Husband With Benefits
Chapter 633: You Know

Chapter 633: You Know

Autumn felt her world spin as his words echoed in her head. He knew about Arabelle? But...

"How do you know?"

Gabe shook his head, confused about why she was worried so much..." Seb called me. Autumn, I know you’re worried about Arabelle but she is going to be fine at Seb’s place, you know that too."

Autumn blinked. He thought she was talking about little Arabelle.. not his ex wife. She shook her head,"I’m not talking about that. I... I’m talking about the woman you love."

Gabe stilled then and Autumn noticed the subtle change in him. He’d been leaning against the counter casually until now, but now there was something defensive in his position. "Autumn... She is not..."

Gabe thought back to the conversation he’d had in Ian. After a lot of thinking, he’d come to a decision to come clean to Autumn. He’d been thinking how to bring that up with Autumn but now that she’d raised the topic herself, he was grateful.

The first thing he wanted to tell her was that Arabelle was not the woman he loved. She hadn’t been for a long time. He’d slowly come to accept that. It wasn’t that he’d fallen out of love... just that his heard no longer yearned for her or ached for her. So that love had mellowed...

However, before he could say all this, Autumn blurted out in a single breath," Arabelle is alive."

Gabe frowned, wondering if he had heard wrongly. "What did you say?"

Autumn felt her heart ache, misinterpreting his question. " I know it is unbelievable but it is the truth. Arabelle is alive..."

Gabe felt as if the ground had been pulled out from under him. "What do you mean she’s alive?" he asked, his voice a mixture of shock and disbelief.

Autumn took a deep breath, steadying herself. "I found this today," she said, holding out the USB stick once more. "It’s from Elena. The wedding gift that she’d given. There’s a few videos on it..."

Gabe’s eyes hardened as he took the USB from her. Bringing out his laptop, he plugged the USB inside and started to play the videos.

Autumn looked away. She did not have the heart to look at them again. They were too hurtful. She made to walk away, but instead, her hand was caught by Gabe who pulled her close, making her sit on his thigh. She wanted to say something but his eyes were focused on the screen. She leaned her head against his chest, closing her eyes. Maybe this was her chance to say goodbye.

Gabe watched the videos in silence, his jaw clenched, eyes narrowed as Arabelle’s face filled the screen. Autumn could feel the tension radiating from him, his body rigid beneath her. She dared not look at the screen, instead focusing on the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.

When the final video ended, showing Arabelle in a hospital, Gabe shut the laptop with a decisive snap. Autumn braced herself for his reaction, her heart pounding in her chest. Would he run away right away to confront Elena Winthrope and get Arabelle back? Or would he wait and try to find more about Arabelle?

She tried to decipher his expression, but it was as if a mask had fallen over his features, hiding his true emotions, making him unreadable

"What do you think of this?" he finally asked, much to her surprise.

Autumn blinked, taken aback. "What do I think?" she echoed, her voice trembling. She searched his eyes, desperate for any sign of his true feelings. "Gabe, I... I don’t know. It’s shocking. I understand that you would want to go to her..."

His eyes met hers then and she looked away, trying to hide the pain she was feeling. It would have been so much better if he’d just run away after seeing that. Sitting like this, calmly discussing something like this, made her feel even more antsy...

Suddenly,Gabe leaned in, his lips brushing against hers in a soft, tender kiss that had her eyes widening in disbelief. " Is this the reason why you’ve been tensed all day?"

"Aren’t you shocked? Your wife is alive... Gabe."

Gabe smiled, his hand cupping her face," I know. And she is right here sitting on my thigh. I am going to kiss her sweet lips now..." With that, he kissed her again, this time deepening the kiss slowly. Her hands clutched at his shoulder, pushing the confusion and questions aside.

Finally, when he broke the kiss, he looked into her eyes," Autumn... to me, Arabelle is dead. The woman I loved and cared for has already gone away. I don’t know if this woman in the pen drive is really Arabelle or something that Elena has cooked up to trouble us...and I do not care. Elena has left this as a bait... one which we are not going to take."

When he felt her continue to look at him, he finally sighed and revealed a secret that he’d kept to himself.... "That day... when Arabelle died... I could have saved her."

Autumn was shocked, her eyes widening as she heard this. How was that possible. But Gabe was not looking at her, his gaze far away...

"Our car was hanging over the edge and I could feel her hand slipping from mine. All I had to do was hang on to her. Another few moments... and the people would have reached us for rescue...But as I looked at her, the madness in her eyes... the desperation in them to finish off her misery...I stopped trying.."

Autumn was shocked at the words. She could hear the guilt in his voice and the hurt. It must have killed him to let her go, to let her fall to her death.

Gabe looked at her then, letting her see the pain in his eyes,"I don’t know if I was right or not in what I did. But that day, Arabelle died alongwith the boy you just saw in the videos. The one who looked at her as if she was the star and the moon. That boy who loved her desperately died with her. So... this Arabelle.. I don’t care if she is the same person or not..."

This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