The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 119

Avery hesitated but only for a moment before she shook her head. "She hurt my son. I wouldn’t let her off for merely managing to fool you into believing she was your mother’s ghost. If she were really your mother, maybe I would relent."

"I understand." Mina gave up trying to negotiate with her. "Tomorrow, 3pm. I’ll try to lure her into the conference room. I would still advise you not to kill her, however, since there would be a gap in surveillance if she died in that conference room."

"Then lure her somewhere else! Somewhere no one would care if they saw anything."

Seeing how determined she was, Mina nodded slowly.

Her phone chimed, reminding her of her date with Damon and Angel.

"I’ll be on my way." She announced. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Mina nodded. "Please tell Angel I’m sorry." She added, expecting to get a glare shot at her for it. To her relief, Avery didn’t react to her words in any way. It was a relief, since Avery would rather have a conversation she found unnecessary than allow the possibility of the other party taking her silence for agreement.

"I’ll see you off." She followed her out the door even while knowing she didn’t need to, and as soon as Avery was out, she returned to her room and opened a safe, taking out a phone she had never used since she cut her father off. She then dialed a number she thought she would never contact and shut her eyes to ease the blow. "Eloise, call me back when you get this. It’s urgent."

She then slumped onto the bed helplessly. If it meant betraying her family, she would do it for Avery to see whose side she was on. But what if Eloise was injured in the fire, or worse?

Maybe it was heartless of her to only want to check on Eloise when it favored her but the last thing she could do was pretend to fraternize with someone who wouldn’t hesitate to harm a child’s mental health for money.

____

Meanwhile, Avery got home to Angel who had been waiting for her, and brought him a cute denim playsuit. He excitedly took it from her.

"Do you like it? You can wear it. I’m going to wear a similar one." She wasn’t done speaking when he made a beeline for his room, and she took that for a yes. She changed into a matching denim romper with a white tee underneath. She pulled her hair into a ponytail just as Angel knocked on the door impatiently.

"Coming." She chuckled as she opened it. The boy ran past her to her shoe rack and pulled out a pair of white sneakers similar to the ones he was wearing.

"You want us to wear matching shoes? Okay." She nodded in approval and he brought over white ankle socks while pointing down at his own ankles to show her.

She slid her feet into them and giggled at how radiant she looked. When her phone lit up, she took Angel’s hand. "Daddy is here."

She was right. They ran downstairs one after another, meeting Damon halfway through the living room.

"Are you both ready? You look cute." He remarked when he saw their matching outfits and had them pose for pictures first.

"Good thing I wore jeans. I would have looked out of place." He took a picture with Angel in his mother’s arms and slid in beside them for a selfie.

"You look better in jeans than those boring black and blue suits anyway." She muttered beside him.

"Boring? You wound me. My suits are everything but boring." He defended his choice of clothes. "But who cares? You like me better wearing my birthday suit."

She jabbed him. "Adult language jar, fifty euros."

"He didn’t hear me." He protested, earning her glare. So after taking several selfies with them and setting one as his phone wallpaper, he stood still and let her ransack his pockets for cash.

After getting what she wanted and putting it in the jar, she pocketed the rest. "For ice cream."

"Do you ever buy these ice creams you claim to want?" He asked with a gentle laugh.

"There’s a vendor down the street. Hey, do you think we can walk to the restaurant?"

Hearing her request, he confirmed with Angel and when he got his son’s approval, nodded. "Let’s walk."

But the last thing they did was walk with him. Angel ran ahead holding her hand and pointed at the vendor they had always seen on their way to their house, silently asking for ice cream.

"Let’s get some cones! I just raided daddy’s pockets." She showed him the result of her raid and carried him the rest of the way to the stall.

"What flavor would you like?" She asked him, even though she knew he would always choose vanilla with oreos and rainbow sprinkles. She bought herself her usual flavor as well—raspberry—and took a lick just as Damon caught up with them.

"I don’t remember ice cream tasting this good." She winked at him. "Do you think it has anything to do with how I paid for it? Maybe raided money buys the best things after all."

He played along. "You are allowed to raid my pockets whenever you see fit."

"I want to raid your fridge instead." She pouted.

"Then I’ll ensure it’s fully stocked with snacks chocolate."

She rolled her eyes at his cheesy response. "You can’t win me over with such outdated tactics and words."

"I don’t need to win you. I already have you." He retorted, making her huff and walk ahead in what he guessed must be embarrassment. He caught up with her and grabbed her hand, licking some of her ice cream without permission.

Her cheeks reddened. "Damon, Angel is right here." She scolded him.

"So what? It’s just ice cream and it’s sweet. Are you certain he doesn’t share his snacks?" He argued.

"Those are snacks and this is ice cream off my cone." She retorted and aimed to leave him, only for him to pull her by the arm and peck her lips.

_____

By the time they got to the restaurant, she inwardly vowed to ignore him for his shamelessness. The man had stolen several kisses on their way, not caring about Angel’s presence. They had chosen the seafood restaurant down the street and when they arrived, they couldn’t wait to try out the delicacies.

"Have you ever had seafood?" He asked her, remembering she had been blatant about not trying it in the past.

"There’s a first time for everything, right?" She picked up the menu from the table and swept through it breifly before looking up at him. "Help me choose something you think I’ll like."

He thought about it and decided on crab cake.

"Is it a cake made of crabs or a cake in the shape of a crab?" She asked, seemingly serious.

He laughed at her innocence. "Why don’t you wait and taste it? It will be yummy. You can also order a salad." He recommended.

A while after their food arrived, Angel had dived into his food. Unlike her, he was a sea food lover and enjoyed the various options, while Damon realized she had finished her salad but had not had a second bite of her crab cake. She would stab into it with her fork whenever Angel looked in her direction to make it seem like she was eating it, all to make sure the date was not ruined because of her different preference.

He leaned in to whisper in her ear, "do you want to try something else? You might end up finding something you like."

"No thanks." She laughed it off. She would rather not punish her taste buds. "Luckily, their salad is excellent."

He felt awful, considering he and Angel loved the food. "The next time we go out on a date, it will be your turn to choose what restaurant we go to."

She laughed it off. "Don’t make it sound like I’m being punished. I agreed to come here too, remember?"

....

After what was probably the best dinner date in Angel’s life but the most awkward for them, they waited as he got the car from the valet. Angel tugged on her wrist and when she looked down at him, he pointed at the vast parking lot.

She followed his finger with his gaze and squinted her eyes. "Do you want to go there? Daddy is coming over here."

"Someone." He muttered uneasily while grasping her hand.

"Someone?" She was confused for a moment before guessing he had seen a suspicious person. "Is someone hiding there?" She asked gently. When she nodded, her stomach sunk. She picked him up and hugged him in reassurance. "If it’s someone suspicious, they cannot do anything to us in the presence of so many people."

He pointed in the same direction.

"No. We cannot go there." She rejected his silent idea. Not only was it uncertain whether or not the person was dangerous, but there was no wise choice between carrying her son with her to check out a dangerous situation and leaving him on his own to wait for his father. She considered waiting for him on a different spot but wondered what exactly Angel had seen. What if the creepy person was someone minding his own creepy business that had nothing to do with him? Or what if he was simply going about his day and his ordinary business had appeared to be creepy in the eyes of a child?