The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 64

Song recommendation: Still falling for you—Ellie Goulding.

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"Avery..." He froze halfway through the room, his words stuck at the tip of his tongue. He would never be able to explain this away.

"Care to explain?" She demanded. "Skyline Obstetrics Hospital? Why do you have such a file of me? And don’t you dare accuse me of invading your privacy." She knew what to expect when she caught him with such a file.

"Why would I ever say that?" He took deep breaths. He was not ready for this conversation. For a while, he had convinced himself they could pretend the past never happened and enjoy the time they had together, but he had to accept it was not meant to last long.

"I didn’t want to confront you before but that’s the file from when you visited that hospital." He informed her.

She confirmed the name in confusion. "I went to one gynecologist the whole time and she doesn’t work at Skyline. She’s..." She realized halfway that her explanation didn’t make sense. "What did you think I went to do?"

She didn’t need to ask. She opened the file, coming face to face with baffling records.

"An abortion?" Her eyes widened in disbelief. "How come I didn’t know I had one?" She scanned the report with her eyes. "This is about a week after I found out I was pregnant."

Her shocked reaction puzzled him more than the file when he received it six years ago.

"You didn’t intend to have an abortion?" He asked.

"Are you out of your mind? If I had one, why does Angel exist?" His insanity was over the top.

"Avery," He held her shoulders and made her look into his eyes. "That’s not my question. I know Angel exists. I’ve met him. My question is whether or not you intended to get rid of him. Whether you made an appointment at that hospital and for whatever reason, changed your mind halfway."

"Just because you ghosted me doesn’t mean I wanted to kill my child. Why the hell would I ever do that?" She recalled his previous question before he could answer her. In Deciville, he had asked her whether she had ever regretted Angel’s arrival. It sounded like he was asking about Angel’s condition before but she wasn’t sure anymore.

"Even if I had known he would be autistic, I would never want him dead. I loved him since I saw those two lines."

She slammed the file onto the bedside table. "I have answered your question. Now I need you to answer mine. Where did you get this file?"

"In my mailbox." He knew it was unbelievable.

"It had no return address. I assumed it was from you." He picked it up to inspect the records, doubting them for the second time. He had begun to suspect he might have fallen for a trick when he noticed how enthusiastic she was when she talked about Angel and how much she loved him. There was no way a woman would hate her child enough to want to have an abortion and then love him this much when he was born. Seeing her reaction now, he feared his suspicion was right.

"Why did you think I’d send this to you?" She wouldn’t be having this unbelievable conversation if his confusion didn’t look so genuine.

"I don’t know. I was devastated to receive it, okay? I thought you had gotten rid of our child barely a few days after telling me we were going to be parents. How could I think straight?"

She caught on the words ’telling me we were going to be parents’. "Mabella is convinced you didn’t get to see the t-shirt for long enough to understand what I was implying."

"See you soon, daddy." He repeated the print. "I saw it." He couldn’t begin to describe how he felt. He had frozen for a moment, taking in what she meant. Before he could ask for confirmation, that call had made him leave and he regretted not hanging up more than anything. If he had listened to her first, he wouldn’t have allowed himself to be played like the fool he had turned into as soon as he saw the report.

"Mother was unconscious. I stayed with her for four days and when I returned to my house, I was yet to come and find you when I saw this." He continued.

"And you immediately assumed it was from me." She crossed her arms. It didn’t hold water that he didn’t contact her.

"There was a note." He checked the vault and didn’t find it so he stopped searching. "I’m sorry I had to do this, Dammy. I couldn’t handle it—V." He waited to see recollection on her face and when he saw none, his heart shattered once again. "Only one girl liked calling me that because she thought it was silly."

"Dammy," She said the name out again and it felt foreign.

"I didn’t say you could call me that." He stopped her.

"I was forced to believe you didn’t want our child, Avery. It broke my heart that you didn’t care to ask for my opinion of it."

"That’s why you left." Her voice broke.

He nodded to admit as much. "You have no idea how shocked I was when I found out I had been wrong."

...

After staying away from Olphire and travelling the world for five years, Damon was convinced he had moved on and it was time to return and take ownership of the company he had created.

However, a week before his flight, he got a disturbing call from Mabella.

"I met your son."

"Son?" He thought she was joking and he was furious. "Are you out of your mind?"

Mabella was just as puzzled over the phone. "I would never joke about such a thing, Damon. I know it’s your deepest scar."

He got away from the railing of the mezzanine, itching to end the call. "I don’t know what’s gotten into you. Why are you convinced you met a child who wasn’t born? I don’t even know whether it was a son or a daughter." He laughed bitterly.

"I sent you an email. Check if that woman is your Vivi." She said, knowing nothing she could say would convince him.

He had vowed to forget about her but at the mention of her nickname, he hurried back to his study, checked his email and downloaded the picture Mabella had sent. And there she was—Avery Vaillant in the flesh, holding hands with an excited little boy.

He zoomed the picture to the little boy in disbelief.

On the phone, Mabella knew he must be shocked.

"Are you surprised to see a little mirror version of yourself? I was just as stumped. I mean, he has blue eyes like his mother’s, but I would mistake his picture for yours if I didn’t look closely."

He couldn’t hear his sister anymore. "I guess she changed her mind, huh." He scoffed. She had made such a major decision on her own and even after changing her mind, she didn’t bother to tell him. So he cancelled the flight and booked another to go back to Olphire the following day. It was time to confront the little minx. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

...

"Urgh, you still call me that." She complained about his nickname for her, which he used whenever she was being naughty. However, it was not time to think about nicknames. "Who knew that nickname apart from you and me?" She asked him.

He couldn’t think of anyone for a while, and then it clicked. "Gabriel." He cursed. Only that man hated him so much and if he wanted to know about him, he could simply do so if he checked Avery’s phone. She probably never thought about it.

She shook her head. "I know Gabe is a bastard but why would he ever..." She stopped herself when she understood her brother’s motive. "He knew you would be mad. You would break up with me and I would feel abandoned... and probably actually do it."

She had to sit. It was all too much to take. "Why does Gabriel hate you so much?"

She looked up and their eyes met, hers filled with confusion. "I would understand if he merely saw you as a rival but... Gabe loved me before. He was always this doting brother and now that I think about it, he was until I met you. Until I told him to stay the fuck away from you and declared my love for you. Then he turned into this unrecognizable monster who wouldn’t hesitate to kill my son."

It still gave her chills. "That’s my brother. It’s not like I never got close to any guy before you, so why you?"

"I guess he took the feud way too seriously."

"What feud?" She squinted her eyes, realizing there was more to it than unfriendliness and hatred.

He sighed. "I suggest we bathe and feed our son, get him back to your villa or call Mabella over to play with him, and make sure he is alright. Also, do you have popcorn?"

From his tone, she started to think she might need to eat and then get actual popcorn for whatever he was going to tell her. This was going to be interesting.

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AN

What do you think the feud is about?

As promised, I’m going to increase the update rate. So starting on Monday, the update rate will increase to 10-11 Chapters per week. Enjoy!

Also, check out my other Contemporary Romance books: Taming the Villainess.

The Tyrant’s Wife