Chapter 67 - The Return of the Big, Hot Mess

Michelle, with all her sense of entitlement and privilege, sashays toward Claire, who stands there as if struck by lightning. And in those few seconds, everything comes back to Claire: the pool party of just a few days ago, where Michelle and she tried to drown each other.

"Good morning," Michelle actually says, which surprises Claire—she didn't expect Michelle to actually be courteous. "I'm here for Gabriel. We have a meeting."

"A meeting?" Claire rummages through her desk, as if trying to look for a note about Gabriel's schedule for the day, which actually doesn't exist. She pulls out a blank sheet of paper, and pretends to read from it. "Uhh, I think Gabriel's still finishing up his teleconference," she lies, buying time.

"Wait, you look familiar," Michelle says, looking at her from head to toe, her brows knitted. "Have we met before?"

"I—I'm not sure, Ma'am," Claire manages to say. "I'm just new here."

"Oh," Michelle says, "so you're the new executive ȧssistant." She smiles as she takes a small step back to get another good look at Claire. "As always, Gabriel knows how to choose the nicest looking secretaries. I've always been jealous of Gabriel's girl Fridays, you know. I always had this recurrent nightmare of finding him in bed with one of them." Michelle makes a dry laugh.

Oh, that's rich coming from the very person who cheated on him, Claire says, but only in her head.

"Do you know who I am, dear?" Michelle says.

Of course, you bitch, you almost clawed out my eyes at that pool party, is what Claire almost says, but she bites her tongue. "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I believe this is the first time we're meeting."

"What's your name, sugar?"

"Clai—err, I mean, Bella."

"Even your name is pretty. 'Bella'. Did you know 'bella' is Italian for 'beautiful'?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Only now," Claire says, "when you said it." She grins.

"Sense of humor!" Michelle says. "I like that. I'm Michelle, by the way. Michelle Alcantara. Gabriel's fiancée."

Claire fakes being surprised. "Oh, my God! So you're THE Michelle Alcantara! I feel honored to be in the presence of such a legendary—" Bitch? –"woman!"

Michelle giggles. "Thank you. No need to mention it, Bella."

"You said you're the fiancée? I thought Gabriel has a new one," Claire says coyly.

"Oh, a little misunderstanding," Michelle says. "The new one is a usurper to my throne. I'll put her in her place shortly."

Claire reddens in the face, yet she puts on the fakest smile. "Have you met her, then?"

Michelle scoffs. "It hardly qualifies as a 'meeting'. She hardly qualified as my equal. I don't know. I feel Gabriel is just blinded by anger that he picked up any cheap girl he met in some far-flung area. Nobody knows who that woman is, and Gabriel's selling her as some high-class super-achieving businesswoman. If that's true, I should have heard about her. But nothing." Michelle shakes her head. "The lengths Gabriel goes to just to try and piss me off."

"You mean, you don't believe that Gabriel's engagement with that new girl is genuine?"

"Of course not!"

She knew it, Claire thinks. So that's why Michelle has not been bugging them. She's never felt threatened. She's just laughing off the whole so-called "engagement" with one Claire Monteverde.

But there's something else. There's something about Michelle's uncanny confidence here. As though she knows something that Gabriel doesn't.

"You know what, Bella," Michelle says, "I like you. You don't give off that 'bitchy' vibe. Maybe we can be close here, now that I'm going to be holding office here."

"What? You're working here, too?"

Michelle laughs. "Yes, and speaking of work, please check if Gabriel's okay now, please."

But Claire stands stunned there for a few moments. A lot of questions go through her head, foremost of which is "Why?" What in hell is happening?

Hesitantly, Claire knocks on the door. She hears Gabriel grunt in ȧssent.

"Why is your face as white as sheet?" Gabriel asks, staring at her weirdly. "Have you seen a ghost or something?"

"I, uhh," she stammers. "There's someone out there. She says you two are supposed to have a meeting."

"'She'? A woman? That's odd. Who is it?"

Claire sighs. "It's Michelle."

"What Michelle? Michelle who?"

"Michelle. Your ex-fiancée. THAT Michelle."

Waves of emotions flit through Gabriel's face. First is disbelief—surely, Claire is joking. Sometimes, you never know with this girl, with her misplaced sense of humor. But then she's staring at him like she has seen something ghastly. So disbelief melts into curiosity—what in hell is happening? Is this a prank? But when Claire follows it with, "Michelle Alcantara's here. And she says she's coming back," the gravity of it sinks in, just as the door opens.

"Hi, Gab," Michelle says cheerfully, like nothing ugly has happened in the past few weeks. "It's so nice to see you again. I'm here to discuss our joint management of this company—now that the merger has been finalized."

Michelle smiles. It's a smile that's so sweet with secret poison. It's a smile that Gabriel only knows too well. He's so shocked that he actually blurts out, "Holy fuċk."