The Billionaire’s Desires Vol.12-13 (5 page)

Overcome by emotion, I don't immediately notice Soledad's presence. The housekeeper gently clears her throat so that I turn around. Without saying a word, she motions for me to follow her and brings me down to the basement. She unlocks a door with a key and leads me into a dark room I didn't even know existed. I look at everything around me, without really knowing what I'm doing here. On a gigantic flat screen, I see eight moving images. The front steps of the mansion! The big staircase! The living room! The office!

Cameras!

Diamonds doesn't skimp on security.

Sometimes I forget he's a billionaire and can have whatever he wants.

Soledad interrupts the monologue of my inner voice and places herself in front of me, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Just so we understand one another, I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing it for him. Mr Diamonds deserves to be happy and this woman is a pit viper.”
I don't know how to respond.

“Cat got your tongue, Ms Baumann?”

“Soledad, what am I doing here?”

“I haven't told you anything, nor have I shown you anything.”

“Yes, and?”

“Camera 3. Today, starting at four o'clock.”

After giving me this information, which I'm not sure what to make of, she turns around and disappears as quickly as she came.

Always so pleasant.

I approach the large screen timidly and try to figure out how to use it. I tap on button number three of the digital keypad and the image of the living room displays across the screen. I then press on the return arrow and put the cursor back to 4 o'clock. I feel my heart start to race. I don't know what I'm going to discover, but something tells me I'm not going to like it.

WHAT?

4.04pm. Soledad escorts a young woman, strangely identical to me, right into the living room. Eleanor. It can only be her! Her fine and perfectly drawn face is calm, her slender figure is perfectly played up in a fancy designer black dress. “Perfect” is the only word that comes to my mind.

He swore to me that she'd never set foot here!

Apparently Gabriel wasn't expecting this visit either. Sitting on one of the sofas, he raises his head, recognises her and promptly asks the housekeeper to leave.

“Thanks, Soledad. That will be all.”

No, Soledad. Come back here and show her to the door! You can lead her by her hair.

The two former lovers gauge each other, frozen and silent. Then Gabriel starts talking. His hoarse and powerful voice could cut through the walls.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was hoping to see my son,” she says, in a confident voice.

“Are you joking? I told you to keep your distance. Do you want to traumatise him?”

“It appears as if I've already done that. I mean, to hear you talk...”

“Don't try to make yourself out as the victim here, Eleanor!” he spits into her face. “Dr Adler agrees with me, it's too early.”

“Adler is a psychologist. He claims to understand Virgile's needs. But I'm his mother.”

“No!” Gabriel roars. “You're a stranger! You skipped off when he was just a few days old. You lost your privileges as a 'mother'.”

“Yours forced me to disappear. She's the one you need to blame, not me!”

“You ran away, as you always did. You don't feel like you're responsible? You don't even feel an ounce of guilt? You abandoned your son, Eleanor!”

“Sure, I feel guilty, and believe me, I pay for my weakness every day. I shouldn't have left him. I shouldn't have left you,” she adds, with a sigh.

“Don't change the subject. We're talking about Virgile and only about Virgile. Do you understand me?”

“Amandine isn't right for you, Gabriel. She's just a decoy. It's obvious you want to be with me, that's why you're with her.”

“Shut up!”

“She looks just like me. Like two peas out of a pod. You can't tell me that's a coincidence!”

“Get out of here!”

“Always so protective. You haven't changed, Gabriel. There was once a time when I was the one that you wanted to protect more than anything else in this world. Do you remember that?”

“Yes, and you betrayed me. You left everything and you left me with a newborn in my arms. I thought you were dead, Eleanor! You couldn't have hurt me worse if you had tried!”

“I'm the one who was hurt the most! You're the one who left! You left me alone, at the mercy of Prudence! I wasn't strong enough to resist her! She's the one that messed both of our lives up!”
Gabriel doesn't say anything.

“I love you, Gabriel. I'll never stop loving you and I'll fight for you until you finally open your eyes. We're destined to be together, you and me. I was just waiting for the right moment.” she concludes, before leaving the range of the camera and, I'm guessing, going out of the house.

