Claire woke up early in the morning, still beside Gabriel. She smiled with glee as she fought a temptation to plant millions of kisses onto him. She rolled over and checked her phone, her heart sinking instantly.
'Gabriel Moore and Francesca Jones announcing their engagement' Claire read the top news headline. She rationalised the news with the fact that if Gabriel didn't remember her, he would've still thought that Francesca was his betrothed. She looked next to her, at Gabriel's outline under white sheets, feeling used and betrayed. It took a lot for her to not start screaming at him. But she wasn't that type. Not right now. Not after she had lost so much. She didn't have the energy for that anger.
Claire quietly got up and dressed herself, and she left Gabriel alone in the room while he was still asleep. She swore at herself for ever letting herself believe that things could be as they used to.
Gabriel woke up some time later. He turned around in search of Claire but there was no sight of her. It was the first morning that he didn't feel the need to violently vomit. He was ecstatic to have spend the night with Claire and that she was finally his. But as he turned around to face her, the side of the bed was empty. Gabriel stood up and rushed towards the bathroom which was also empty. He looked out of the window before hurriedly dressing himself and running out of the room. He wasn't certain how long Claire was gone but he couldn't just let her go. Not now. He had so much to tell her. He had to tell her the plan!
Claire was nowhere in sight and likely gone for a while before he woke up. Gabriel recollected himself, trying then to contact Rosa in hope that she can aid him. That didn't bring any more success than finding Claire.
It was a little while before he noticed the news that put him in the spotlight. His father wanted the last bit of control over him, not realising that he was loosing the grasp on Gabriel altogether and very quickly at that.
After many futile hours of searching for signs of Claire to tell her of the plan, and Rosa to get rid of the plan, he was sat in despair in his office, looking at the screen of his computer. It was a moment of epiphany when he recalled Claire saying 'cuore mio' to him.
He googled 'cuore mio'. His heart fluttered as he read the meaning of the name Claire used for him. He looked at the tab with a locked project on and he typed it in. He didn't expect anything to happen but the screen flashed with a loading icon. A few moments later, tens of sketches and concepts covered the screen, with the first drafts of the 3D model.
His heart stopped as he looked through the designs of the rooms that perfectly depicted his likes and mixed them with soft furnishings and art that seemed to elevate the design to a whole new level. This made him swear even further. It was the first design marked by 'Claire E. Thompson' in the corner of the first initial sketches and then with 'Claire E. Moore'. Knowing that her designs were private and only ever seen by her and Gabriel, she used her married name in the last few concepts. This only made Gabriel feel more guilty over everything that Claire had to go through.
But he couldn't find her and he couldn't stop the plan…