Pearl

Chapter Thirty-One: Two of a Kind

Gabriel looked up at the sound of his door swinging open, lifting his eyebrows once he registered who had crossed the threshold. He set aside the document in his hands - a pending contract for another shipment of T2 out to Hong Kong.  

"Ms. Dewan - what a surprise," he said, lacing his fingers and settling back into his chair.

The woman in question kept her gaze steady as she met his eyes, letting one arm come out to the side to rest on her hip in a posture she had long ago adopted from Rose.

"You know I no longer make use of my surname," Farheen said evenly.

He shrugged lightly and said no more, letting his customary half smile fill his face as he waited. She stared him down, the air growing sour as years of largely unspoken animosity filled the space.

The smiling man vs. the expressionless woman – two of a kind, but irreconcilably different.

Or so it had always seemed. Farheen refused to drop her eyes but tilted her head to acknowledge her position as the one who broke the standoff first.

"It has become evident to me that we may have a mutual goal," she said.

He released a short, scornful laugh.

"And how do you figure that?"

Farheen didn't hesitate.

"You want Rose to move on from Pearl. And I...want Rose," she said baldly.

Farheen's eyes raked over Gabriel's face for a reaction, but she was disappointed to find it so mild.

"Oh." Without looking away from her, he reached forward for something on his desk. He began to fiddle with it absent-mindedly as he continued to consider her. Farheen spared the object a glance, saw the small pebble on the chain that he worried between his fingers. She looked up to a renewed glint in his eyes.

"So you've finally realized, have you?" he asked, that half smile turning into a smirk as the left side of his face drew up sharply. He stood abruptly, his chair rolling backwards into the wall as he moved forward.

Farheen stood her ground as he approached.

"Realized what, exactly?" she asked with the same even tone as before.

He stopped just beside her, leaning in slightly. "Why - that you are absolutely, irrationally in love with my sister," he said, smirk widening into a derisive smile as irritation flickered across her usually neutral features.

Point to the smiling man.

"No," she replied, her words clipped but calm. "I have simply decided what I want, and what I want is Rose. Love has nothing to do with me, and there is nothing irrational about me or my conduct."

He chuckled, his voice deep enough to startle her as he circled around her. "There is nothing rational about love," he said, amusement dripping from his tone, "and love is the reason that you want what you do."

She shot him a look out of the corner of her eyes, not deigning to turn her head to follow his movements.

"It strikes me," she said with her usual straightforward tone, "that you speak of your own situation. If anyone in this room is in love with your sister, it is you."

"Step-sister," he snapped, turning away sharply and stalking back to the front of his desk.

"That is not a denial."

He slammed a hand down. "Don't push your desires on me. What I feel for Rose isn't...it's nothing so kind as love."

Point to the expressionless woman.