Chapter 8 - The Interrogation of the HeartWith Serena gone, the penthouse felt vast, quiet, and heavy.
The boys, exhausted from the late hour and the overwhelming tension of the night, had eventually fallen asleep on the large sectional sofa. Henry was curled up at one end, Julian in the middle, and Ben was stretched out with his head on Henry's lap.
Gabriel stood near the edge of the sofa, staring down at them. He looked like a man who had suddenly been handed the entire universe and was terrified that a single wrong breath would shatter it.
"They look just like you," I said softly, standing beside him.
"They look like my ghost," Gabriel murmured. He gently reached down, his large, calloused thumb brushing a stray lock of dark hair from Henry's forehead. His movement was impossibly tender, a stark contrast to the man who had nearly broken a marble fireplace minutes earlier. "How did you do it, Claire? How did you raise three boys alone for five years without anyone helping you?"
"It wasn't easy," I admitted, looking at the floor. "I worked as an archivist. I lived off my parents' modest legacy. I refused to touch your money because I was afraid."
Gabriel looked at me, his gray-green eyes filled with a hollow, crushing guilt. "Afraid of what?"
"Afraid that if you found out, you would take them from me," I said honestly, looking him dead in the eye. "I saw you kiss Serena in your office three nights before our divorce, Gabriel."
Gabriel froze. "What?"
"I brought your migraine medication to your office on Park Avenue," I whispered, the five-year-old memory still stinging like a fresh wound. "The private elevator opened. I saw her sitting on your desk. I saw you kiss her. I left before you saw me. Three days later, you gave me divorce papers. What was I supposed to think?"
Gabriel closed his eyes, a ragged moan escaping his throat. He covered his face with both hands, his shoulders shaking slightly.
"She planted a recording device in my office that night," Gabriel revealed, his voice strained. "She came in unannounced, claiming she had urgent intelligence about my father's rivals. When I refused to cooperate, she stepped close to me. I grabbed her to push her away, Claire. I didn't kiss her. I was pulling her off my desk when the elevator doors opened, but I didn't see you."
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I stared at him, my breath catching in my throat.
"I have never touched another woman, Claire," Gabriel said, stepping closer to me, his voice raw with emotion. "Not before our marriage, not during it, and certainly not in the five agonizing years since you walked out of my life. I signed those papers to keep you alive, but my soul stayed in that Westchester house the day you left."
