and that she might have been very successful there. She faked the confidence to the representative so well that anyone any less observant than Gabriel wouldn't have noticed her clenching her hands on her skirt.
She only seemed nervous once he sat down next to her. It was her reaction to Gabriel. Gabriel softened his voice as he spoke of her. It was subconscious, natural.
She rendered him speechless as she brought up the Diamond Corporate's weaknesses. Only someone who was close to the company knew how well it truly fared and what their financial forecasts were.
Gabriel was glad when the rep left them alone. He wanted to ask her questions. He wanted to know more. But he didn't know how.
Claire seemed to be in a hurry as she packed her handbag.
"Miss Cooper… Elise…" her name didn't quite sound right coming out of his lips. It didn't suit her and Gabriel couldn't explain why.
"I didn't realise that you were going to be here, Mr Moore.I would've forced Christopher to come here himself if I knew." Claire spoke honestly but her words felt like stabs. He hated that she was pushing him away now. She did so much to reach him and now that she had his interest, she was moving away.
"Are you avoiding me?" Gabriel couldn't resist asking but the answer hurt even more.
If she were truly his wife… the thought surprises Gabriel as he watched her hazel brown eyes under the curtain of dark lashes, her slightly reddened cheeks, her rose-pink lips… if she was his wife he shouldn't let her go.
Gabriel spoke just to stall and delay Claire from leaving.
She criticised his exec board openly but he didn't really care.
And at the end, she touched his shoulder and her fingers laid on the first two scars on his back, while speaking of his father. He instantly felt that she knew of his pain of growing up with his cruel and abusive father. Her knowing eyes almost fully persuaded him.
He tried to hung onto her a bit more not knowing where to go with it.
He asked her whether she lived far. She lived outside of the city which he was a little upset about. It wasn't far but he wished she lived closer so that he could have more chances to bump into her by an accident.
Claire's questions were playing on repeat in his mind from then on.
-why did Gabriel chose his father over Claire?
-whether Gabriel pretended to not know her or if he did not remember her?
He needed to know more. He wanted more.