Chapter Six

"Julian, what is my schedule for today?"

"You have a pretty open schedule today for a Saturday, young master. You have a conference call with the Director, to discuss the new hospital wing you are funding, that isn't until 5PM. Your mother is expected to stop by afterwards with your sister, for her birthday dinner. Otherwise, you are free for the day."

It feels like it has been months since Gabriel was granted a partially free day to do whatever he wanted, which is nothing. Just one day to do nothing.

Ever since he took over as head of the family 2 years ago, he has been drowning in the work his father had been ignoring and pushing off, almost causing the entire downfall of the Monroe family, making them a laughingstock of society.

For generations, the Monroe family has been known as one of the most elite families in all of high and low society, having their hands in pretty much every aspect of business, whether it be hospitality, tourism, or real estate, if it made them money you know they have connections and businesses in the area.

But when Gabriel's father took over, he ended up drunk on power and eventually, a true drunk. He would spend endless nights at the Monroe Casino, one of their most successful businesses next to their hotel chain, which most of their casinos are located in. He would gamble away their fortune and not bat an eye, thinking he could just make it back by letting others do the work for him.

If it hadn't of been for Julian Heroux, his father's aide and most trusted person, he would have drunk the family wealth under the table. He stepped forward and sought out Gabriel, to plead with him to relieve his father as head of the family when he turned 21, and take over.

After he got the backing of his mother and grandfather, previous head before his own father, he forced his father to step down and demand that he seeks rehabilitation for his drinking habit. He was sent away to a retreat, far away from the family and its affairs.

In doing so, it left all the work and troubles that came from his father's neglect to fall on Gabriel, and rather heavily. He has been working non-stop straight through the weekend, his 23rd birthday having come and gone in the blink of an eye without any celebration or time-off.

As the saying famously goes, you can rest when you're dead. If he continues working this way, he will end up working himself into an early grave anyway.

Turning his head towards the window, a beautiful blonde catches his eye, her golden waves reflecting in the morning sun and her green eyes dulled over, as if lost in space. She has a beautiful face from what he can tell, most of it covered by her hair.

He is too entranced with her, thinking of the last time he occupied his time with a woman even, that he doesn't realize she is walking straight into the road without looking either way, but it doesn't seem like Julian saw her walk out of the store and between the parked cars.

"Julian, hit the brakes!" he cries out, giving the man just enough to instantly slam his foot down on the breaks and come to a halting stop just as the woman steps out in front of the car, the front stopping just before her buckling knees.

The green eyes that were dulled over before, are now bright and alert, staring directly at Gabriel, though he doesn't think she can see him through the window.

Julian lets out a loud exhale of breath. "That was a close one."

Gabriel looks her over as he takes over his seatbelt and makes sure she isn't harmed but sees her soon start to wobble from side to side ever so slightly.

"She's going to faint," he whispered, just loud enough for Julian to barely catch.

"What?" he asks. But Gabriel is already out of the car and running towards the woman, catching her just before she hits the ground and possibly splits her head open. Once Julian realizes what has happened, he pulls out his phone and calls for help, then gets out to help Gabriel assess her.

"I've called for help; an ambulance should be here soon."

Gabriel clicks his tongue and lifts the woman off the ground. "We can get to a hospital faster than an ambulance can get here. Get in and drive, we'll have her seen right away."

Julian doesn't hesitate to follow command and hops in the front seat, starting the car and speeding off once he double checks once again that the road is clear, still slightly shaken up himself from almost killing an innocent woman.

***

Blinking her eyes open and being met with unfamiliar surroundings, brings on a sense of deja-vu to Chloe the moment she gains consciousness after the close call accident. It takes her senses a few minutes to wake up, alerting her to the faint beeping sound next to her and the bustling voices in the distant.

A muffled voice can be heard over an intercom just outside the door, as a man dressed in white rushes past the small window, clipboard in hand.

Did I really faint in the middle of the street? Chloe thinks to herself, groaning as she slowly lifts herself from the lumpy hospital bed. Movement in the corner of the room catches her eye, and she instinctively leaps back when the intruder moves towards her.

