Chapter 6

• There were very few details about the mysterious tycoon that the public knew. For one, Gabriel inherited his parents' wealth when they died in a plane crash. He was 15 years old at the time, the only surviving passenger of the total 7 people on board. It wasn’t an exaggeration when they described it as a miracle.
• He was hospitalized for three months and then returned home under the guardian of his grandmother. The only living family member he had at the time. Afterward, his family lawyers shut down any information anyone tried to get about the sole heir of the Love Dynasty.
• Gabriel was taken out of school and was deprived of any social contact with the outside world. People could only speculate what the family lawyers and CEOs of his father’s companies were trying to get out of the poor boy’s tragedy. His name never resurfaced again until he turned 21 years old and eligible to claim his legal rights over his parents fortune.
• No pictures ever been taken of the young billionaire, it was said, he was living such an isolated life that he became a recluse and developed an eccentricity because of how rich he was. Aside from his very private personal life, Gabriel Love was known for his multi billion dollars businesses that he built over his father’s legacy.
• He proved to the world that he was not just a trust fund baby, but a very competent businessman in whom his father’s kingdom thrived and prospered to the point where he was dubbed as the richest man under 30 when he was only 25 years old.
• Gabriel Love doesn’t go out to see people very often. He does his meetings from home or conveys his instructions by phone. He had all his companies surveyed by cameras where he can control them from the comfort of his private office home. He only let his most trusted employees come to his house to discuss important details, and they were all sworn to the confidentiality of any information they have about the tycoon.
• No one knew where he lives except for a handful of people who’ve been there, and none of them ever said a thing.
• But the public loved the mystery surrounding the recluse, they developed rumors about him that were spread among Lancaster citizens until no one can tell what was myth and what was true.
• Some say Gabriel lived in his mansion alone surrounded by the robots he bought to clean the house, others say he used dark forces to do the maintenance of his home because he was the modern day Lancaster’s vampire.
• Some rumors said he lived with sex slaves he kept in the dungeon of his castle, and that he drank the blood of virgins. Others preferred a more heroic kind of rumor that said he was living a double life where he fought crime at night just like Bruce Wayne of Gotham City.
• Whatever it was, the name Gabriel Love was a household name in Lancaster, and Jamie was still in shock that she had slept with the infamous billionaire.
• Perry rubbed Jamie’s arms up and down, “Breathe … breathe … Jamie … you got this … come on, get yourself together … you look like you just seen a ghost,” Perry tried to comfort her.
• “I think I just did … given the things people say about him … how could I not know it?”
• “You couldn’t have known it, I only knew how he looked because I’ve been to a function where he attended … that explains why the ‘no camera’ restriction for this event … his people actually have a permit to confiscate cameras and camera phones if people try to take a picture of him.”
• Jamie looked at him frozen like a statue, she held her breath again.
• “Okay, that’s not helping, I’m sorry … look … just go out there, don’t look into his direction, do your presentation … who knows? He might not even recognize you.”
• Jamie raised her brows, “Really?”
• She would be standing just four feet away from his table. She didn’t have any more time to doubt herself. She took a deep breath and stepped out to the podium. She almost stumbled on the steps but she put her foot down firmly and took the walk that felt like a mile away.
• The MC gave her the time and place, followed by people’s applause. She kept her vision far to the back of the room to avoid accidentally looking at a particular person on the table in front of her. She put on her best smile and started with an introduction.
• She thanked God for the clicker in her hand to change the slides of her presentation, she could focus her attention on it rather than the gazing eyes of the person sitting in front of her.
• But she felt him from the corners of her eyes. Richard was sitting back with one leg crossed to the other. She felt him watching her, probably without blinking. She felt his cold stare on her skin and his expressionless face was visible in her mind.
• As she explained about her program, which was building more conservations for the sea turtles, the hairs on her body stood up, knowing Michael Corleone was staring at her from the audience.
• She exhaled a deep silent breath of relief when she finished her presentation, she was lucky her nerves didn’t get the best of her. She kept her attention away from his table and held on to her wide smile.
• “Thank you Ms. Knox … for that wonderful presentation … so compelling that we already have a request for your audience at table 1,” the MC said.
• Before she could figure out which table 1 was, “A special request from our honorable guest, Mr. Gabriel Love,” he continued.
• Her heart pounded so hard, she was afraid it could be heard through the clipped-on mic on the collar of her top. But the audience’s clap was louder, she knew she had to do it, she turned to look at table 1 with a smile.
• That’s when their eyes met. It was clear as day, the face that was staring back at her was indeed the face she spent that unforgettable with. Her heart was jumping all over the place, she wondered how could he be so cool without a shred of emotion expressed on his beautiful face.
• It was merely a second, but it felt like a long dragged minute where everything happened in slow motion. He didn’t return her polite smile, he just sat there with his eyes pierced through every layer she held up to guard herself to not feel what she felt at that moment. It was no use, she thought she had gotten over it, the one night she wanted to put behind her was now staring at her in the face.