Chapter 4 Chapitre 4

The phone vibrated on the table.

Gabrielle jumped slightly, suddenly brought back to reality. His gaze landed on the screen. Unknown number.

His heart was hugging. Few people had this number.

She hesitated. Then picked up.

- Gabrielle.

The voice at the other end of the line was serious, measured. She recognized her immediately.

- Master Lefèvre?

- I'm sorry to call you at such an hour, but a situation has just arisen.

She straightened up instinctively, her back leaving the sofa file.

- What situation?

A silence. Just long enough for anxiety to interfere in his mind.

- There was an attempted movement on one of your accounts.

Gabrielle's breath blocked in her throat.

- What do you mean by "movement"?

- Someone tried to access your funds.

An ice wave spread in it.

- Impossible. No one knows ...

She stopped net.

No one was supposed to know.

She felt a touch of adrenaline getting into her, her mind already getting carried away on all possible implications.

- Who was?

- We have not yet identified the origin of the attempt. But it was not a simple hacking. It was methodical. Calculated.

A thrill flowed along its spine.

She briefly closed her eyes, inspired slowly.

- Have the funds been affected?

- No. Access was blocked immediately. But what worries me is the accuracy of the attempt.

Gabrielle hugged her teeth.

She spent years hiding her identity, to make sure that nothing connects her to her inheritance. If someone was trying to cross this line, it was he knew.

- What should I do?

- I will strengthen the security, but you must be careful. Someone may try to find you.

She felt a cold sweaty pearl at the base of her neck.

Someone.

She didn't know who. Nor why.

But one thing was certain.

His past was no longer buried as deeply as she had believed it. Gabrielle put her glass with a calculated lightness, her fingers briefly touching the edge of the crystal. She felt a shiver of discomfort crossing her. Nathan was there, just in front of her, a rare vulnerability in her eyes, a vulnerability that she had not anticipated. He sat near her, closer than she would have imagined, but this time, it was her gaze that held her. Not his gestures, not her smile, but a depth in his eyes that seemed to attract him irresistibly.

- Do you want to know what scares me, Gabrielle?

She looked up at him, her breath a little shorter. She had never seen him in this state, this dark brilliance behind her usually impassive gaze. She expected everything except that.

- I ... I think I already know, she said gently, trying to hide the tension that tied her throat.

Nathan stared at his hands, the palms placed on the table, almost motionless. The expression on his face had changed. It was no longer that of the powerful and confident man she knew, but that of someone who bore a weight, a burden that he had never shared.

- No, you don't know, he replied slowly, each word weighing like a compass that directed his thoughts.

She looked at him, fascinated, a feeling of curiosity and fear intertwining in her. He didn't seem to want to stop. It was a strange moment, when the intimacy of a stolen moment between them took on a turn that she had not anticipated.

- I am what everyone expects from me, he continued, and yet ... I often wondered what it would mean if I was not what everyone sees.

She felt her heart tighten. This confession, this breach in her usual mask, took her short. Nathan looked so ... human. And that made him even more complex to understand.

- And you, Gabrielle? he said, his gaze intensifying. What scares you?

She looked away, a thrill rising in her. She was not ready to answer this question, not now. She had her own secrets, scars that she was not ready to reveal. But he was there, her insistent, almost burning gaze, and she felt this pressure which rose slowly.

He leaned slightly forward, capturing his attention, his lips barely touching the words:

- You never had the impression that, whatever you do, there are always people who want to break you, to make you fall?

Heavy silence fell to each other. Gabrielle felt a cold browse her skin. She understood. She knew what he was talking about. But there was something even more personal in this confession, something that she had not anticipated. He was not only the powerful Nathan, he was also the one who had to fight for what he had.

- This is exactly what I feel, she replied in a weaker voice than she would have liked.

A heavy silence followed.

Then he broke the tension with a sudden gesture, straightening up in his seat. There was a hand in his hair, as if he was trying to resume his calm. Gabrielle felt a tingling in the air, a shiver of nervousness that rose slowly.

- But we are different, Gabrielle, he suddenly resumed, eyes darkened.

She looked at him, a little surprised. She was not sure to understand where he was coming from, but she felt a change. A new energy in his voice.

- How does that, different? She asked, her words tinged with skepticism that she failed to hide.

He stared at it straight in the eyes.

- I have everything. You have what you want to show. You hide much more than you say, right?

Gabrielle felt her heart accelerate. She wanted to answer her, but something impulsive made her hold back. Nathan knew, he guessed. He was too close to the truth. And that terrified her.

- That's it, isn't it? he added, a grin that appeared at the corner of his lips. You hide something from me, and you don't seem to want me to discover it.

The tension rose from a notch. The ease with which he had dissected his fears, his barriers, had her vacillated. She didn't want to admit it, but he was right. She had secrets that she was not ready to share, and she could not allow Nathan to know them.

- Do not put me in this situation, Nathan, she said in a firmer, straightening up in turn.

He looked at her, her eyes sparkling with an energy that she didn't know how to interpret. But in his pupils, there was also a shadow of challenge. As if she was waiting for her to react. As if this confrontation was inevitable.

- What is this difference between us, Gabrielle? He said colder tone. Is that your heritage? Is that your money?

She felt a glow of anger to be born in her.

- I already told you it was not the question. It's not a matter of money. It's a matter of... distance, pre -predictions. I don't want you to see in me something that I am not.

He emitted a nervous laugh, almost incredulous.

- And you think I saw you like that? Like someone who hides everything, all the time?

Gabrielle felt her face harden.

- This is exactly what you just did, Nathan. You just judged me.

He stared at her, his eyebrows raised slightly.

- This is what you do every time you talk to me. You think I'm just what I see in you. But you do the same thing.

They challenged themselves, the tension bubbling with each other. It was no longer a question of wanting to protect yourself, but to know if one of them would be ready to accept what they really were. And at this precise moment, Gabrielle no longer knew if she was ready to drop this facade.