The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 78

Avery chose the restaurant closest to Vaillant Telecommunications and sat close to a window. It was easier to talk to her mortal enemy with the view of the city obstructing her view so she wouldn’t have to look at her fake face.

Constance was pleasantly surprised that Avery had agreed to meet up with her in private, but she knew better than to be relieved. This cunning woman could be up to something.

"How has my grandson been? I heard he made a little girlfriend." She attempted to strike a conversation, but that only made Avery want to kill someone when she thought of the only possible way Constance could have known about Angel’s new friend. She huffed at the woman.

"Don’t be such a pervert. My son is five."

"I don’t mean ’girlfriend’, don’t be so stuck-up." Constance felt embarrassed when Avery twisted her innocent remark into something they both knew she didn’t mean. She was relieved when a waitress came over to take their orders.

Avery spoke first despite being the one who invited Constance. "I’d like a bottle of sparkling water. For my companion, how about pickled monkey brain?"

"Pickled what?" Constance gasped, while the waitress looked like she was hearing the most outrageous joke.

"I’m sorry, ma’am, we don’t serve that here."

"You don’t? How about dragon blood?" She once again horrified them before laughing it off. "Sorry. I thought you’d have something straight out of hell for my companion here. Not that the menu in hell consists of those—I wouldn’t know. It’s just...what do you serve villains and demons when they come here?"

"Avery!" Constance roared.

Avery ignored her. "You see, she forced me to..." She stopped herself when she’d had enough fun messing with Constance. Seeing how uncomfortable the waitress was, she decided against continuing her attacks against Constance. The poor waitress had been caught between their squabble for merely minding her own business. She would have to apologize to her later.

"Pickled vegetables." Constance placed her order and glared at Avery hoping the latter wouldn’t say something stupid. To her relief, the woman remained silent—but that was no different from her ramble from a moment ago.

When their orders arrived, Avery sipped her sparkling water through a crazy straw while glaring at the woman before her.

"I only wanted to negotiate with you. The past is in the past, Avery." Constance started.

"What a coincidence. I was going to tell you the same thing." Avery swooped in smoothly. "It has been way too long for us to keep wasting each other’s time with pointless small talk. So tell me, Constance D’Aboville, what will it take for you to stay away from my son?" She whipped out a blank check and slid it over the table to the baffled woman while looking at her unflinchingly. "All you want is money, right? It’s all yours as long as you stay the fuck away from my son."

"That’s my line." Constance finally recovered her wit to face the humiliation she was being put through.

"It didn’t have your name on it." Avery shrugged. "Besides, I am not bothering your son. On the other hand, you are trying your best to bother mine. Tell me, what will it take? Two billion dollars? The whole of Vaillant Telecommunications? Fifty dollars?"

"Are you listening to yourself?"

"Death?" Avery threatened. "I can give you that too if you want. Just say the word."

Constance stabbed her fork into her vegetables with no intention of eating them. She had taken Avery for a weak little thing but based on the words coming out of that poisonous mouth, who knew if she had not bribed the restaurant to poison her food?

"You are a mother too," she tried to tug at her heartstrings. "Does it make you happy when your son makes friends?"

"Of course it does. My baby has been playing on his own for so many years that it’s just sad. I want him to make friends, to have someone to count on if life gives him lemons instead of making freaking lemonades. Wait." She paused when she realized what Constance was saying. "Am I supposed to feel sad when my son makes friends?"

"Don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean." She rolled her eyes. "He is your whole world. If someone threatens to take him away from you, would you be happy?"

Avery was stumped, finally understanding what Damon meant when he called his mother toxic years ago. She was insane!

"That’s an obsession. It’s sick. You should see a shrink but before that, I have to warn you, Constance D’Aboville. If you ever set foot within ten meters of my son, I’ll kill you and feed your body to the sea animals." She slapped a hundred-dollar bill onto the table.

"Don’t you dare walk out on me!" Constance snarled. "You have to promise to stay away from my son."

"Don’t be crazy, Constance. Why would I stay away from your son when we both want to be close to each other?" She provoked the woman. "Unlike mine, your son is an adult who knows what he wants and who he wants. His mother is not on the list of people he wants to be close to. You can only blame your insanity for that."

She took a step forward only to remember an important aspect and return to Constance. "You would collaborate with your arch nemesis for mutual benefits. Why don’t you collaborate with me as well, mh?"

"What are you talking about?" She feigned oblivion.

Avery was happy to humor her. "Damon somehow found the files from the hospital we both remember very well." She watched her face pale and chuckled. "He knows who they’re from but don’t worry. I pretended not to know anything about that hospital. If you stay away from my son, it will remain that way. If not, your son will be the first to know that those abortion records wouldn’t have needed to be faked if I hadn’t gotten away from you fast enough. Do you think he’d still want you close to Angel, hm?"

"I thought so." She winked at the speechless Constance.

"Ma’am, is everything okay?" Asked the waitress from before.

"Yeah, I feel relieved. I’ll be on my way." She sauntered off, mumbling something about wishing the restaurant served villain specials.

...

Constance was a psychopath in every sense of the word but some of her words bugged Avery. She was right about one thing. Angel was her entire world and if anyone threatened to take him away, she wanted nothing more than to kill them. She couldn’t deny that.

Her son had only been a little boy not too long ago. It still felt like yesterday when she first saw him, the tiniest baby she had ever set her eyes on, but who completed her. He’d been nearly small enough to disappear into the nurse’s palms when she held him.

Yet now, he was already five years old, making friends and learning to send flowers. It felt bittersweet thinking about how fast he was growing. On one hand, she couldn’t wait to see what a thoughtful boy—and eventually man—he would become. On the other hand, she wanted these moments with him to last forever.

By the time she got back to her office, she was still smiling from all the emotions she was feeling. Damon was the last person she thought she would see on her chair, though she should be used to it by now.

"Is this still the golden son I should stay the fuck away from?" She eyed him from head to toe. He was sitting on the chaise longue as if he owned it, with no intention of moving from the spot.

He smiled when she walked in but was flabbergasted when he heard her words. "What do you mean by that? Are you planning to stay away from me?"

She didn’t elaborate. "I would never. Not when you look so handsome." And not when it irked Constance so much. She didn’t care whether Damon hovered over her or not, but if it angered his mother to her grave, she didn’t mind spending her entire day next to him. Too bad her world couldn’t revolve around the D’abovilles. She was not that idle.

"Where did you go for so long? I’ve been waiting for you." He asked.

"I went to swat a fly. I didn’t realize how much time it took to get rid of them and by the time I remembered I should be here, it was late." She took off her coat and hung it at the side of her chair. "Did you miss me too much?"

"I admit I did." He was ready to pounce on her when she remembered the reason for their appointment.

"Is the initial draft ready?" She asked.

He stopped mid-step towards her and opened his briefcase to give her what she was asking for. She looked so beautiful he wanted to steal several kisses but work came first for her, so he swallowed his urge down and leaned over to show her the drafts.

"These are the initial drafts. If you like any of them, we shall go with that and then proceed to choose a name for it." He pointed at the one he liked the most and gave all its pros and cons.

For a while, she was listening to him. But with time, she began to take notice of how close he was to her, how nice his cologne smelled, how deep his voice was, and how much she missed him.