Chapter 145 - The Bloody Recap

Muckraker magazine is planning a shitstorm of bad publicity, and Claire is trying to counter that by crafting her own public relations campaign.

Michelle Alcantara is still trying to re-enter Gabriel's life by taking every opportunity to be there whenever the need arises, such as now.

And in the middle of it all, Miguel is still unconscious. He has received a unit of blood—Claire's blood—and yet it's not enough. More than half of Gabriel's employees, including Michelle, have been processed and tested for compatibility, and none of them gets the greenlight.

Things are looking bleak for Gabriel and Miguel.

As he sits by Miguel in the ICU, watching his brother's face, wondering about the utter calm in his expression, Gabriel wonders if this is judgment long in coming. Is this payment for all his bad decisions in the past? But why should Miguel be the one to pay?

He misses Claire; he misses being alone with her with none of these problems. When he first started out with her, the future seemed rosy, all kisses and waking up late in bed, and seeing this lovely woman walking around his house—she is all his, and his alone.

And yet, not a few weeks after he got her to say yes to his pleas, things seemed to continue descending into a pit of darkness. How he longs to go back to simplicity, or at least a semblance of it.

And now this. Miguel, hurt beyond measure by his hand. How does he even explain this to their mother, Matilde? How does he explain to the world what happened? Does he justify his actions, or just accept all the blame?

Somewhere in this hospital is a conference room, and one that Claire and his head of public relations, Catherine Buenavista, has commandeered in order to discuss quickly how they'd go about issuing a press release about what happened. Gabriel is tired of thinking and overthinking, and he hasn't gotten not even an hour of sleep since last night, so he lets Claire, who seems to have started getting more and ore ȧssertive, which he likes, to take charge of the PR front. Meanwhile, Mrs. Gomez should be finishing up testing his people. If again, no one turns out to be compatible, he will finally flex his political and business muscle—the prospect of which he's not very keen about, knowing it would create noise and unwanted attention from unwanted people.

He hears knocks on the door. He expects it to be the doctor, but when he says, "Come in," it's the girls—Claire and the PR team, who appear.

"We've agreed on an approach, Gab," Claire says.

"Something we believe should be highly effective in managing people's perception of you," says Catherine.

Gabriel gives his brother a glance. He sighs. "Is it complicated?"

"How do you mean?"

"What does your plan involve?"

"Well," Catherine begins, glancing at Claire, seeking for approval. Claire nods slightly. "What we've thought if is this: We will seed our own version of events in all the newspapers and social media pages of our companies and affiliates. The intention is to drown out whatever unflattering version of events would come from elsewhere."

Gabriel looks at Catherine's face, searching for truth in it. Catherine is a known Michelle Alcantara supporter, and somehow, he couldn't fully "buy" whatever she says. And the tragedy is she's his PR director. He turns to Claire. "What do you mean our version of events?"

"It's really not very different from what really happened. We'd just say we were having a few celebratory drinks at the lounge with Miguel, and somehow, he accidentally slipped on a wet floor," Claire says. "It's decidedly neutral. It will shed light on whatever questions people might have about why Miguel's in the hospital."

Gabriel says nothing. The hear somebody knocking on the door, and Mrs. Gomez's head peeps in. "Do you have time for a little good news?"

"Please come in, Mrs. Gomez. Any news, as long as it's not bad is welcome here."

Mrs. Gomez steps inside, surprised to find Claire and Catherine in the room. "So that's why the public relations squad is standing outside," she says. "Hello, Catherine. Didn't see you earlier at the office."

"I came in late," Catherine says sheepishly.

"Well," Mrs. Gomez says, regaining her bearings. "I 'm glad to tell you we finally found a healthy compatible donor."

"Really? Who is it?" Claire says.

"It's Mary, from one of our sales units. She's having her blood extracted right as we speak.

The room has breathes a collective sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness," Catherine says. "At least that's one less matter to think about."

"Thank you, Mrs. Gomez. But just for contingency, can you call up your contacts in other cities," Gabriel says. "Just so we can find matching blood in advance?"

"Sure, Mr. Tan."

After Mrs. Gomez leaves, Gabriel faces his "girls": on one hand, it seems to make sense, this suggestion by Claire, who knows, of course, what's at stake. But he feels something off about not telling it the way it happened. Is it really so wrong to tell the truth?

"Remember what I mentioned earlier about Occam's Razor?" he says to Claire, while Catherine's brow knits out of intrigue. "Occam's Razor is a very simple principle. It only says that the simpler explanation is most probably the true one. Sure, we can say that we had a few drinks at the lounge, leading to Miguel's accident, in a completely neutral angle. But we've never had any airtight personal privacy or public relations policy. The Residence has almost a hundred employees, for starters, and each one of those could have already talked or sent pictures of us to their friends and family. The public has always inevitably known about every single thing that happened with me: Michelle Alcantara betraying me, for example. I weathered the storm, remember, Catherine?"

Catherine nods; she says nothing.

"I also owe the truth to Miguel—I want to acknowledge his love, or infatuation, and I want people to learn a few lessons from this. That's why I think, regardless of our fears, which I'm sure are legitimate, there's only one way to solve this." Turning to Claire, he says, "Love, I appreciate the effort. It warms my heart, believe me, to see you taking charge about this. But forgive me, but I will have to do what I feel I must do. And that's to face the music."

"Are you telling the public everything, Sir?" Catherine could not believe it.

"Yes, every single thing," Gabriel says. "Schedule a press conference for me tomorrow."