"You shouldn't move so suddenly, you might get lightheaded and pass out again," a man's voice speaks. A stranger with black hair and narrowed dark eyes walks towards her with a concerned look on his face. This reminds Chloe that she saw a man rush towards her, just before she fainted, which explains why she doesn't feel any wound or bandage on her head.

They caught her before she hit the ground.

"I suppose I have you to thank for landing in the hospital without a scratch or bump on the head," she says and chuckles lightly, trying to relieve the awkward tension she is creating. The man is older than her, possibly mid to late 50's, with an air of sophistication to him, as he is dressed in a crisp suit and tie.

"Sadly, no. I should be the one apologizing to you, since I am the driver of the vehicle that almost hit you. The man who caught you after fainting, is the man I work for and was driving at the moment. If it wasn't for his quick reaction time, you might have really died right there when your head hit the ground..."

This man really has a way, she thinks, her mind blanking from the man named Julian's harsh words. It was clear to her what would've happened, if no one had been there to save her, he doesn't have to paint it out for her to understand.

"Well then, now that that's been taken care of." Julian approaches her and takes out a white business card to her, with nothing but an address and time, tomorrow 9AM.

"What is this?" she asks, but Julian is already out the door, stopping to speak with the doctor as he is arriving to explain Athena has woken up and looks to be fine. The doctor examines her once more before telling her she is clear to be discharged, but recommends having someone else drive her home.

Margaret is already waiting for her in the waiting room, her cheeks still wet with tears and her eyes red and swollen, like she has been crying since she got there and hasn't stopped. How is she going to be able to driver her home? She looks like she can barely see!

After consoling Margaret, as if she was the one who just landed herself in the hospital, they head home, her eyes never leaving the small white card.

Unsure of where she is going and who she is meeting, she dresses business casual the next morning, with a peach-colored pencil skirt and white blouse, tying up her long blonde hair in a high pony tail and wearing minimal make-up, not trying to make herself stand-out. Something tells her that the help she received the other day wasn't for free, and that this meeting today will be to discuss how she expects to pay it back.

Money is not the issue, it's if they ask for compensation in another form, she isn't sure what she can offer, still not sure what Athena has full control over. She has been meaning to go over the documents about her mother's properties and assets, but she hasn't visited the university since she dropped them off in her locker, afraid that she is being watched by her father or Stella, and will lead them right too it.

So much for a leisure life.

She takes a driver this time, Margaret not allowing her to leave the house unless she does, after yesterday's incident. It would be nice anyway to think over what she is going to say, though it's hard to think of what, when she doesn't even know who she is meeting.

Assuming it's the man Julian had mentioned earlier, the one he works for and the one who actually caught her before she fell. What he wants from her is a bigger question.

If it was just a matter of money, he would've had his aide Julian handle the matter, just write a cheque for said amount and be done with it. He wants to meet her, first thing in the morning on a usual business day, tells her there is more too it.

But what? What do they expect from me, or Athena, who is seen as nothing other than an airhead model?

The driver pulls up to the front doors of the luxurious Monroe Towers, also known as Hotel Monroe, with two different tall buildings connected by a smaller building, where their infamous casino is located, where they make most of their wealth.

Chloe feels a tremor in her chest.

How do I know that? Whether this is Earth, or some other dimensional world, I've never lived here before, I haven't even looked at a newspaper or online tabloid about anything other than Athena and the Rose family since coming here.

It has to be Athena's repressed memories, whatever she might still have left in her body before Chloe's soul took over.

Unfortunately, that bit of information seems to be all that she is able to remember. She knows who the Monroe family is, and how the head of the family is currently a man named Gabriel Monroe, known for becoming one of the youngest business owners and family head, all at the age of 21, and raised their company up from the edge of bankruptcy in just 2 years.

Other than that, Athena didn't seem to know much more about him, meaning Chloe is still walking in blind, having to act like the former Athena to not rise suspicion. She has been doing a great job so far, but at home the only person who really interacts with her on a daily basis is Margaret, who she doesn't have to keep up such a solid act.

She can fake amnesia but becoming an entirely different person overnight is not something that happens every day.

