The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 139

The following day, at eleven o’clock.

It was Mina’s turn to pace, and the knot in her stomach was unbearable. She turned to Avery who didn’t seem fazed by what she was doing. "I can’t believe you are doing this. This is fucking dangerous!" She whispered even though there was just the two of them. Avery had managed to feed Damon some lies about wanting to spend some time in his house before going to work. Heaven knew how the hell he believed that, considering what a bad liar Avery was.

Avery had her arms crossed, sitting on the plush couch. "Yet, you decided to follow me into this dangerous predicament."

Mina rolled her eyes. "Of course. What did you expect? That I would let you face the danger on your own? My baby would never forgive me if anything happened to their god-aunt."

Avery smiled. That was not the only reason, she supposed. Mina had always been protective of her.

"It will be fine. There is nothing Eloise can do." She assured her.

Mina already knew this since she was here. Eloise would never hurt her, not physically anyway. But that did not calm her nerves in the slightest. Part of her hoped she would come unarmed and this feud would end as soon as possible, while the other part wished the woman would chicken out. Heaven knew what avery was planning and if Eloise decided to retaliate, it would not be funny.

Fifteen more minutes passed and she let out a breath. "There. She is not coming. Eloise is never late to any appointment."

"Give it five more minutes." Avery was surprisingly patient. When five minutes elapsed and Mina reminded her, she chuckled. "I’m starting to think you don’t want her to come."

Mina took a seat opposite her. "Do I continue lying and telling you I wish she could come faster, or is this the part where I admit I don’t want her to come at all?"

Avery smiled and looked behind Mina at the entrance. "Too late. The main clown of the show did show up after all." She then stood and went over to Eloise to examine her.

"I’ll cut the chase. Avery, I would never kidnap a child out of my own volition. But what was I to say? Romano barks and I fetch."

She let out a tiny smile, as fake as could be. "Isn’t the barker supposed to fetch?"

"It doesn’t matter. I did what I was ordered to do." Eloise pushed past her and took a seat. "I know what you are going to ask next so I have an answer for you. Mina only found your son because I wanted her to. Do you really think she has enough strength to fight me?"

Avery studied her for a while and nodded. "There is no dimension of the universe in which I would believe you. Let’s get this over with."

"Whatever it is you are about to do, you better think twice." Eloise warned, before quickly realizing she was wasting time trying to reason with Avery. The woman caught her off guard, pressing the muzzle of a gun to her temples.

"That will not give you any satisfaction. Trust me." Eloise smiled as though she was not being held at gun point.

"The heck I should." Avery laughed sarcastically. Her hands trembled with a rush of adrenaline she couldn’t quite explain. She finally had Eloise right where she wanted her—on the verge of death. It was time to torture the crap out of her.

Yet, she couldn’t explain her hesitation. Maybe it was the fact that she had never pulled a trigger on a living human being before. She had learned how to use a gun but she had done so using training guns, and she had only used a real one to shoot at a static target.

It had to be that. She was scared to have actual human blood on her hands, and the nightmares that were rumored to haunt people after their first kill. It definitely didn’t have anything to do with Mina’s feelings.

She had tried her best not to think about Mina but in the end, she shut her eyes. This woman might be the biggest scum on earth but Mina still saw her mother in her. Could she bear to take away the one thing Mina treasured and live with it?

When she stepped away from Eloise, the woman had the audacity to laugh.

"I don’t want to traumatize Mina." She made an excuse for her change of mind.

"I can see that. I can also see you don’t want to scare the babies." Eloise looked between her and Mina, making Avery’s blood run cold. She knew? She continued, "do you know what they say about pulling the trigger? If you hesitate, you will not do it. As soon as you have your target where you want them, just pull it."

"Don’t worry. I will not take advantage of your pregnancy to hurt you. I’m not such an asshole."

She was not in the least bit trustworthy but Avery believed her. If she had found out about her pregnancy, she probably knew much more than she was letting on. But again, it made sense. After all, the woman had only managed to impersonate her by finding enough information about her to replicate.

She nodded reluctantly.

Finally free, Eloise looked herself over. "I’m alive. Can we put guns away and talk?"

"You don’t have one," Avery retorted. Eloise had been searched before coming in. Hence, her jaw dropped when Eloise reached behind her back and pulled out a glock, which she placed on the armrest.

"Your turn." She smiled.

Avery swallowed, not believing this. Once her gun was on the table, she took a seat as far from Eloise as the living room could allow. "Push your gun over to me." She insisted. Eloise did as she was told, and Avery was puzzled when the gun got to her. It was suspiciously light.

"Your spare bullets." She demanded. Eloise raised her arms in surrender to signify she didn’t have any, and Avery finally understood why the firearm detector didn’t catch the gun on her. It was a toy. A closer look at the glock proved her right.

"I knew I wouldn’t actually need it. If you decided to kill me tonight, I would have accepted my fate." Eloise added.

"That sounds like something you would say right before haunting the hell out of me in my dreams." Avery retorted.

"If I had the chance to return as a ghost—if ghosts even truly exist to begin with—I would use that chance to make Mina happy."

"That’s my cue to make you leave." Mina crossed her arms.

"Of course. Even though the two of you didn’t offer the cup of tea you promised me, I have an offer. I have been with the Romanos long enough to know how to handle Dominic when he’s being too much of an asshole."

While the offer was tempting, Avery didn’t want to have anything to do with Eloise anymore. The only reason why she was letting her go was because she realized the woman hadn’t intended to go through with hurting Angel. If she had, she would have died before she told Mina where to find him. That didn’t mean they could be friends.

"I want you to do one thing for me if you really insist on helping." She spoke up before she could stop herself. "Make the Romanos vow to stay the fuck away from Vaillant Telecommunications."

"Does that include her?" She pointed her chin at Mina. She was trying to make fun of them but if eyes could shoot daggers, she would be long dead from Mina’s stare.

"I’ll do what I can. I will be on my way, if you let me."

Avery had no reason to keep her and neither did Mina, so they let her leave. Eloise thought it was over but as soon as she stepped out through the humongous gates, she was baffled at the black car parked outside that she had not seen on her way in. The window rolled down to reveal Gabriel’s displeased face.

"Get in the car."

Her first reaction was to want to say she would never get into a stranger’s car but screw it! She had left Damon’s villa in one piece. Heaven knew she had been terrified of the thought that he would catch on to their little meeting. She wouldn’t be alive if that heartless man got a hold of her. So, against her better judgment, she entered the car. When her eye caught a surveillance camera, she smiled. At least someone would know how she died.

______

Although they had gotten married, Mina and Gabriel had not officially moved in together. It had taken them a long time deciding where to live before they finally agreed his penthouse would be the best idea. It was immensely spacious and it was easy to turn one of the humongous bedrooms into a nursery.

She dropped by on Saturday afternoon to check on the designs he had in mind. She felt a strange premonition soon after she entered the house. An inexplicable stench lingered in the air. Chalking it up to her hormones that seemed to make her think too much about everything, she took the stairs up to the study where she knew he would be.

"Gabe?" She called out softly, feeling oddly terrified. He was not in the study. She took a moment to admire the new layout. He had added a few pieces of furniture, including a bookshelf that covered the entire wall, but it was the ring at the bottom of it that caught her eye. She nervously walked over and inspected it closer, before deciding to pick it up with her handkerchief.

She didn’t know what was more shocking—the fact that it was the Romano family’s heirloom ring or the stain on its inside that looked a heck lot like dried blood.