The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 113

"She didn’t." She insisted, feeling her head start to hurt. "I did not pick our son from school. Do you know what this means?"

He didn’t want to think about it. "I’ll go check if he’s still there. Check with Aubrey’s parents, will you?"

"I’m coming with you." She had to see the homeroom teacher and after her previous encounter with Angel’s former homeroom teacher, she couldn’t say she trusted them to tell the truth.

Damon floored the accelerator to Monarch Academy and when they finally arrived, Avery jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped and made a beeline for the principal’s office.

"Miss Vaillant?" He was surprised when he saw her. "The school closes in a few minutes. Why are you back? Did your son forget something?" He asked her.

"Back? I just came to pick my son up. There has been a misunderstanding and his father and I both thought the other had picked him up." She tried to laugh it off. "Is he still in class?"

The principal glanced at Damon who had just caught up and thought Avery was joking, but Damon’s worried expression proved she wasn’t.

He opened the door to let them in. "I’m sorry. This being a kindergarten, we ensure there is no child in any class before each class is locked, knowing how mischievous children are. The same applies to every other section of the school so I can assure you that your child is not in school."

The words were like a bucket of ice-cold water. "Well, we could check. Angel likes to hide when he is distressed. Maybe he got upset when we didn’t come to get him in time and found a place to hide where you didn’t see him when you checked." She turned to Damon for support on her point. "Right? I mean, he’s hidden in the refrigerator before. There’s no spot in school he would hide that would surprise me."

Instead of supporting her, Damon sighed.

"Don’t you trust me? I told you, I didn’t take him."

"May I see the surveillance footage of the parking lot?"

"Do you think your child was kidnapped from school?" The principal looked concerned. "Our teachers have all been instructed to only physically hand over every child to the individuals allowed to have contact with them." He turned on his computer and keyed in Angel’s name. "In this case, it would be Avery Vaillant, Damon D’Aboville, Mabella D’Aboville and Gabriel Vaillant. Have you checked with the others?"

Avery shook her head and took out her phone to ask, but Damon was hell set on believing that didn’t happen.

"His homeroom teacher is certain she handed Angel over to his mother. Not his aunt or uncle and definitely not me. I still need to see the surveillance footage."

The principal nodded. "It’s going to take some time. You can check with his friends’ families in case."

...

His call ended at the same as Avery’s with Mabella, and she shook her head before he could ask.

"Mabella and Gabriel don’t have him." Her eyes began to tear up.

"Neither does Aubrey’s family. The surveillance footage must be out." He placed a hand on the small of her back and led her back in.

The principal led them to the security room where the footages had been compiled, and he had found the lastest one.

"His homeroom teacher was right." He glared at Avery and she didn’t understand why until she saw the surveillance footage of her taking Angel’s hand and saying goodbye to the teacher.

"That’s not possible." She shook her head.

"You saw the footage. Miss Vaillant, I don’t know what this is but I do not appreciate you wasting so much of our time when you know exactly what happened."

She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "It’s pretty hard to forget meeting your son, don’t you think?"

Damon grabbed her hand and led her out of the office, vaguely hearing the principal promise to send a copy of the footage to her for reference in case she forgot.

He only stopped once they were in the car, and he was furious.

She couldn’t look at him. "Damon, I swear..."

"Does it entertain you to make me run up and down looking for the person you picked up?" He tried not to yell at her in vain.

"I don’t know what’s going on either. If that surveillance footage is real, that’s not me."

"Enough!" He barked. He instantly regretted it and fell silent for a while. She didn’t try to explain anymore. "You cannot convince me that you have a twin who wears the same clothes as you do at the same time, and who also knows to pick Angel up from school behind our backs so tell me, did something happen to Angel that you don’t want to talk about? If he is going through something difficult and this is your way of avoiding it, it’s not helping. It’s only going to hurt us, Vivi."

"Don’t you trust me?" She broke down. "Do you think I would hurt Angel?"

Her questions were like a pair of knives stabbing through his heart and he felt breathless. He held her arm so she would look at him. "You really don’t know where Angel is?"

She shook her head tearfully. "I don’t know how that woman got everything right and I swear I’m not crazy. I almost believed she’s me too but I precisely remember everything I did today."

He took out his phone and found the video that had been sent to him on email.

"Drive." He ordered her. Before she could react, he hoisted her into the driver’s seat and swapped places with her, then watched the video over and over.

"Stop the car!" He called out all of a sudden. She slammed the brakes.

"What?"

"Sorry. I just need to think." He ran a hand down his face. "If you are away from Angel for a minute, he will hug you when you come back. He hugs you when he wakes up, when you finish cooking, when you end a long phone call and pretty much for every reason. Why would he only let you take his hand after staying away from him for a whole day?"

"So you believe me." She was relieved. "Good. Because we need to figure out who this woman is and where she took our son."

The speed she was driving at was too insane for them to hold a conversation so he sent the video to Gabriel instead.

When the latter called, he answered and went straight to the point. "Do you know who the woman in the video is?"

"Are you high?" Gabriel was annoyed.

"Watch the video again, preferably on a bigger screen, and tell me if the woman is Avery." He then hung up and waited for Gabriel to do as he was told.

His phone rang ten minutes later and he was more nervous this time. "Did you do it?"

"What do you think I am? Your dog?" Gabriel asked.

"Did you watch it or not?"

"That woman is Avery. I watched it five times. I even slowed it down and I don’t know what you are trying to prove."

Listening from the driver’s seat, Avery sighed. "It’s not going to be difficult at all. We only have to find a woman who is identical to me enough to pass off for me even in the eyes of my brother."

"Or one who looks enough like you for makeup to make her 100% your match." He added.

"It just got harder. Thanks." She rolled her eyes at him. They had arrived at Aubrey’s home, where he didn’t know they were going since he was too busy investigating to check where they were headed.

Aubrey was excited to see their car and jumped up and down when they got off. "Did you bring Angel for a sleepover?" She asked as soon as she saw Avery.

Avery crouched to her level. "No, honey. I’m sorry." She then looked up at Aubrey’s confused parents. "Do you mind if we ask her a few questions?"

"Not at all. We will be happy to help too." Offered Julie, Aubrey’s mother. She must have realized what was happening as soon as she saw them, since she took her daughter aside for a bit to tell her, "Angel’s parents are going to ask you some questions about Angel to be able to get him the kind of present he would like. You need to be honest, can you do that, pumpkin?"

She nodded, so Julie let Avery interrogate her.

Avery whispered her thanks and tried not to let her feelings get the better of her. "When did you last see Angel?"

"When you picked him up. Mommy was late today."

"And I didn’t wait for her with you?" She knew it was not her that Aubrey saw but it was still shocking. Angel would never agree to that.

Aubrey shook her head. "You were very upset and said some mean things." She looked sad remembering them.

"What did I say?" She clenched her fists.

"You shook me off you and said you didn’t have time to deal with little brats and had more important things to do."

Avery’s heart broke as she hugged her. "Sweetie, I’m so sorry. Sometimes adults get angry over their own matters and take it out on innocent people. It’s not the right thing to do and I’m so sorry I hurt your feelings."

The girl was forgiving, which made Avery even sadder. She had been shot down for merely being in the wrong place.

She was seething in rage when Aubrey was sent to her room. "The nerve of that bitch!"

Julie was equally furious. "I want to kill her too."