12

Gabriel’s POV

(Monday)

“You set me up on a blind date?!”

My mother was a stubborn woman, and right now her chin was clenched hard as she locked her eyes onto mine without moving an inch from her seat.

“Look, the Gold Spoon 50 guest list leaked to the public,” she insisted. “I used the chance to set you up with one of their daughters. You’re a hot commodity right now, and this is the right time for you to move on from that-that-”

Could she be any more obvious about how much she disliked Rachael?

I slowly sat back down, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

“It’s at 2:00 PM this afternoon. I already made the arrangements and everything. I’ll forward the address to you, and you’ll just go through with it. She’s a nice girl. Very pretty. Her father is in the top five on the Gold Spoon list.”

“Mom.”

She reached across the table and took my arm, her piercing blue eyes reaching mine as she shook her head slowly. “Sweetheart, I moved in with you during the divorce. I know what I witnessed. You crumbled like my baby boy, and I couldn’t recognize you. I thought I would lose you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Mom, please don’t start crying-”

Her grip tightened on my arm. “It’s been a full year. I just want you to be happy. And I want grandkids.”

“Mom, I can mildly tolerate the fact that you dislike Rachael for reasons best known to you, but do you really have to extend that hate to Leah? Rachael was moved around foster homes all her life; you’re practically the only parent she had, and you're Leah’s only grandmother.”

“I never gave my consent to that wedding. I only came for your sake, but I never honored it. I have no business with the aftermath, and honestly, I’m really glad the divorce happened.”

“Mom,” I said a bit more firmly this time, and she withdrew her hand with an exasperated sigh.

“Just promise you’ll go on the date.”

“Damn it. I’m turning thirty-five soon. You’re setting me up on blind dates like I’m still twenty-three years old.”

The door opened, and Amanda walked in carrying a stack of documents.

“Good morning Gabe,” she placed the documents infront of me, coming to stand beside my seat as she leaned over. “Look. The algorithm scaling on the Series B funding allocation for the decentralized cloud infrastructure is sitting at roughly 4.2% over-budget.”

I flipped through, nodding with a grim line. “We can reallocate.”

She nodded. “If we reallocate the cloud-native asset depreciation toward the R&D subsidiary balance sheet, we can offset the tax liability before the fiscal audit,”

“I’ve highlighted the audit trail on page four. The rest just need your signature.”

“Thank you. I’ll work on this, and you can sort the rest,” I told her. As she went to the other side of my desk, I noticed her giving me a subtle cue to introduce her. After all, last night I’d had to help her move back into her apartment after my mother informed me she was coming over to stay for the week.

But I knew why she had really come.

“Mom, this is Amanda Bailey. She’s my secretary and financial accountant.”

My mother just clutched her bag to her chest, a bitter sneer on her lips as she looked Amanda up and down before turning back to me like she hadn’t seen a thing.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Mrs. Kayes. I’ve heard-”

“Gabe, is all your financial accountant good for rambling off? Can’t she get us some coffee?”

I looked at Amanda immediately to apologize on her behalf, but she just smiled faintly, silently shaking her head at me. “It’s fine. I’ll go grab some coffee.”

“No. That’s not your job.”

“What is it then?” my mother cut in with her snobbish, clipped accent.

“Mom.”

“Well, it seems she’s forgotten what it is.”

“You’re being unnecessarily-” I cut myself off, letting out a sharp breath before turning to Amanda. “You can leave.”

“It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Kayes,” she said warily before slipping out the door. My heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice. She was such a sweetheart, and my mother was being absolutely horrible to her.

“You think I didn’t notice the unnecessary tension between you two? It’s because I know. I know you’ve been fucking her, Gabe,” tears suddenly started rolling down my mother's cheeks again.

“Oh, my God.”

She slammed both hands flat onto my desk. “What if she gets pregnant? That whore is going to carry a Kayes seed in her stomach. Do you know how atrocious that is? Your sister is already a massive disgrace to our family-thankfully she doesn’t even carry our name if that skank eventually leaves married men alone and gets married herself. You’re all I have left, Gabriel.”

“Mother, if I go on the fucking blind date, will you leave me alone for at least another month?”

She pursed her lips, drying her tears so fast I didn’t think they were even real to begin with. She always claimed she did some acting as a teenager in small movie roles to make extra money.

I believed her.

“Who are you taking with you as your plus-one to the Gold Spoon event?”

“I’m already going with someone,” I quickly said, preemptively shutting down whatever scheme she had cooked up the second she realized I might be going alone.

“Who?”

“Mom, please go home. You really didn’t have to follow me to work. I’m really busy, okay?” I stood up, helping her out of the chair before ushering her toward the office door. Liam was already waiting outside as the glass partition slid open.

“Gabe, don’t forget about the date. It’s imperative that you arrive early and wait for her rather than the other way around, okay?”

“I promise I will,” I told her, turning to Liam, “My driver will be downstairs to take her home. ” He gave a sharp nod before escorting her away.

When she finally left, it felt like I could actually breathe again. I looked down at my phone and checked the message Rachael had sent me earlier.

She and I were supposed to meet up by 1:00 PM today. She had sounded deeply urgent two days ago, and I had wanted nothing more than to rush right over to her place, but she insisted on waiting until Monday.

Whatever it was, it had to be important-Rachael would never willingly want to meet up with me post-divorce unless something major was happening.

I suddenly smirked as I typed on my keyboard.

Gabriel: Want to have some fun?

Rachael: ???