The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 88

"Are you sure you didn’t mix up the samples or get the wrong results?" She checked the folder as if it was possible for another document to fall out and prove that the one in her hands was erroneous. But she knew nothing of that sort would happen. The document had both their names as solid proof. Gabriel Vaillant and Avery Vaillant. And they were not biologically related.

"How the fuck is this possible? This has to be wrong."

Mabella knew Avery was not saying she was not careful enough. She just didn’t how what to think of the new discovery.

"If Gabe is not my brother, why the hell does it matter to him what I do? It was already repulsive to think about how controlling my brother was, but an unrelated man? And he knew this..."

"Avery, I know this is difficult for you." Mabella knew she was projecting. Gabe’s actions were the last thing on her mind and she was using them to deflect from the matter that horrified her the most.

"Don’t you dare remind me." Her eyes watered.

"Are you two okay?" Damon asked as he arrived, making Avery sigh. Just great. He was here. "Avery, is everything alright? You slipped away and I was worried."

"Where did you leave my son?" Her heart skipped a beat and when she saw Angel tailing after his father, she was relieved.

"Why are you so worried?" He asked, and her answer was to shove the test results into his hands.

"I knew that bastard was hiding something." He gritted his teeth and made a U-turn, stopping abruptly when Avery grabbed his hand.

"It’s not about him being my brother or not. It’s what it means for us." She hinted at the white sheet of paper to remind him of the second reason why their families were at loggerheads.

His face paled when he caught on, but only for moments before he remembered his past research. "I checked before and we are not related."

She was far from relieved. "What samples did you use? You don’t have mine."

"Your hairbrush and my father’s toothbrush."

She didn’t want to know how he managed to get her hairbrush. Maybe he got someone to steal it for him, and she was too repulsed to ask whether he was certain she and his father were not half siblings. She wanted to throw up. "What if there’s another layer of secrets?"

Mina took the chance to secretly take Angel away as he didn’t need to hear anything about the world of adults and how complicated it was.

"Are you suggesting an ancestry test?" Damon asked now that Angel was out of earshot. When she nodded, he took her hands. "Who cares? Whatever could have gone wrong from me being with you should have already happened. Besides, there is no rule in Olphire against it."

She was right but it was no consolation. It would have been easier if neither of them knew a thing but now that they knew, it would make everything more weird than it already was.

"Don’t let it bug you." He held her shoulders to console her and although it did give a sense of comfort, it also brought out everything she would rather not think about. If what she thought was right, what would happen to Angel? Would he despise them for their choices when he grew older and understood everything?

"This is why Dorthe never liked me. I knew it was more than the family feud to her." She sighed in realization.

He wanted to remind her that if they were actually related and his grandmother knew it, she would be happy to tell them so they stayed away from each other, but she was too upset to hear anything right now. He could only hug her silently and let her calm down from the shock of it.

"We’ll submit our samples for ancestry DNA, okay?" He assured her. Instead of the nod he expected, she pulled away from him.

"I’ll kill him!"

"Avery?" He grabbed her hand as he tried to figure out who he was referring to. Bryce had nothing to do with this so was she talking about Gabriel? "Don’t do anything you will regret."

She shoved him off and stormed towards her car.

"Then at least let me go with you. Hell knows what that bastard is capable of." He didn’t give her the chance to say no before opening his car door and shoving her into the passenger seat. To his relief, she didn’t resist, so he sent a text to Mabella to let her know they would be back later and sped off while Avery keyed in Gabriel’s location into the GPS. When he noticed what she had done, he was puzzled.

"Isn’t he still at your villa? I think he was there when I left."

"He might have run away if he had an inkling of what was going to happen. He probably guessed something when you guys noticed my disappearance." She reasoned, and she knew she was right.

.....

They arrived within fifteen minutes and sure enough, Gabriel was home. Only, he was not alone. He had brought Mina with him, who Avery pulled away as soon as she entered the living room and saw them.

"Stay back." She threatened Gabriel and grabbed a floor lamp as a weapon.

"Do you love floor lamps? Maybe I should get you one of those for your next birthday." He grinned, then frowned at the solemness of the situation. "Wait. Are you here because you think I’d hurt your friend? Trust me, I wouldn’t do to her anything she doesn’t want me to. It’s her idea for us to be here. Right, Mina?" He peeked at her behind Avery’s back and was confused at her paling face. "Mina?"

"He’s not your brother, is he?" Mina whispered to Avery.

"No he’s not. This man has been manipulating us for ages. Who are you, Gabriel Vaillant?"

He checked behind him as though believing she was talking to someone else. "Me? Your...wait. You just said I’m not your brother. How did you come to that terrifying conclusion?"

She was yet to answer him when he noticed Damon was no longer in his spot. He ducked the weapon he thought was about to land on his head but he had thought too much. Damon had only wanted to handcuff him and he was too late. The man tackled him and before he knew it, he was cuffed to one of his kitchen chairs.

He threw his head back on the backrest with a groan. "Although I have nothing against cuffs, I’d rather only have Mina see me in them. You guys know I can snap them off my wrists, right?"

That didn’t matter. Avery carefully approached. "Don’t you dare try anything. Tell me everything."

"You found out." He didn’t look shocked.

"You thought I wouldn’t? Tell me, why did you lie to me?"

"The truth is hurtful, Vivi. I didn’t want to be the one to break the news to you so I let you find out on your own." When he caught her confused frown, he smiled. "Did you think I didn’t know why Mina offered me coffee? If I didn’t, all the years I stayed in the mafia would have been for nothing."

"Did you just say mafia?" She paused. "Never mind. Start talking. Why did you lie?"

"I didn’t. Didn’t I give you the DNA test results? You rejected it." He shrugged. "If you still want it, check my bedside table, second drawer."

She rushed to the master bedroom before stopping at the door to think. What if it was a trap? He did run away after finding out he had been discovered. Scratch that. The DNA test was not a secret to begin with. He had enough time to plant a microbomb knowing he would send her to his room.

But before she could give up and go back, she had a second thought. If he wanted to harm her, he had enough time to do it over the years but he didn’t. Maybe aside from not being her brother, there wasn’t any other lie.

She dashed to the bedside table and opened it at record speed as if dreading a surprise bomb and counting down how long it would take for her to get the envelope and run out with Damon and Mina before it exploded. There was no bomb, and she knew it was silly of her to have expected one to start with. She pondered opening the envelope right there and ripped it without hesitation, then skimmed her eyes over the document to the conclusion.

"It’s the same?" She was shocked and didn’t know whether to be happy or mad about it. If it was different, she would have still grabbed onto the chance that Mabella’s report had missed a detail.

Her crestfallen expression when she returned to the living room revealed she had read it, and Gabriel had ’I told you’ written all over his face.

"It finally makes sense why you said ’he was my father’ instead of ’he was our father’. You knew he was yours but not mine." She recalled his words after having his people get rid of Bryce.

He was lost in thought but her words jolted him. "Wait. You said you knew the truth."

"I do. And I’m so mad I could kill you right now." She raged.

"If you know the truth and you think Bryce was not your father, who is your mother?"

"Amelia Vaillant?" She looked at him and Damon in confusion. "Right?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Yes. So according to your discovery, Amelia was your mother as well as mine. If that’s the case, why do we have 0% DNA? We should be at least 25% compatible, right?"