The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 92

"I don’t want to spend the night with you." She pushed him away but he didn’t budge.

"Are you sure? You could have a lot of fun." He enticed her, taking the chance to trap her between himself and the wall behind her.

She was almost unable to take it. "I want to spend the night with you and you know that. However, work comes first."

"You have to let yourself relax." He rubbed her cheek but she immediately knew what he was doing.

"That’s what you would say if you wanted me to set my work aside and spend the time with you, you clingy bastard." She rolled her eyes.

He didn’t deny it. "What can I do? You are so beautiful that I can’t stop myself from wanting to spend the entire day and night with you."

Since he was complaining so much about her ditching him so she would work, she sent him off to play with Angel and promised to join them later.

As expected, she couldn’t work for long before she started thinking about them. To be more specific, she was thinking about him. She had left her door open so whenever they ran past her room giggling and laughing and playing whatever game they were enjoying so much, the sounds made her smile.

Eventually, she closed the file she had been working on and stood to join them. But because she stood too fast, she sent a pile of paper scattering onto the floor. She bent to pick them up, catching one that stood out from the logo. It was a logo she recognized perfectly, belonging to a company whose CEO has always tried to go against Vaillant Telecommunications.

She sat back down and inspected the contract she was yet to read, and scrolled down to the end and was baffled to see Gabriel’s signature at the end of it.

"What have you done?" she wanted to explode. It had not even been a week and the man had already started collaborating with her enemies?

What was worse, his phone was turned off when she tried to contact him and so was Mina’s. All she could do was wait until they decided to make contact with the rest of the world, all while imagining all possible outcomes.

"Do you think Gabriel insisted on asking me for a job for this specific reason? Is it possible that he is deliberately trying to destroy Vaillant Telecommunications?" She asked Damon when he joined them.

"That’s likely. But it’s also possible that he doesn’t know you are enemies. He could be doing this for the good of Vaillant Telecommunications." He assured her. "Do you think maybe you are overthinking things?"

"You do realize Gabe has done this before, right?" She reminded him of how he had made the Vaillant family’s business go downhill in just a few years. "Also, why is he not answering my calls?"

"I’m certain of it—you are overthinking this." He tapped her head. "Although Gabriel is the least understable person on earth, there are things he wouldn’t do and one of them is something that would not benefit him in any way."

She had to admit he was right about that.

While they spoke, Angel ran over and slotted himself between them with a scowl on his face.

"Baby, is anything wrong?" She laughed as she asked. He looked like he had been wronged.

"He is upset about us talking about work instead of playing with him." Damon guessed and picked his son up to hug him. "What game do you want to play?"

They thought he would want to play with his toys or play one of his favorite games, but he had something else in mind. He brought Avery’s chess board, making them both laugh. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"That might be more difficult and boring than it looks." Avery warned him, and he still wanted to go on so she helped him set it up.

They all sat on the floor around a small circular table, with their legs crossed. Avery watched as the boy readied himself to play against his father.

"Are you sure about that? I’ll not go easy on you." Damon warned, and he meant it. As soon as they started, he captured Angel’s pieces one after another, earning Avery’s glare.

Remembering he was going up against a five year old, he slowed down but even then, there was no way to make Angel win without letting him break the rules.

Avery rolled her eyes. "That’s it. Let’s teach him who’s boss, shall we?" She winked at Angel, who excitedly nodded and looked forward to seeing his mother massacre his father.

As expected, Damon was no match for Avery and he had to give up after three consecutive loses. The next time he played against Angel, it was obvious that the boy had picked up some skills from them. They were still too basic for him to capture anyone’s piece but it was worth noting that he didn’t make the same mistake twice.

When he got bored, he kept away the chessboard and started searching for another game.

"Do you think we should take him to school?" Damon asked. The boy was quite smart.

She tore her gaze away from Angel who was searching through the games for something fun. "I’ve been thinking about that too. I’m sure I’m not overthinking it. Angel has this urge to learn new things. Not only that, but when I asked him if he wanted to have tutors before, he gave me a bored look and shook his head. Maybe his answer will be different now."

"Time to find out." He nudged her when Angel came back. He was carrying a scrabble board that made them almost laugh. That was a game he could never possibly beat them at, but on the bright side, it was easier for them to let him win.

She glanced at Damon and when he nodded, she took it as his cue for her to raise the question.

Before she could, however, he showed her a picture he had found.

She chuckled when she saw it, almost not believing that was her.

"That’s me, when I had just turned twenty." She explained, but he looked on waiting for more.

"I had just left a history class when my friend dragged me over to take that picture. Can you believe they made us learn history? That’s the most boring thing ever and they expected us to enjoy it." She complained, but instead of patting her head to console her like he usually would, he pointed at the library behind her in the picture.

"That’s the library, where students find books to read."

His eyes brightened as he raised his arms to be carried.

"You want to go to a library, don’t you?" She guessed. He nodded, and that made things easier for them. They would take her to a library and if he liked it, they would tell him about schools and know whether he wanted to go.

"I can’t believe I’m thinking about taking my son to school. It only feels like yesterday when I first held him in my arms." She blinked to stop herself from becoming emotional. She adjusted herself on the carpet in preparation for the new game.

They played late into the night, and she didn’t remember when she fell asleep—only that he carried her off the carpet and she was snuggling in his arms when she felt him close to her on the bed.

In her sleepy haze, she couldn’t stop thinking about how badly she wanted this to last forever.

____

The following morning.

She woke up to a call from Gabriel and as soon as she saw the name on her screen, she answered the call with a huff. "Gabriel fucking Vaillant!"

"I’m sorry. Mina and I are at a beachhouse and there was a power outage yesterday. We figured you might have attempted to contact us and hearing your tone, did we miss something urgent?"

"Beach house? When did the two of you..." She stopped herself. Never mind. Gabriel might just say something insane. "You signed a contract with GH Conglomerate without consulting me. Are you the CFO of Vaillant Telecommunications or are you trying to replace its CEO?" She roared in fury.

"Calm down, will you? I know you and GH are rivals. But can you calm down for a bit and listen to my reasons?" He coaxed.

"Who cares about your reasons? You should have explained it before you did it. Not after." She reminded him, then realized he already knew this. "You knew I would say no if you asked me, didn’t you?"

"Vivi, sometimes you need to keep your enemies close. At other times, you need to use them for your benefit whether or not you hate them enough to want to kill them."

She rolled her eyes. "Don’t educate me about how to handle my enemies. If you want to work with GH, do that yourself. Just don’t use Vaillant Telecommunications to achieve your goals."

She sounded as though she was reprimanding him for overstepping his boundaries but he knew it was more than that.

"You don’t trust me anymore, do you?" He asked. "You think I am capable of doing to your company what I did..."

"Angel wants to go to school." She interrupted him, changing the topic randomly. She knew how awkward it would be but trust was the last thing she wanted to talk about.

She barely trusted him before the truth was revealed. Now that she knew the entire truth, how coule she trust him?