21. The Perfume

21. The Perfume

“You’re alive.” The words came out before she could stop them, relief and confusion tangled together.

Then fear caught up. “You need to leave. Now. If Caleb finds out you’re here—”

“I don’t care anymore.” Gabriel stepped closer. “Tania, I love you. I’ve always loved you. Come with me. Let me give you everything he never did.”

“Gabriel, please. Just go.”

“I’d die for you.” He said it so plainly it stole the air from her protest. “I mean that.”

Tania was crying by the time he pulled her into his arms, begging him to let her go even as he held on tighter, murmuring promises about freeing her from Caleb’s grip once and for all.

 

• • •

 

Tania ended up spending the night on the couch, too exhausted to argue further, Gabriel keeping a careful distance beside her. He made her breakfast the next morning, humming something under his breath while he worked.

She stood on the balcony that afternoon, watching the water, when he joined her with a glass of fresh coconut juice.

For half a second, in the slant of afternoon light, she saw someone else’s face instead of his.

She shook the thought off and asked instead about the papers Dora had burned, wondering what her uncle had wanted her to see badly enough to write it down. She left for the hospital to find Jordan and ask him directly.

The Stanton family had already arrived, crowding the hallway outside his room, and refused to let her past.

She was still arguing with them when Gabriel appeared and pulled her gently away before it escalated further.

Dora watched them leave, tilting her head toward Sophia. “Who was that?”

Sophia told her. Dora’s smile curved slowly into something calculating.

“I think,” she said, “I know exactly how to deal with her now.”

 

• • •

 

Tania didn’t let Gabriel follow her all the way inside. Her phone rang the moment they reached the door, Cecile’s name on the screen, and she used it as an excuse to slip away.

Gabriel got a text of his own right after, from Sophia, and didn’t chase after her.

Cecile was a wreck by the time Tania arrived, pacing her apartment in tears. “Norman came back. He’s begging for another chance. Tania, he says he’ll actually divorce Monica this time.”

“Don’t believe him.”

The door opened before Cecile could answer. Nicole walked in holding up his phone, already scrolling to evidence that Norman was lying, that no divorce filing existed anywhere.

Cecile scowled at him on principle, then sighed. “Fine. Thank you.”

“I actually came to ask about Vivian,” Nicole admitted, once Cecile had calmed down. “Did you talk to her?”

Tania shook her head slowly. “Nicole, you can’t force someone to feel something. If you love her, really love her, you’ll let her go. Ashton makes her happy. Isn’t that supposed to be enough for you?”

 

• • •

 

Tania caught herself thinking about Caleb all through dinner that night, sitting alone at the restaurant that used to be theirs, a fresh paycheck from her new employer sitting untouched in her bag.

“Your work is going to be shown internationally,” he’d told her that afternoon, and she should have felt something closer to joy about it.

The apartment felt different the moment she walked in. Music drifted from the living room, low and warm, and a strange, sweet smell hung thick in the air.

Gabriel had cooked, candles lit along the counter, something that looked uncomfortably like an occasion.

Tania excused herself to shower, hoping he’d take the hint and leave before she came back out. The scent had only grown stronger by the time she stepped out of the bathroom, and there, laid across the bed, sat a red dress nearly identical to the one she’d worn on her honeymoon.

Her legs felt strange beneath her, heavy and light at once. She staggered into the living room, and Gabriel’s breath caught the moment he saw her standing in the doorway.

 

• • •

 

Gabriel felt it too, a warmth spreading through his chest that had nothing to do with the wine, his thoughts sliding sideways before he could stop them.

He remembered, distantly, a bottle of perfume Sophia had pressed into his hands the day before. This is the only way you’ll ever win her heart, she’d told him. He hadn’t asked what was in it.

He smiled and pulled Tania into his arms, swaying slowly to the music.

For a moment, it was his face in front of her. The next moment, it wasn’t. Tania fought to hold onto herself, aware of something building in her that she didn’t want and couldn’t seem to stop.

Gabriel leaned in to kiss her. She turned her head at the last second, his mouth landing against her neck instead, and something in her recoiled hard enough to push him back.

He didn’t let go. If anything, his grip tightened, something gone loose and unfamiliar behind his eyes.

Tania struggled against him, but he lifted her easily, carrying her toward the bedroom, laying her down before she could get her limbs to cooperate.

Her body wouldn’t listen to her. She watched, distant and heavy, as he pulled his shirt over his head.

The bedroom door slammed open.

Caleb stood in the doorway.