I see Gabriel break down on the screen. He takes his face between his hands and shouts with rage. Rage. That's exactly what I feel at this moment.

“Amandine, care to tell us what's on your mind? You haven't said a word for the entire flight! Unlike Marion,” Camille says, shooting her an angry glance.

“You're exaggerating! I'm not the one who's been badgering all the stewardesses! And all that just to ask for Vittel instead of Evian. You could defend me instead of just sitting there, Amandine,” retorts my best friend.

“Evian has a strange taste to it. I can't help it if I'm a little difficult,” my sister grumbles.

“Difficult? I couldn't have said it better myself!” Marion says, pouncing on her suitcase

I want to ditch them both right there, at the airport, and run as far away as possible. Camille and Marion love to provoke one another, to test each other until one of them starts yelling and creates a scene, if possible in public. That said, they're right. I haven't been very talkative during the flight. Or for the whole week, as a matter of fact. Watching the scene between Eleanor and Gabriel turned my world upside down. To protect Soledad and avoid a gigantic argument with my lover, I didn't bring the subject up. For once. But it's not because I don't want to.

I put a lot of time into my work. I went out, I saw people. And I spent as little time as possible with Diamonds. Avoiding him isn't the solution, perhaps. But I haven't come up with anything better. I secretly hoped he would bring up the subject himself. That he'd talk to me about his discussion with Eleanor. But that hasn't happened yet. Gabriel left yesterday for LA, accompanied by Silas, Virgile, Paris and Tristan, without suspecting the mental torture he's inflicting upon me. I don't intend to let him get away so easily. I'm going to end up asking him for an explanation. But when?

It's his birthday. The Diamonds mansion will be teeming with people for three days. Bad idea.

But that would teach him a lesson!

I still can't get used to it and, judging from their dumbfounded faces, neither can Camille and Marion. The Diamonds residence, or rather their palace on Manhattan Beach, sparkles with thousands of lights as we arrive at the huge front gate. I can't wait to be in this calm, serene, gigantic haven that's cut off from the rest of the world. Camille scared us more than once on the drive here. But she insisted on taking the wheel, and even sent away the limo that was waiting for us at the airport.

“I rented this car so we could be independent. Silas still doesn't see the point. But unlike you, Amandine, I don't always let my man decide things for me!”

“Camille, you know very well that you aren't going to use it this weekend.”

“So what? At least I got the last word in!”

Grow up, Camille.

Our welcome committee is waiting for us. Paris jumps on us, her tongue hanging down and slobbering. Then it's time to see our respective other halves: Silas kisses Camille greedily, Tristan holds his sister's hand to piss her off and Gabriel pulls me to him to give me a burning kiss on my neck. A few moments later, Prudence and Celeste, gorgeous in their flowing dresses, deem it time to descend from their pedestals and come say hello to us. For me, it's glacial contact with the Queen Mother and a complicit wink from my lover's sister.

Are we almost... friends?

Oh no, right. I have something I can blackmail her with.

Then, the 'joyful' troupe separates and we all go to our own suites for the night. Tomorrow's brunch will launch the festivities, the first guests are arriving in the late morning. Hand in hand, Gabriel and I go to the east wing of the house, accompanied by the Aubracs. The brother and sister have a hard time disguising their amazement as my billionaire opens, one by one, the doors of their rooms. They are decorated in a modern yet refined style, must be about forty square metres each and have their own private bathrooms and patios. Amused by their expressions of admiration, Gabriel wishes them a good night. I give a mocking wink to Marion and Tristan, who respond by sticking out their tongues. Then I go back with Diamonds to our master bedroom. The Eleanor/Gabriel dialogue comes back to mind, in much the way that a jack-in-the-box comes springing out of its box.

Not tonight. It's been a while since you've seen one another. Enjoy it.

I'm going to bump you off, little voice inside of me.

