The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 76

"What did you find out?" Gabriel finally asked a question that mattered.

"Mother did not commit suicide. She was killed." She told him in secret.

He glanced at the detective who had discovered that and then back at her. "What’s his reputation like?"

"There’s no murder he has investigated wrong or uncessfully. He must be right...and it makes a lot of sense. Do you think mother would commit suicide?"

Gabriel shook his head. "She is more likely to sell off everything she has and flee to the farthest country possible if her crimes caught up to her.

Who do you think did it?" He asked and got the answer from her expression. "You think father killed her."

"After trying to kill my son five years ago, he wanted someone to take the fall. He knew it would be believable if he blamed it on her." She analysed. "I can’t believe I’m saying this but that’s the kind of thing he would do in the blink of an eye."

"Oh yeah?" we have to investigate that to make sure we are not making the wrong assumption. It will not be funny to find out we left out the true culprit while thinking father is behind all this."

"You are in denial." She observed. He just couldn’t accept the fact that their father killed their mother. She placed a hand on his arm to soothe him. "I can’t believe it either. Bryce might be a selfish scumbag but at least he loved his wife. I can’t believe that, too, was a lie."

"You have no idea what I believe." He peeled her hand off him.

"Okay. See you later." She returned to her car, smiling when she caught the moment Gabriel grabbed Mina by the waist and kissed her. From her memory, Gabe hated kissing girls because apparently, it made them think they meant more to him than they actually did. Doing that with Mina might mean he saw her as more than a fling, but who would trust a playboy? She was caught between being happy for her brother and fearing her friend was being played.

Mina had heard a little about Gabe and knew he was a playboy so if she still wanted to be with him, that was up to her.

She called Damon as she pulled out of the parking lot.

"Is Angel awake?" She asked as soon as he answered the call. She had let him take the boy away when she knew she might stay away for long.

"He is waiting for you. Are you coming over?" He asked.

She hummed in response and drove out of the Vaillant residence, but she ended up pulling up at the side of the road within a few miles.

____

"Here. Your favorite truck." Damon gave the toy to his son, who threw it away as soon as it was in his little hands. No matter what Damon had offered in the last several hours, it couldn’t pacify Angel.

It had been ages since Avery said she was coming over and there wasn’t any sign of her yet. She wouldn’t answer her phone and although Gabriel had assured him she was safe, he couldn’t battle his distress, especially when Angel clearly missed her.

"How about a little game? Do you want to play with me?" He coaxed Angel, who once again ignored him. "Let’s call aunt Mabella over, shall we?" He attempted to lure the little boy off the floor with the mention of his current best friend, only for him to burst into tears. He was still hugging the little chibi version of Avery and squeezing it close to his chest.

He picked him up from the floor despite Angel’s protest and placed him on the couch. "Mommy will be alright. She’s not here yet because she feels sad. But once she comes, she will need a hug and someone to take care of her. Let’s be there for her, shall we?"

As expected, Angel stopped crying once he heard his mother needed him. He held his hands out to be carried, and when Damon understood he wanted to be bathed, he carried him to the bathroom.

Luckily, Avery had arrived by the time he was done dressing the boy up.

"Baby, I missed you." She hugged him. The boy wrapped his small hands around him in a hug, moments before he felt her forehead. She chuckled., Are you checking if I have a fever? I’m alright. Never been better."

He got down from her arms and ran to the kitchen, returning moments later with a glass of water. He then brought a comfortable pillow to place behind her so she would recline on it. Her heart melted. "When did my son become a little gentleman?"

Damon, who had only told him what Avery needed once, was proud. "That’s my son. Of course he would know how to make girls smile."

She couldn’t argue with that. They went all out spoiling her with food they cooked together while letting her watch a movie, giving her snacks and drinks but even so, she could only ignore what she was feeling for so long.

She stood by the balcony for long after forcing down a few bites down at the dinner table, sighing as she looked up into the sky. Damon joined her with a glass of juice in hand and Angel tailing after him.

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" He offered.

She didn’t think so, but she appreciated his effort so she accepted the juice despite not being in the mood for anything. "This will do."

"What’s wrong with mommy?" Angel asked out of the blue, making his parents go speechless in surprise. Avery was the first to recover from her shock and it took all her effort to not act surprised. Angel had never said more than a word at a time. Four words was a huge leap, but she didn’t want him to think there was anything wrong with his minimum communication so she didn’t say anything about it.

Taking the cue, Damon picked him up to explain the situation without revealing the burst of joy in his heart. "Mommy’s mommy left this world, so mommy is sad."

The boy pointed at the stars in the sky.

He was back to expressing his thoughts without speaking, Avery observed, but it didn’t matter. She kissed his cheek. "You think Grandma will become a star and watch over me?"

He nodded. Getting down from his father’s arms, he rushed back to the house.

Damon inched closer and took her hand.

"Do you think heaven and hell are real?" She asked out of thin air.

He was still watching the stars. "Don’t ask me. I turned to religion six years ago at my darkest moment."

She didn’t need to ask what that darkest moment was. "And? Do you believe in it?" She probed for more.

"I think what matters is believing that in your darkest moment, you are not on your own."

She nodded, averting her eyes from the sky. "Hypothetically, would she be in heaven or hell?"

"Only God would know." He gave yet another indefinite answer that proved he was avoiding having to answer her question.

"You’re right." She pursed her lips. "I want to believe she went to heaven but after everything that happened..." She sighed. "She sought me. Maybe I should have taken the chance to reconcile with her. Maybe if I forgave her, she wouldn’t have any more guilt inside her and..."

"Avery, you have every right to be mad at her for as long as you want." He held her hand. "You didn’t do anything wrong."

That was true, but it still pained her that Amelia died before there was ever a chance to work things out. After all, she was her mother.

The two continued gazing at the stars for a while before he found the chance to distract her. "Does this remind you of anything?"

She playfully punched him for thinking about sex at the least appropriate time, but it did help her calm down. This—and the movie Angel had selected for her to watch—was what she needed.

______

Amelia was not to be laid to rest until the investigation was complete. If it wasn’t obvious who killed her before, Bryce’s anxiousness gave him away. He couldn’t stop insisting to be allowed to bid farewell to his wife and although it sounded like the investigation offended him before, the more he pestered, the more suspicious he seemed.

"He can stop acting already. The show is over." Gabriel remarked when he was sure there was enough evidence to arrest Bryce. He had managed to find the store where Bryce had bought the murder weapon. He had also retrieved a surveillance footage caught on a restaurant’s camera across the street. A man had entered and left the house a few hours before Amelia’s death and the Vaillant residence’s footage of him had been deleted. Never would they have thought he had been caught on another surveillance camera, and neither would they expect for their connection to be drawn and their deal to be uncovered.

Like the smart man he had become after the mistake he made five years ago, Bryce had opted for a cash transaction by having someone drop the money at an abandoned building and someone else pick it up, but he had left behind too many loopholes.

"Who the hell buys a murder weapon when they intend to hire a hit man?" Gabriel was ashamed of him. "If you are going to be a murderer, at least do it cleanly."