The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 131

"Is everything okay?" Damon was quick to notice her discomfort.

"I’m fine." She smiled it off. Maybe it was because she had been working on an empty stomach all day. She had been too anxious to eat a grain earlier but now that the whole party was proving to be a blast, she would be alright.

She fed her son a piece of cake, glad she had hired a photographer to take pictures of the memorable moments. As the boy shared the cake with his friends and their parents, she took the chance to raid the kitchen for something to eat.

"Is anything wrong with the cake?" Asked Damon, who she had not heard coming up behind her. He clearly wasn’t buying her lie, so she decided she might as well tell him the truth.

"It’s way too sugary. I have no idea how I can enjoy that."

Damon was confused. "Didn’t you order a low-sugar cake, knowing Angel would eat a lot of it? The thing has practically no sugar in it."

"I agree." Added Mina. She realized she had spoken out of the blue and felt awkward. "Sorry. I came to get some food if I can find any. I’ve been constantly hungry lately."

Avery’s brows knitted as she mumbled. "Me too. Fuck."

"Do you think you’re..." Mina started, only to be shut up.

"Can’t be. I’m more careful than anyone." She realized what her words had implied and smiled up at Damon. "No offense."

"None taken. Though, there’s only one way to find out."

She laughed at his ridiculousness. "Damon, I’m not pregnant. I’m on the pill."

"So was I. I was only late to take it for one day and..." Mina pointed at her belly which was starting to show slightly. "Just saying."

Avery was in disbelief. "I have never been late for my pill, okay? I have a literal alarm set for it and now that you mention it, I should probably go for more drastic measures."

"Are you certain you have never been late?" Mina confirmed.

"There are other reasons for a person’s tastes to change. Their period is one of them." She froze when she mentioned her period. She was late. However, there were many causes for that too, including the pill. "Guys, calm down. I have never missed my pill." She was done speaking so she left them in the kitchen and went up to her room.

She had a calendar to track her period offline and she opened her bedside drawer to take it out, nearly fainting from the sudden rush of dizziness. That was the same thing she felt when she tasted the cake—a sudden wave of heat that nearly knocked out her senses. She must be tired. That must be it.

She flipped the calendar for the last time she marked it, which was nearly two months ago. "Everyone’s had a late period some time. I wasn’t active before but now I am. Maybe that’s why? Besides, I didn’t feel this way when I was expecting Angel. Great, now I’m speaking to a calendar."

She closed her eyes to recall everything that happened before she found out she was expecting Angel. Now that she thought about it, it had been so obvious that the test had been superficial.

She calmed herself down with deep breaths and was preparing to leave her room when she remembered a night she had nearly forgotten about. The night before she decided to get on the pill, she had wanted to feel everything with him and had asked him to ditch the protection, intending to rush for the morning-after pill. How could she have forgotten?

"Vivi?" Damon knocked on the door and let himself in when she didn’t respond. "Are you okay?"

She flew into his arms, hugging him tightly. "That morning I forgot to take the morning-after pill. Then I didn’t get on the pill immediately. Do you think that one night would haunt me? We have been safe every other night."

He was confused. He held her by the shoulders and searched her eyes. "If you are pregnant, what can be so bad about it? Aren’t we in a relationship? I thought the intention to be together for the long term was unanimous and besides, don’t we already have a son together?"

"You don’t understand." She was on the verge of tears. "Angel is extremely possessive of me. If I ever have a child, he will hate it. The worst that can happen is him breaking down because he thinks the existence of another baby means I don’t love him as much as I do now. He is just starting to see the world as a beautiful place. I don’t want to take this away from him."

He pulled her into his arms and embraced her. "If that were to happen, we would explain it to him. Didn’t you manage to tell him before that being away from him doesn’t take away any of our love for him? We can do it again. Besides, we don’t intend to treat him any differently and they might get along better than you expect."

She didn’t think that would happen. Anyone who got overly close to her was a competitor in Angel’s eyes and that included his best friend Aubrey. Not to mention, "We have had an autistic child before. It could happen again. It could be severe."

It would have been a major concern if Angel’s condition was genetic but according to all the major reports, it had developed after his birth. She was scaring herself.

"Honey, why don’t you take a test first? You might be surprised to learn that you are preparing yourself psychologically for something that will not happen any time soon."

"Good idea." She bolted out of the room, ignoring his warning about her slowing down on the stairs. Naturally, she held the rail and slowed down when she got to it. She didn’t think she was pregnant but if she was, it would be awful if she tripped.

As soon as she got downstairs, Mina was waiting for her with a plate of fruits. "I chose all the sugar-free ones."

"Thank you." They looked enticing and she knew she would never want to willingly eat them under different circumstances. Why the hell would she want to eat cucumber? She wanted to cringe at the thought and when her mouth watered instead, she sighed. "Yeah, I could be pregnant. This doesn’t happen every day."

"Just take a test." Mina teased her. She took out her phone and ordered a test kit from the nearest pharmacy, which delivered it faster than she wanted them to.

"Not like I have a choice anymore." She finished her fruits and set the plate aside, then disappeared to her room. It took ages to calm herself down and finally take the test.

...

She got out a while later and was stumped to see Mabella, Gabriel, and Chloe waiting for her along with Damon and Mina. She glared at Mina and Damon. "What the hell?"

"Mabella can sniff out anyone who is not alright in seconds and with the way you were acting, she knew something was wrong," Damon explained. "I didn’t explicitly tell her you were taking a test. She figured it out, having seen the delivery being dropped off."

"Yikes." She shrugged. Whatever. They would find out anyway.

"I’m still waiting. Four minutes left." She showed them the strip. Mabella took it and placed it on the table, where they sat around it with their fingers crossed. The giant clock on the wall beside them ticked away the seconds loudly and it was almost hypnotizing with how quiet they were.

"I think the time’s up," Mina spoke up, and everyone looked at her without moving. They wanted to find out at the same time but for probably the same reason, they were all nervous to do so.

Eventually, their gazes all landed on Mabella who had been the one to suggest this. She reached to the table and picked up the test kit. One glance at it and everyone wanted to use her expression to guess in vain. She neither looked excited nor disappointed. There wasn’t a hint of anything on her face. She would win a game of poker based on her expressionless face alone.

"Tell us, will you?" Gabriel wanted to snatch the kit from her.

She shook her head. "It’s negative."

The groan of disappointment was unanimous. Avery laughed. "I didn’t know you all wanted me to be pregnant so badly."

"Is there anything better than that? Angel would finally be a brother. Heaven knows he would make the best brother in the world. And I would have a chance to be a godmother." Chloe lamented.

"I would be the godmother to both of them but that’s beside the point. My baby would have two playmates." Mina allowed herself to dream just this once.

"My child would have two cousins," Gabriel added.

She smiled at all their responses. "If that were meant to happen, there would be two lines on the kit. Don’t even think about it; if the second line was going to take longer, it would have appeared already. No surprise is going to happen."

She reached to take the wasted kit and finally caught a glance at Damon’s expression. He was disappointed, like everyone else, but it was different. He looked as though he had been expecting something life-changing, but it had been brutally taken away from him.

What the heck? She cursed internally. Why was it such a big deal?

_____

AN

What do you think explains Damon’s reaction?"