The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 116

"Are you out of your mind?" Gabriel’s jaw dropped as he took in the flames being put out in the mansion they had been keeping their eyes on. "You asked me to trust you, only to set the Romanos mansion on fire?"

"What about it?" Damon opened the car door, dropping his binoculars as though what he had been waiting for had happened.

"If they have Angel in this mansion, do you realize he could get injured too?" He jumped down from the car, belatedly realizing he could have missed something important.

"Don’t worry. I have someone on the inside." Damon led the way. Gabriel only trusted him because he knew the person being held hostage was Damon’s son and he would never hurt him. If it was anyone else, he would have ditched Damon and his secret plans and found a way into the mansion on his own.

"Mina?" He was stumped when he saw her running towards them, covered in mud and moss and carrying Angel in her arms. He ran to meet her and took the boy from her, gave him to his father and held her.

"Gabe," She exhaled in relief. "That’s great. I did it."

He didn’t know what to tell her. She had run into a syndicate’s lair despite knowing she was pregnant and now she was smiling about being successful? He glared at Damon. "When you said you had someone in the inside?"

"It was not her." Damon was shocked too. Mina passed out soon after getting to them and since they had Angel safe and sound, they decided to deal with Jose later.

"Are you okay, buddy?" He checked on Angel, who hadn’t said a word since they found him. He was relieved when the boy nodded. This meant he was okay.

"Mommy is worried sick. Let’s give her a call, shall we?"

An incoming call interrupted him.

"Speak." He ordered.

"Romano is dead. However, I couldn’t find the boy. The dungeon must have been broken into."

Gabriel overheard the man on the other side and squinted his eyes. When Damon denied being in cahoots with Mina, he had thought he was only shirking responsibility for putting Mina in danger. Now that he had heard it, he had a billion questions.

"The boy is with me." Damon answered, making the other party rant about not being truly trusted with the job.

_____

Avery was already at the door by the time they arrived and she waited with bated breath for them to get out of the car.

"Did you find him?" She asked weakly, and when Damon got out with Angel in his arms, she ran to them. "Baby!"

He reached over to her and she picked him up gently. "Are you okay, baby? Did they hurt you?"

He shook his head and she sighed in relief. Taking note of his muddy clothes as well as Mina’s, it wasn’t hard to guess who had been the one to rescue him out of the Romano’s hell hole. She led the way back to the house and showed Mina to the guest room to take a shower, then bathed Angel and put him to bed. The boy had had a rough night and slept as soon as his head hit the pillow.

When she came back downstairs, Mina had changed into the pajamas that had been set aside for her and was sitting opposite Damon and Gabriel who seemed to have a thousand questions.

"Leave her alone, will you? She needs to rest." She reminded Gabriel that she was pregnant.

"I have a question for her." Gabriel insisted, staring at Mina in disbelief. "How did you know where Angel was being held captive?"

She peeked at Avery and swallowed. "I found a woman in the hallway and interrogated her." She was not lying, but Gabriel pushed.

"How did you know there was a secret tunnel, and why did Angel not want you close to him in the car?"

She knew there was no hiding it at this point so she took a breath and faced it. "Jose Romano is my father."

"Jose Romano is what?" Avery couldn’t contain her shock. "Jose Romano, isn’t that some mob boss with rumored ties to the cartel? That’s your father?" She didn’t wait for her to answer. "Is he also the man who kidnapped my son?"

Mina nodded. "Avery, you have to listen to me."

She shot to her feet and walked off, with Mina hot on her heel. She stopped and turned around sharply. "What am I supposed to listen to? This kidnapper knew way too much about my son. How am I to believe you are not their secret informant?"

"I am not! This is why he did this. He knows which button to push and..." She grabbed Avery’s arm. "You know how much I love Angel. I would never do this to him."

"Why does it matter?" Avery hissed. "Even if you didn’t do it, a member of your family did. Who knows? It could be a family feud and my son could be paying the price simply because you are close to him!" Seeing her paled face, she knew her random speculation was right. "Was my son kidnapped to teach you a lesson? It doesn’t matter why he did it but was the reason related to you?"

"Yes." Mina grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving. "But only because I wouldn’t let him infiltrate Vaillant Telecommunications."

"So it’s about Vaillant Telecommunications now." She crossed her arms. "Get out."

"Avery, I would never betray you."

"Get out!" She snapped. "I don’t care how likely you are you betray me. If we were truly friends, you would not have kept something so important from me."

Realizing how late it was, she called out to Gabriel. "Take her home."

He was displeased but he stood to follow her out the door nonetheless. After hearing her confession, the last thing he wanted was to be close to her. "An enemy of my sister is my enemy too. So don’t flatter yourself and think I care about your safety. I’m only taking you home because my sister is too kind to let you go home on your own despite what you did."

"Why does it matter so much whose child I am? So what if my father is a Romano? Aren’t you part of a syndicate too?" She ranted.

"A syndicate where everyone knows never to mess with my sister. But you..." He glared at her. "Why exactly were you with me? Did your daddy send you to me?"

She shrunk into the passenger seat without saying a word. Jose had managed to ruin her life without trying hard.

"What would you do if you got together with a woman who wanted nothing to do with the mafia?" She asked out of the blue.

"If there is something about me that she doesn’t want, I would never get together with her."

She nodded. "Yeah. But would you out her to your enemies and let them kill her because she knows your secrets that you don’t want the world to know?"

"What are you getting at?" He cast her a glance.

"My mother was killed because of Jose Romano. I lived a lie all my life, thinking she was murdered by robbers, only to find out they were an enemy faction. My father killed my mother, Gabriel! He ruined my life, so excuse me for not being proud enough to tell everyone about him."

"Say that to Avery, whose son was kidnapped by him and see if she cares." He brushed her off.

"While I didn’t expect you to tell me everything about your family, I would appreciate it if they didn’t jeopardize the safety of the people I care about. So, do you mind clearing up whatever there is between you and them? I don’t want my child’s life in danger because of them either."

"Child?" It took her a moment to understand and she rubbed her stomach. "Oh."

_____

She had known things would change between her and Avery thanks to Angel’s disappearance but she didn’t think it would happen so soon and so intensely.

The following morning, Avery was already at work by the time she arrived and it was unexpected. The latter had had the worst kind of evening and it would have been expected for her to only want to stay at home with her son for the next one week.

When Mina arrived, she held up the coffee cup she had brought. "Coffee for you! I dropped by Reynolds and bought myself a cup but remembered I’m pregnant and can only take decaf. Do you want it?"

Avery looked up and took her in before her gaze turned stern. "Is it poisoned?"

"Never mind." Mina dumped the cup in the trash can and sat opposite her. "Gabe told me all about your new deal with Johnson so I..."

"That has been taken care of. Or is being taken care of by Gabe." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Oh. What about your trip to Japan? I’ll go book your hotel room. Do you have any requirements for the kind of hotel you will stay in?"

"Chloe booked one." She dismissed.

"I see. About the venue for Vaillant Telecommunications end year dinner, some venues can only be booked a month or two in advance so..."

"Gabriel took care of that."

Mina was frantic. "Can you tell me why I came here? Anything that has not been done by Gabe or Damon or Mabella."

Avery finally paid attention to her. "Don’t you get it, Mina? You are no longer trustworthy."