Gabriel and Steven

Gabriel and Steven is a relationship seen in Carter Corp

## Overview

Gabriel and Steven is the father-son relationship and current rivalry between Gabriel and Steven Simons seen only in Gabriel's route. Stephen walked out on Gabriel and his mother Holly Simons when Gabriel was a young boy due to his gambling debts, and he only left his ring behind for Gabriel that Gabriel still wore as an adult and cherished even though he knew the reason why his father abandoned him which deeply affected Gabriel and he still resented his father until the present day because of it.

Stephen didn't appear in Gabriel's life until decades later, seemingly wanting to reconcile with Gabriel and bond with him again after seemingly regretting what he did when Gabriel was a kid. Gabriel at first was on his guard and didn't trust Steven, but after a while eventually gave in to Steven's pleas and affectionate thinking he was being serious, and decided to give his dad a chance and began to hang out with him more such as playing chess together, something that Steven taught Gabriel how to play when he was a kid. After thinking he had his dad back for real, Gabriel was excited to bond with him more thinking he could finally have a real father-son relationship again like he always wanted, but Steven sadly had ulterior motives. It was revealed that Steven was a scam artist and master manipulator and wanted to rob casinos in Atlantic City with Gabriel's help, and if the heist went wrong, then he was going to use Gabriel as the fall guy and pin the blame on him, which is what happened as when Steven got caught stealing, he ran away and didn't help Gabriel which got Gabriel framed and arrested.

After Gabriel got out of jail, he was furious with his father which caused the 2 of them to fight on the street, where Gabriel had pushed Steven causing him to fall and hit his head on the side walk and make his head bleed and cut his ear. Despite his anger, Gabriel didn't mean for the fight to escalate to that extent and he was worried for Steven so he brought him up to his office to bandage him up and make sure he was okay, and this is where Steven wanted to give Gabriel an expensive tie which was actually a device that would help him cheat in casinos that Gabriel was secretly disgusted by.

After this, Gabriel tries to act like he had forgiven Steven and that everything was alright, when in reality, Gabriel was trying to get Steven arrested by getting him to confess his crimes while Gabriel would be secretly recording, which means that Gabriel was fed up with his father's antics and wanted him to go to jail and face justice.
In the good ending, he succeeds in his plans and gets Steven arrested after getting him to confess which leaves Gabriel feeling satisfied and happy. But in the bad ending, Steven catches on to what Gabriel is doing and runs off, leaving Gabriel frustrated and mad, and Steven free and on the run to do more crimes.

Gabriel still seems to love his father deep down even after all he's done, but knows there's no saving him from the man that he has become. He was disappointed to find out that his father wanting to reconnect with him was all a lie, but also felt like he should have known better and should have known that this was how things were going to turn out. And Steven also does still seem to love Gabriel deep down as well, but he's too much of a crook, thief and a liar to be a good father towards him and would rather lie and steal. Money came first to Steven before Gabriel to the point where he was okay with using Gabriel as a pawn and a fall guy in order to get that money, which means at times he viewed him as no more than as an object and a pawn to use in his plans and didn't care how that would possibly negatively effect Gabriel. But again, there were moments where he did seem to genuinely care for Gabriel, even after the truth about him came out, but he's not good as truthfully showing it and the bad outweighs the good with his love for him.