Gabriel's POV
Lily won't look at him the next morning.
Gabriel notices immediately. She arrives at the office and avoids his gaze. When he passes her desk, she suddenly finds her computer screen fascinating. When he speaks, she answers with short professional phrases and nothing else.
Something is wrong.
Gabriel's chest tightens in a way he doesn't recognize. It's not the basement panic. It's something sharper. More dangerous. Someone hurt her. Someone said something. Someone made her retreat into that invisible shell she wore before he found her.
He needs to know who.
He waits until mid-morning then calls her into his office.
"Close the door," he says.
Lily closes it but stays near the exit like she's planning an escape route. Gabriel watches her and feels something dark settle in his stomach.
"What happened?" he asks.
"Nothing. I'm just trying to be more professional."
It's a lie. Gabriel can see it in how she holds her shoulders. In how her hands grip her blazer. In how she won't meet his eyes.
"Don't lie to me." His voice comes out sharper than he intends. "Something changed between yesterday and today. Tell me what it was."
Lily's jaw clenches. She takes a breath like she's preparing for impact.
"People are saying things," she finally admits. "About us. They think I'm only here because we're... because you want..."
She can't finish.
Gabriel stands slowly. His hands curl into fists without his permission.
"What are they saying?" His voice is quiet. Dangerous.
"That I'm sleeping with you," Lily whispers. "That I got this job because of personal favors. That I don't deserve this position."
Something red clouds Gabriel's vision.
For sixteen years, he's controlled his anger. Controlled his rage. Controlled the darkness that lives in his chest by maintaining absolute distance from other people. But Lily's words just cracked that control wide open.
Someone is disrespecting her.
Someone is making her feel like she doesn't belong.
Someone needs to burn.
"Give me names," Gabriel says.
"No."
"Names, Lily."
"Mr. Stone, it doesn't matter. I just need to be more careful. Keep more distance. Stay professional." She's retreating further into herself. Making herself smaller. Disappearing.
Gabriel can't watch that happen.
He stands and moves toward her. "It matters to me."
"You can't fire people for gossiping," Lily says urgently. "That's exactly what I was afraid of. That you'd do something extreme and make this worse."
"Then tell me who said it and let me handle it," Gabriel says quietly.
Lily backs away. "No. I'm not giving you names so you can destroy careers."
Gabriel moves closer anyway. "Watch me."
His voice is ice. His expression is cold fury. And Lily looks at him like she's seeing the monster everyone warned her about.
She backs up until her body hits the desk.
Gabriel stops moving forward but only because he realizes he's crowding her. That his size and his anger are making her afraid. That he's becoming exactly what she feared.
He steps back.
But his eyes promise violence anyway.
"No one gets to say those things about you," Gabriel says quietly. His control is fracturing. He can feel it like ice breaking under pressure. "No one gets to diminish what you've earned. No one gets to disrespect what you mean to me."
"What do I mean to you?" Lily asks. Her voice is so small it breaks him.
Gabriel doesn't answer because the answer is too big. Too consuming. Too dangerous for her to know right now.
Instead, he says, "Go back to work. Ignore what people are saying. And stop avoiding my eyes. That part ends now."
Lily nods and escapes his office like she's running from a predator.
Gabriel stands alone and lets the rage settle into his bones.
She thinks people gossiping is the problem.
She has no idea what real problems look like.
That night, Gabriel sits in his penthouse and makes a call.
Ryan answers on the first ring. "Boss. What's wrong?"
"I need security footage," Gabriel says. "Every break room. Every hallway. Every conversation about Lily Hart from the last three days."
There's a pause.
"Sir, that's going to raise questions. Security footage requests need to be logged and—"
"I don't care about procedure," Gabriel interrupts. "Get me the footage. Tonight."
"Gabriel, what happened?"
Gabriel closes his eyes. He can hear the concern in Ryan's voice. Ryan is his only friend. His only ally. The only person who knows about the basement and doesn't flinch.
"People are spreading rumors about Lily," Gabriel says. "Suggesting she slept her way into her position. Suggesting she's using me. I need to know who and I need to know what they said."
"And then what?" Ryan asks carefully.
"And then they learn what happens when you disrespect someone I care about."
Another pause. A longer one.
"This is the obsession your therapist warned about," Ryan says quietly.
"I know."
"You're going to destroy her if you keep protecting her like this."
"I know that too," Gabriel says. "But I'm not stopping."
Ryan sighs. "I'll get you the footage. But Gabriel, you need to think about what comes next. You can't just fire people. That's going to make the rumors worse. That's going to make everyone certain something inappropriate is happening."
Gabriel knows he's right.
He doesn't care.
"Get the footage," Gabriel repeats and hangs up.
He sits in the darkness of his penthouse and stares at the city. Somewhere down there, Lily is in her small apartment thinking about him. Thinking about how he's changing. How his protection is becoming something darker.
She's right to be scared.
Because Gabriel is done pretending he can control this.
He's done pretending his feelings for her are rational.
He's done building walls when all he wants to do is burn down the world to keep her safe.
His phone buzzes with a text from Ryan. Footage is being compiled. Thirty minutes.
Gabriel waits in the dark.
And when the videos start playing across his screen, showing employees laughing about Lily. Mocking her. Suggesting she's using him. Making crude jokes about her body and her position and what she must be doing to keep his attention.
Gabriel makes a list.
And he plans their destruction very carefully.
Because Lily might have asked him not to do anything extreme.
But Lily also doesn't understand that there's no extreme when it comes to protecting what's his.
And by tomorrow morning, everyone in Stone Global is going to learn that lesson.