Before I have a chance to unpack my suitcases, Gabriel, who's in a good mood, picks me up and carries me into the Italian shower. I try yelling at him, telling him he's getting my brand new dress wet and he's going to have to pay for it, but my lover turns on the shower head anyway. In a few seconds, I'm soaking wet in his arms, biting his shoulder so that he lets me free. We laugh heartily like two idiots, then kiss each other languorously, finally savouring this reunion.

“Gabriel, you're not going to eat that rubbish, are you?" Prudence cries, seeing her son serve himself a bowl of cereal. “Virgile does everything he can to make me buy that for him, and I give in because he's still a child. I'll go ask Jane to make you some broiled eggs and fresh fruit.”

“Make
us
some broiled eggs and fresh fruit, Prudence. Amandine is sitting beside me, perhaps you didn't see her?” Gabriel responds, admonishing her in a condescending tone of voice.

Here we go.

“Can you let us enjoy our breakfast in peace? Or fine, you can settle the score now, but don't ruin my birthday!” Silas adds.

“Peace isn't Prudence's strong point,” my lover says, sarcastically.

Mother and son exchange a charged glance without saying another word. The mistress of the house disappears to give the orders to the cook, then returns with a hardened face.

“Gabriel, is it really worth us taking the trouble to have a talk?”

“What are you alluding to?” he says, feigning ignorance.

“Very well. We won't waste our time discussing it. But stop reproaching me for things I'm not responsible for. And have the decency to consider me as your mother, not as your enemy.”

“Prudence...”

“You've been avoiding me since you got to LA! You talk to me as if I was a dog and you do everything you can to make me look like a fool!”

“Perhaps because you are one. A fool? No, actually just pathetic. Only a desperate person would have done what you did.”

I'm now alone, witnessing a duel between titans. Virgile and Silas have already left, probably sensing that a confrontation was imminent.

“Care to go on?” the Queen Mother asks, letting him dig his own grave.

“You orchestrated Eleanor's disappearance. You made us believe she was dead. You saw your son suffer like a martyr over something you did. But you never wavered. All of this is in the past. I decided to forgive you so I could move forward with my life. But I'll never forget anything. You'll never have my trust again and you can rest assured that we'll never tell the truth to Virgile. If he knew what you did, that you deprived him of a mother, he'd detest you,” Gabriel reels off, as calmly as possible.

Prudence's face turns pale at the mention of her grandson. Apparently, at that exact moment, the fear of losing him is stronger than her cold and haughty suit of armour. Before leaving with her head held high, she adds:

“I did it for you. For you, for Silas and even for Virgile. Eleanor is weak, poisonous, toxic. She would have hurt all of you too much. And don't forget the role I played in your son's life, for all these years. I'm aware of what I did, but I don't regret a thing. You can be mad at me, you can hate me, you can pity me, but I'm your mother and that's something that nobody can ever change. Let's not talk about it any more. Don't ruin this party by bringing up old history."

Where's the psychiatric unit when you need one?!

Gabriel coldly follows his mother with his eyes until she leaves his field of vision. Then, as if the conversation never took place, he gives me a jolly smile and suggests we go for a dip before the guests arrive. I accept, relieved to leave this room where some rather negative vibrations are flowing.

The commotion that reigns over the immense, festively decorated terrace makes me dizzy. The omnipresent luxury and ambient ostentation don't seem to shock anyone but me.

Marcus is letting out high-pitched squeals of delight. And he seems to be getting a bunch of dirty looks.

At least he'll make me laugh.

Darling
isn't the same without her honey.

I guess Marion and Tristan are also blown away, but they have too many canapés stuffed in their mouths to articulate half a sentence. Since the noon hour came and went, the twins have been going around to greet their guests. Gabriel is radiant in his designer summer suit. He's always full of the same confidence, whether he's talking to a member of parliament or a waiter. I'm surprised as I observe him from afar, clandestinely. This man isn't easy to decipher. He can keep a polite distance between himself and the entire world, but there isn't an ounce of ill-will or perversity to him. So why hide his conversation with Eleanor from me? Why not admit that she still loves him, that she wants him back, and reassure me by swearing that it would never happen?

Because maybe he isn't so sure of that.