The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 62

"Who would you like to report?" Asked the man on the other side. Before she could answer, he added, "This is a serious allegation and you would be required to come over to the prison."

"Can I come right now?" She was desperate to get Gabriel out of the way and was relieved when she was informed that she could go over.

She looked down at herself and remembered the visitation policy that required her to dress a certain way. She was decently dressed but she needed to make sure she wouldn’t be sent back to ’dress more appropriately’ so she drove to the nearest store and picked the first option she could find.

She rushed to the changing room to wear her new clothes; a pair of baggy jeans that would have dropped if they weren’t held in place by a belt, an equally baggy white t-shirt without any kind of print and the simplest shoes she could find. She looked herself in the mirror and nearly couldn’t recognize herself, but she proceeded to wipe off the last ounce of makeup from her face and tie her hair up.

This way, she was certain she had fulfilled all the clauses in the dress code and they would have no reason to turn her down. She was aware of the deals that went on under the prison tables and how little it would take for them to dismiss her.

She arrived at the prison within an hour from her call and, just like she dreaded, she had to wait in line with everyone else. Most people were here to visit their relatives and she nearly couldn’t stand it.

Putting aside those who were falsely convinced and had no power to appeal, most of these people’s relatives deserved to be behind bars. Why were they still being shown compassion?

A woman beside her tried to strike a conversation and spoke of her husband who had been imprisoned for sleeping with a ’willing’ minor who’d thrown herself at him.

Avery wanted to scold her for being such a fool and supporting a criminal but she knew her bitterness stemmed from the fact that Gabriel was trying to get away with his crimes. Deciding not to let her family troubles cloud her judgement, she didn’t say a word until her name was called out.

"Avery Vaillant?" The man bellowed her name.

She was relieved to go to the counter and not hear any more nonsense.

"That’s me."

The warden looked her up and down in great detail before finally asking, "Who would you like to report?"

"Gabriel Vaillant."

He thought of the names carefully. "Avery Vaillant...Gabriel Vaillant. Don’t tell me that’s..."

"My brother." She filled in. "He was put in prison for attempting to murder my son."

He swept a glance over her. "This sounds like a family feud to me."

"It’s not!" She nearly lost it and remembered to keep it down. "It’s not a random family feud. This man threatened my life and as I said, he was put away for a murder attempt on my son."

The wadern didn’t seem to believe her. "And how did you find out he was out of prison?"

"He started sending me emails a month ago, telling me he wanted to invest in my company."

The wadern checked his records and got back to her with the worst news. "There is no such fugitive."

"He was brought here. I’m sure of it because I once visited him." She ascertained. "Do you think he ran away during a transfer? They do that a lot."

"I think I didn’t make myself clear, miss. Your brother was released four years ago."

All her blood chilled. "Four years ago? It was murder!"

"This is not the place for you to come and yell your frustration. I’ll have to ask you to leave."

She was rendered speechless but there wasn’t anything else she was doing here. She fought back the tears threatening to fall and ran back to the parking lot, breaking down before she could enter the car.

She fumbled to open the door, slumped into the driver’s seat and let it all out.

A text message made her check her phone and she rolled her eyes when she saw it.

[Did you go to check whether I managed a prison break? You’re so cute, Vivi.]

She nearly broke her phone out of anger but she held it in. There was no use crying when Gabriel was still out there. She sent her lawyer a message and returned to her office.

"Avery, where did you go? You missed two meetings." Mina was worried when he finally saw her. "Why did you change your clothes?"

"I felt like it." She didn’t have the strength to explain anything. "Help me reschedule the meetings I missed. I’ll be in my office."

"It’s 4.pm." Mina told her.

She had to check her watch to make sure and she didn’t remember when time flew so fast. It must have been the wait in the prison waiting lounge.

"I’ll work overtime today." She decided, moments before she remembered she had promised Angel to watch a movie with him.

It was easy to simply let Damon watch it with him and forget about it, but empty promises were the last thing she wanted to give her son. Besides, it was going to be Damon’s first night with Angel and the reason she had promised to watch a movie was so the boy wouldn’t be sad about leaving his mother for the night.

"I’ll be here early tomorrow." She promised. She didn’t think she would be able to sleep much anyway.

Mina took back the file she had just given her. "I don’t know what’s happening to you but you need to talk to someone. Even if it’s not me, speak to Damon or Mabella. The latter is some kind of shrink." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

She didn’t want to talk to anyone about her problems but she hummed in agreement. Anything to get Mina off her back.

...

The drive back home felt like a nightmare. She couldn’t help looking over her shoulder every two minutes.

Gabriel’s text a few minutes ago wasn’t doing much to help. He had been stalking her, or he would never know about her visit to the prison.

What if he was following her home to know her address? What if he hurt Angel? What if, like the ghost he was, he had somehow managed to sneak into her car and was waiting for Angel to rush out to hug her, for him to kidnap her son?

Her heart was racing by the time she got home and before getting out of her car, she searched it and searched the entire compound before finally entering the house.

"Ma’am, you are home." Angel’s nanny greeted. "Miss Mabella dropped by earlier to check on the young master."

She nodded. "No matter who comes here henceforth, you should let me know. Even if it’s Damon or Mabella."

The nanny found her instruction odd but she took note of it. Avery went ahead to inspect the surveillance cameras, watching all the footages to make sure there wasn’t a creepy crawler on any day.

When she finally found Angel, he blinked in confusion.

"I missed you baby." She hugged him, her heart filling with the relief she had longed all day.

He wrapped his small arms around her neck and patted it soothingly. It nearly drove her to tears. She didn’t want to lose this.

In an attempt to hide what she was feeling, she carried him to her room to choose a movie for them to watch.

For the umpteenth time, Angel wanted "The boss baby". She had watched it with him more times than she could count but it didn’t matter. She played the movie on her laptop and savored every moment with him.

She didn’t realize she had spaced out until Angel tapped her.

"Baby, do you need something?" She gently asked.

He pointed at the door. The movie had long ended and when she opened the door, she was displeased to see that Damon had arrived—not that she didn’t want to see him. She just didn’t like what his arrival meant.

"Can you wait until he’s had dinner?" She requested him.

That was not the welcome he was expecting. "Okay." He took her hand. "Are you okay?"

She had been holding back for longer than she could handle and at the slight show of concern, she cracked and threw herself into his arms.

He was taken aback but he ran a hand down her back, soothing her gently until Angel once again slotted himself between them.

They chuckled at the possessive boy. "Do you think he’s scared I’m taking you away from him or that you’re taking me away from him?" She asked out of curiosity.

"Maybe both? I don’t get him." He couldn’t admit he was the competition in his son’s eyes.

Avery was already feeling better even though it had only been a brief hug. She picked Angel up and glanced at Damon to let him know to follow them.

Dinner was ready but she couldn’t stomach any food. She served Angel some of the pasta and waited as he ate, spacing out once again.

Damon watched her and felt guiltier by the second. Was she sad because he was taking Angel away for the night?

"Once in a while, we have to let them live their lives. They will have friends, go to school, get married someday, and we cannot expect them to be glued to our sides forever." He coaxed her. "I know this is hard for you."

She looked up at him. Did he think she was reluctant to let Angel go?