The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 77

Avery frowned at him. Did he think that was an appropriate joke?

"I submitted all the evidence I gathered to that detective." At least he knew when to stop.

Bryce was still lamenting to his friends about his wife thinking it best to hurt herself when the police swooped into the scene and took him away.

"I could watch that all day." Gabriel laughed at his father who thought he still had time to convince everyone he didn’t do it.

Avery watched with a hateful glare. "If I killed him, would you cover up for me?" She asked. Her question wasn’t particularly for anyone, but both Mina and Gabriel agreed.

"I would get someone to clear the crime scene of any trace." Mina promised.

"And I would dispose of the body to make sure no one ever found it. So go right ahead, sis." Gabriel winked.

She glanced at them and although she was the one who had asked, she was terrified. "You two are a match made in heaven."

"I thought you’d say hell." Gabriel laughed, as did Mina.

They were right.

"I have to make sure nothing goes wrong. Don’t move a muscle, beautiful." He let go of Mina’s waist for the first time since Avery arrived at the scene and left to make a call.

"So, are you two a thing?" Avery couldn’t hold her curiosity anymore.

Mina pretended not to hear her.

"I know you heard me." Avery nudged her.

"Me? Oh, I didn’t know you were speaking to me." She turned to face her friend with a haughty smile. "I ask a gazillion times about you and Damon but you tell me nothing. Why should I tell you anything about me and Gabe?" She challenged.

"Nothing." She gave up. "You’re a big girl, right?"

"You’re no fun." Mina had wanted to tease her for a bit longer. "You said he was a fuckboy." She complained.

"Sadly, yes. Has he already broken your heart?"

Mina groaned in frustration. "The only thing he has broken is his reputation. If he is a fuckboy, why hasn’t he tried to fuck me yet? He only holds my hand like we’re twelve! Do you think he wants to take it slow?"

"Mina..."

"Maybe he thinks I don’t want to? Should I make it more obvious?"

"Mina!" Avery pretended to gag. "That’s my brother. Ew... I don’t want to talk about his sex life." She would rather pretend he didn’t have one but it was too late.

"Oops." Mina cringed. She was not used to the thought of Avery having a brother.

Gabriel returned a few moments later, happier than he was when he left. "I made sure he doesn’t make contact with any of his fellow nutcases so he cannot break out of prison. You have nothing to worry about." He told Avery in reassurance, then he noticed their weird stares. "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing. Since they are both...gone in one way or another, I should get to work. The company isn’t going to take care of itself." Avery made an excuse to leave. "How soon do you think I can get my assistant back?"

He glanced at Mina and remembered she still needed to work. "As soon as we finish discussing our childhood home." He answered Avery’s question. "They had no other beneficiaries so..."

"Father is just going to jail, Gabe. Not to his grave." She interrupted him.

"Right." He didn’t seem to have noticed, and that made her skeptical. Was he planning on doing something to Bryce during his term in prison?

"They signed a crazy prenup years ago. If they parted ways for any reason, all the wealth they acquired together would automatically be handed down to their beneficiaries. In this case, you and me. You got their home and assets while I got the family business I worked so hard to destroy. This must be my punishment."

"Prenup." It finally made sense. No wonder they would stay for so long in a marriage that was clearly agonising to both of them.

"Yeah? Prenups are a good idea if you know how to utilize them." He winked. "I should sign one of those with Mina soon—so she can’t leave me even if she wanted to."

Both women facepalmed at his cheesy line. To their relief, he dropped the prenup topic.

"I know you don’t want our childhood home so I found you potential buyers. They will check the house as soon as you’re ready for them." He continued.

She was going to agree but then she caught sight of the swing from which she had fallen when she was seven, when Gabriel demonstrated his brotherly love for the first time ever. She smiled and was about to dismiss it when she remembered the swimming pool where she and Damon had snuck for a risky dip six years ago.

She shook her head. "I’ll keep it. Though one thing doesn’t make sense. When did you make all these arrangements and why?"

"I knew Bryce was going to prison." He smiled to make it mild but she couldn’t help thinking about it. Why did it feel like he had planned to send Bryce to prison all along?

He never let go of his grudges and the more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that he would not let Bryce off. She had checked the evidence and it was too incriminating for the best lawyer to help him weasel out of it in court, so he was definitely going to prison. But he was not leaving prison alive, that was becoming certain. Gabe was going to end him.

Well, he asked for it. She couldn’t blame her brother for wanting to get rid of the man who caused a rift between them for years, tried to kill her son and killed their mother.

She could only remind him to be careful. If Bryce died, suspicion would befall them as the ones with motive.

"Relax. Didn’t I just say I can make bodies disappear?" He grinned at her when he heard her reminder.

She widened her eyes. If he was serious, she didn’t want to think about the kind of things he did in secret. He might just turn out to be a secret serial killer with a ton of literal skeletons in his closet.

_____

Vaillant Telecommunications.

It had only been three hours since she got back to her office but she had already received more flowers than she had ever dealt with all her life—excluding the ones Gabe would have her send to his countless girlfriends, of course. Those would drain out the supply of a few florists.

"What’s with all these flowers?" She asked Mina. She had not bothered to check any of the tags. "If this is a prank from Damon, I swear..."

She had walked in with a new bouquet of pink roses and when she caught Avery’s reaction, she wasn’t sure whether to proceed. "They are all from different people. This one is from Angel."

Her heart melted into a puddle, all her annoyance fading. "My cute son knows how to send flowers now?"

She stood and took out the card and when she read it, a smile lit up her face.

[Sending flowers your way to brighten up your day.

PS: I couldn’t find anything as beautiful as you so I hope this will do.]

"That little charmer." She smiled. Damon must have taught him this.

She didn’t want to think about the other bouquets but she had to. "What about the others?"

When Mina hesitated, she automatically filled it in. "They’re from a bunch I don’t want to hear from. Let me guess, the D’Aboville family?"

"I only found out a moment ago." Mina vowed. "I thought everyone at the company had heard about your mother and wanted to make you feel better so I didn’t think much of it until Constance came here to make a fuss about wanting to see you."

"Constance came here?" She frowned. Was that woman out of her mind?

"She wanted to see you and was saying something about this possibly being the only chance for you and her to make up. I didn’t want to hear a word of it as she wasn’t making much sense so I kicked her out."

"Could she have gone too far?" Avery circled her desk and opened the door to leave without waiting for Mina’s answer.

"This did happen a while ago. She could have left already."

That didn’t stop Avery from getting out of her office to follow Constance. Some things were better off dealt with on the spot and it was time Constance stopped thinking it was alright to bug her.

" Take your time. I’ll call the reception and have them stop her when she gets to the lobby." Mina took out her phone.

"Thank you." Avery remembered just how brainless she became when she was overwhelmed or in a hurry.

...

To her relief, Constance was made to wait and when she got to the lobby, the woman was waiting for her.

"Avery, you agreed to meet me." She seemed to be pleasantly surprised but Avery knew it was an act. She was definitely up to something.

"You waited for me after all, and you brought flowers. What can I do to repay for that apart from give you an audience? Let’s find somewhere to sit and discuss, shall we?"

"I saw a cafe down the street on my way here. Do you want to go over and chat over some drinks?" She suggested.

Avery would have dismissed her but this needed to be done. She agreed and subtly felt for her gun at her waist. "Let’s go."