Taking a deep breath, she walks into the building and gives her name to the woman at the front desk and told to head through a set of large double doors off to the side, leading into the casino and there will be a man on the other side to escort her to Mr. Monroe's office.

She can feel her heart pounding in her ears as she pushes open the door and is met by a burly bald man once she is through. He nods silently at her, then turns to weave through the crowd, no indication if she should follow or not. Assuming she is, she scrambles after him, squeezing her way through the heated sets of bodies.

Even for a Monday morning at 9AM, the place is relatively packed with people and loud with excitement and cries of disappointment. How are all these people here? Do they not have jobs or work they need to tend too? Lives they need to take care of? Not be gambling everything away first thing in the morning.

Turning her head away from the scene, she tries not to lose the large back of the man in front of her. He leads her towards the back of the cathedral style room to a hidden door, stopping to open it for her and beckoning her through. She is surprised when she enters into a brightly lit room, full of natural light from the many bay windows that line the far wall.

From where the room is located in the casino, one would think it would be a dark office lit up by fluorescent lights, not this spacious naturally lit space. She is so blown away by the office, that she doesn't realize there is a man sitting at the wooden desk directly in the middle of the room, watching her look around the room in wonder with sharp steely eyes.

He clears his throat to grab her attention, lifting his hands to his mouth to hide the small smile fighting to creep up on his face. She seems to be a little more interesting than he thought she might be, and no longer regrets his decision in asking her there.

Chloe snaps her head to the man behind the desk, her emerald eyes growing wide when she realizes that she isn't alone in the room and remembers what she is there to do. She has already embarrassed herself within the first five seconds of meeting her potential life saver. What a great way to start off whatever sort of meeting this is going to be.

"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Rose. I'm sorry to have asked you here so early in the morning, but I'm a rather busy man and don't have much time available during the day," the man, who she can now assume is the infamous Gabriel Monroe, based on his devilishly handsome good looks and extremely young appearance, speaks to her.

She finds herself unable to meet his dazzling grey eyes, and the way they seem to be observing her every move as she wanders around the room, unable to take a seat in front of him. She is surprised he hasn't asked her to either.

It's clear to Gabriel that his presence makes her uncomfortable, as it does most people, he meets for the first time. It comes with being someone of extreme wealth and power, with a lot of people depending on them and a lot of money in their control. He gives off a sometimes-suffocating air of arrogance and dominance, which can make a person nervous and uncertain in front of him.

The way Athena paces in front of him tells him she is no exception to this, with the way she is also unable to meet his gaze directly on. This confuses him a little, based on the research he did on her, the famed Athena Rose, a woman who is wanted by many and hated by many more because of her beauty and talent. She didn't strike him as a woman who is unable to meet any mans eye, and instead is the type of woman to make a unworthy man cower or bow in front of her.

Yet the young woman who stands in front of him reminds him of a timid bunny, rather than a ferocious tiger, like he had thought.

Did he get his facts and research wrong? He even had Julian do his own research on her as well, to make sure she is someone who is fit enough to be involved in the company, even in the slightest. Even the staff he employs temporarily, need to be people he can trust a little, or except to do their job properly without being supervised.

Despite how they met and why he is making her the offer, she is no exception to this rule. But they couldn't find anything alarming bad about her, other than she has a temper and is known for being rather vapid and stuck up.

But he really isn't getting that sense from her right now, which does raise some alarms. Even someone like her cannot completely disguise her intentions from him, he has dealt with too many types of people in this business, he has picked up a strong knack for reading people.

"It's not a problem, Mr. Monroe. After all, you saved my life after I so recklessly ran into traffic, the fact that you are being so considerate of me is already more than enough. I'm here because I hope there is a way for me to pay you back, I'm willing to discuss any options, you have done me a great favor, I pretty much owe you my life technically."

The more she speaks, the more the flags in his head go off. He watched quite a few interviews and videos of her, and even her manner of speaking is distinctive, exuding an air of confidence and control over every situation, even during an awkward line of questioning from reporters or being involved in a public scandal.

The woman in front of him is not that same woman.