The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 99

Mabella watched their expressions change as they wondered whether or not to ask her. She burst into laughter. "What’s with that look? I wanted someone I could connect with both as a patient and a friend. This happens to be Angel, remember? What are you guys thinking about?"

"Oh!" Avery’s sigh came off exaggeratedly in her attempt to drag her mind back from the universe it had jumped to. "You got us for a second."

"You thought I was talking about Chloe, didn’t you?" She smiled mischievously, knowing that was exactly what they both had in mind.

Avery stared at her wordlessly for seconds before shaking her head awkwardly. "Of course not. Why would I ever think of that?" Damn Mabella. Did she hypnotize her? Why was she saying the exact opposite of what she wanted to find out?

Remembering she was speaking to the woman who knew how to play the most mind games, she gave up, forced down a few bites and got ready to leave.

He knew why she was in such a rush but he didn’t make any comment. That didn’t stop him from stealing a kiss when she was least expecting it.

"What are you doing?"

"You’re right." He wrapped an arm around her and kissed her more blatantly this time, only stopping when Angel came running to push him away from his mother. He would need to have a word with his son about this. If he kept treating his father as a rival, he would never have a sibling.

_____

Meanwhile, a cold war was in progress in Gabriel’s penthouse.

"Speak." Mina ordered. She had intended to stay the hell away from him after realizing how little he thought of other people, only for the man to bring her here using unorthodox means.

He poured himself scotch and downed it before offering her some despite knowing she would say no.

"You should keep your drinking in check." She warned with a glower at him.

"You care about me, don’t you?" He smiled and drank the rejected drink. She almost wanted to reach out and take it out of his hands. Having stayed with him for a bit, she had learned that he only reached for alcohol when he was overwhelmed but wanted to pretend everything was alright—which was most of the time. However, she had no right to care for him. They were not together. He had made that clear as if she didn’t already know.

"Angel went to school today. You should see the pictures Vivi sent me." He chuckled. "The boy is a little savage. How does a kid decide to paint fruits all the wrong colors because he misses his mother?"

"Is this why you kidnapped me? To tell me about Angel?" Of course she wanted to catch up to the latest news about Angel, just not from him.

"No." He stopped stalling. "That woman you saw me with, the barbie, as you and Avery have been calling her, is not my girlfriend."

"I’m not your girlfriend either so what the fuck does that prove?" She was annoyed.

"Nothing. She’d nothing to me and I mean it literally. The first time I met her is in that convenience store when she was finding someone to help her get away from her scary boyfriend and somehow thought I’d be scary enough for him to run away with his tail tucked in between his legs. While that did happen, it caused a misunderstanding and I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner."

She didn’t know whether or not to believe him. The woman had been looking at him like he could control the sun. While that could possibly be the gaze of someone who had just been saved from an ordeal, she only believed him because Avery assured him he never apologized when he was not sorry.

"A scary boyfriend? Don’t you know that’s the start of hundreds of fairy tales?" She mocked him for not realizing the woman would hope for him to take her with him henceforth—if the story about her boyfriend was true, to begin with.

"I don’t want to start any fairy tales. Not even with you." After the agonizing silence that followed, he wanted to cut his tongue off for always spouting the wrong thing. "I mean, we could do without all the unnecessary drama. I would look crazy running around all of Olphire with your shoe to find you when I could simply do so by grabbing you out of your car after work."

"Just to make it clear, if this ever happens again I’m filing a restraining order against you." She warned.

"Noted. You understand what I mean though, don’t you? We don’t have to cause a massacre and put the whole world in danger just because we li....want to be together."

He looked like his palms were sweating as he spoke and she was speechless. Would it kill him to say the words ’like each other’? Avery was right. He had more pride than common sense and would infuriate the hell out of her if she waited for him to swallow it.

It was already good enough that he had admitted he was in the wrong.

He held the sides of the high chair he had propped her on and looked down at her. "Does this mean you forgive me?"

"Only if you tell me where you stand." She ignored his eyes that always seemed to make her lose her mind. They looked like they had the ability to see through one’s deepest secret with how intense they were.

"What do you mean by that? I have not been with any other woman since I started spending time with you. Isn’t this enough?" He asked.

"No. I want to be certain. Heaven knows why I never thought about this before but if you met someone tomorrow, would you screw around with her?"

The fact that he had to think about it was enough of an answer. Just when she gave up, he admitted to not knowing.

"If you want me to be with you exclusively, I can do that since I don’t find other women worth my time anyways." He disclosed honestly, making her jaw drop at how annoyingly honest one could be, but he was not done. "Why would you want me to yourself anyway? Do you like me?"

"If you are trying to make me say I like you, give up because I will not fall for it."

"Fair enough." He stepped aside to let her leave the chair if she wanted to. "So, are dating now?"

"Did you ask me?" She shot back, making him wonder how difficult one woman could possibly be.

"Shall we date?" He asked anyway, and to his relief, she said yes. It would have been simpler if she simply confessed her feelings, he thought. But again, he couldn’t confess his own until his sister nearly gave him a kick in the butt so he couldn’t blame her.

______

The following day.

Unlike the day before, Angel had not cried a single tear when they dropped him off at school and left him. He didn’t care that he would not his parents the whole day and ran off with Aubrey as soon as he saw her. She was certain he was going to have a better day at school than the day before, so when his homeroom teacher rang her and called her to school, she was concerned.

She let Mina hold her meeting with an investor and sped to Monarch Academy worriedly. What happened to Angel? The teacher had merely told her they needed to discuss her son’s behavior and that was more concerning than wondering how he was doing in school all day. Did he get upset over something and do something kids normally wouldn’t do?

She met the homeroom teacher and couldn’t wait to talk about it. "What happened? Is my son okay?" She was out of breath from having run from the parking lot.

The woman motioned for her to sit and faced her with her elbows propped on her desk. "Your son is alright. I just needed to let you know you are raising a little psycho."

"Excuse me?" She immediately wanted to rip the teacher apart. How dare she?

"An incident happened in class today. The boys were fighting over something—I believe it’s a box of crayons they both found cute. Angel pummeled his opponent despite being significantly smaller than him and bit him in the neck. Literally bit him." She explained like it should be a big deal.

"Kids fight all the time. And so what if my son is small for his age? Does this prove any point about his strength?" She wondered.

"It’s not about his strength. After fighting the bigger boy like a professional boxer, he went ahead and drew crayon pictures of his opponent with his head at his feet." The teacher sighed. "I believe five-year-olds have no business thinking about decapitating their opponents. This behavior is concerning and if other parents were to learn that their children are in the same class as an autistic child who cannot control his emotions, it’s going to cause a commotion."

She was baffled at the teacher’s words. Didn’t the school say he would be fine when they saw his medical history? Besides, "children aren’t supposed to be able to control their emotions—because they are children. This is why they need our help processing what they feel. Why are you making it sound like my son is different?"

"Because he is." Retorted the teacher. "I would advice you to take him to a special school for autistic children."