CRY ME A RIVER.

GABRIEL WINDSOR ⎯ THIRTY-FIVE ⎯ HE/HIM ⎯ LAWYER ⎯ COVENTRY HILL.

❝ failure is success if we learn from it. ❞

+ hard-working, adaptable, convivial, easygoing. - arrogant, impulsive, overcritical.

death tw.

Failure was never an option for the Windsors – if one could be allergic to a word and the very definition of it, they would be. Success was their middle name and they seemed to thrive in everything they did, whether it was in the medical field or in the justice field. Hard-working and dedicating their lives to their work, Grant and Clara Windsor expected nothing less from their only son. From a young age, he was groomed to be the very best version of himself that he could be and despite being born into wealth and splendor, the boy was never spoiled. The success of his parents had come through hard work, no hand-outs had been given to them and they’d fought through every obstacle trying to take them down to get to where they were, they expected the same from Gabriel.

Private schools, tutors, extracurriculars to spice up his college application and the hard work that was expected of him meant that he had his pick of schools when he was graduating high school. There had never been a desire for the boy to rebel against his parents wishes, to act out and be the exact opposite of what they wanted him to be. While they held firm beliefs of what they thought their son could be if he only put the work into it, it was always done out of love. Gabriel held no grudges against his parents for doing what they thought was best for him, not when he practically had a world of options ahead of him after years of hard work in school.

However, despite having several options for college, Harvard had always been the school for him as both his parents had attended the school and swore by it. Not only could he get his bachelor’s degree there, but Harvard Law School was one of the best, if not the best in the country – exactly what he wanted.

It was during law school that he’d end up meeting the one woman who would end up turning his life upside down in the years to come. She was from a completely different world than what he was used to, she was wild and thrilling, and exactly what he felt he needed after having kept his mind focused on school and his future for so many years. It didn’t take long for them to throw themselves into a rocky on-off relationship that would span over years. She ran with the wrong crowd, constantly finding herself in trouble and Gabriel was weak for her, often getting her out of the trouble once he passed the bar despite swearing that each time would be the last time. Knowing his parents would disagree with the relationship, just like many of his friends did, the two of them decided to keep it from them.

They’d fight, break up, make-up, get back together and it wouldn’t take long before they broke up once more. Their relationship was messy, but it was perfect. He was married to his job, she could disappear for weeks at a time, but they always found their way back together. But it couldn’t last forever.

Shortly after his 30th birthday, the news broke that she was pregnant with his child. He wasn’t ready to start a family, especially not with a woman as unreliable as her, and especially not when his career had practically gotten started. They broke up with an agreement on both parts that there would be no custody battle, she’d have full custody and if he wanted, he was able to come see his kid once a month. It was an agreement that worked surprisingly well, and the wild, unreliable woman he’d once fallen in love with settled nicely into motherhood and seemed to have changed her life for the better.

But all it took was one mistake on her part to fall back into old ways, ways that would end up costing her her life – and left was their daughter. Their agreement had never actually been written down in a contract and in the eyes of the law, he still had custody over his daughter and after her mother’s death, Gabriel now held full custody over a kid he barely knew and a job that had up until that point taken up all of his time.