The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 49

"Why don’t you ask him? Angel never lies." He challenged her, and although there were so many things wrong with his statement, she couldn’t find anything to say.

"Never mind. It’s almost his bedtime." She picked the boy up and bathed him, and since he wanted to dress up on his own, she let him and returned to her make-do desk to continue working.

Damon was behind her in an instant, peeking over at her work. "You don’t have to work your pretty ass off anymore. I will take your financial needs off your shoulders."

"Excuse me?" She wanted to slap him.

"Well, Angel is my son. It’s only right for me to take care of him. By extension, I will take care of you too. You only need to look pretty and have fun."

She glanced up at him and wondered what insane dream she had wandered into. "I had to work my ass off to afford my son’s treatment, and now you expect me to leave all this behind for a promise of rainbows and unicorns? Are you out of your fucking mind?"

He went quiet and so did she, and thankfully, Angel ran over to them and broke the awkward silence. He was holding a book in his hand, which she took from him with a smile.

"You want a bedtime story? Of course, I’ll read it to you."

However, that was not what was in his little mind. He pried the book out of her hand and held it up to Damon, his eyes full of anticipation.

Understanding his meaning, Damon’s back froze. Avery would kill him for this. "I’m no good in reading books," he tried to avert the crisis, only to earn a jab from Avery.

"What your daddy means is he cannot read books on his own so he wants to read it to you! Which just happens to be what you want. Isn’t that a lovely coincidence?" She picked Angel up and shot him a deathly glare on her way to Angel’s room.

Just like he wanted, they both sat on his bed and embraced him while Damon read his favorite book. When he drifted into sleep, Avery tried to sit up and noticed how close her hand was to Damon’s.

"I didn’t think he ever noticed." She pulled her hand away gently.

"That other kids’ parents are together while his are always yelling at each other? Of course he noticed." He shrugged. "Scratch that. We don’t always yell at each other. You yell at me every chance you get."

"I don’t yell at you unless you give me a reason to." Her voice dropped. "Which is every time I see you."

No matter what he did, she would always find fault, but he didn’t blame her. His family had made her life a living hell and he had not been there to stop them. Catching sight of the toy gun that Angel had insisted on going to bed with, he pried it out of his tiny hands with a doting smile. "He takes after me."

"Don’t you mind?" She asked out of the blue.

"Is there anything I should mind?"

"He’s autistic." She finally dropped the question that had been bugging her the most. "Although it’s mild and there’s a chance he will lose his symptoms in a few years, he does have meltdowns and it can be...hectic. Scary." She looked up at him. "You were not ready to be a father and you didn’t sign up for this. If you want to leave, I’ll understand."

He flicked her forehead. "If anyone is out of their mind, it’s you. I love him and the last thing I want is to be away from him."

She shut her eyes to stop herself from feeling anything she shouldn’t. "I’ll give you a chance."

"You will?"

His overly elated reaction made her question what he thought she was saying.

"Yes, I will give you a chance to be his father." She clarified in case he had gotten the wrong meaning. When his expression fell, she knew she was right. "If anything happens to him while he is with you, you have to leave. And by "anything" I mean the slightest thing that can ever happen to a little boy and a knee scrape is one of them."

"That’s not fair. The boy has to live." He stared down at her sternly. "And I’m not going to throw my son into a cage just because his mother is too paranoid to realize this."

"Fine." She had to admit she was being way too hard on him. "If there is ever any reason to believe you neglected him in any way, you have to leave and never show up in his life. Do we have a deal?"

"You can draw up a contract if you want." He agreed.

"You will get one on your desk upon your return to Imperium." She promised.

"Then I’ll be on my way. Do you want to see me out?"

Was that his new way of getting under her skin?

______

After making an agreement with Damon regarding sharing Angel’s custody, she knew he would want to involve himself in their lives, but blank checks were not what she expected to find on her desk when she reached her office on Monday.

"What are these?" She asked Mina as she sat down.

"Damon brought a bouquet of flowers with these checks slotted in between the petals. I knew you would want nothing to do with the flowers so I disposed of them and..."

"And you thought I would want his money." She tore the checks in half. "The next time that man brings anything, throw it back in his car."

"Understood." Mina smiled stiffly. He had promised Damon to ensure Avery used one check for anything she needed and used the other for any emergency that came up.

"Why are you giving me that look?" She asked when she noticed Mina’s gaze.

"You have a meeting with Isla in thirty minutes and after that, one with RA Vaille’s CEO."

It would be a shock if Damon didn’t use every chance to get on her nerves.

"Let’s see what he has in store this time." She shrugged and prepared for her meeting with the attorney. She didn’t think it would ever come to this.

...

Six years ago.

It had been two days since Damon left and he had basically vanished into the air. She couldn’t get through to him on phone and none of her emails were answered, she had a feeling they didn’t even reach him.

She stared at the t-shit in her hands and fought her tears. He didn’t ditch her, did he?

"He would never." She told herself for the millionth time, and the more she said the same words, the more stupid she felt. He had left. Why did she still keep defending him? He would never ghost her if he cared about her.

When the doorbell rang, she shuffled out of the couch and nearly fell when a wave of dizziness hit her. She had been in the same spot for too long and couldn’t stomach any food. She used the wall as support to get to the door and opened it, barely seeing the woman outside through her clouded vision.

"Are you trying to starve my grandchild?" The woman taunted.

"Constance?" She guessed. She had never met Damon’s mother and only knew her from pictures, but she was certain this was not Amelia so it had to be her.

"May I come in?" Constance pulled Avery’s hand off the doorframe and made way for herself to get in. She scrunched her nose at the mess in the living room. "How are you going to handle motherhood if you can barely clean your living space?"

"That’s none of your business." Avery bit back.

"Touche." Constance dropped her bag on the couch and walked into the kitchen as though she owned the place. She made oatmeal and since Avery was so hungry she could pass out, she wolfed it down despite hating the woman to the core.

"Do you feel better now?" Constance asked.

Finally seeing her clearly, Avery was certain she had seen her somewhere and it had nothing to do with pictures.

"Do you have anything to say to me?" She asked. It was not lost to her that the woman didn’t seem to like her.

"Since you decided to cut the chase, yes." Constance took a check out of her purse. "My son is quite young, as you know. He is not ready to be a father."

She frowned. "In case you didn’t know, Mrs. D’aboville, we are agemates. You should have warned your son against having sex if you still wanted to feed him and read him bedtime stories."

In response to her attack, Constance laughed. "You are quite brave, aren’t you?"

"One has to be when dealing with people like you." Avery stood up. "Thank you for cooking for me, Constance, but I need you to leave."

"Do your parents know about this?" She challenged. When Avery’s face paled, she snickered. "I thought so. You’re not ready for this either, I know, so why don’t you put an end to it. I know a hospital..."

A slap landed on her face. "You should be ashamed of yourself. Does Damon know you are here?" Avery screeched.

"Of course he does. How do you think I found your address?" She faked a pitiful expression. "He asked me to give you the check to pay off your hospital bill."

___

"The whole family is obsessed with giving checks." She said to Isla, who she had not realized had come in while she was lost in thought. "I don’t want his money. All I want is to keep them out of my son’s life."

Isla read through all the details and shook her head. "You were not married, were you?"