The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 122

The drive to Monarch Academy felt long and suffocating. She didn’t say it out aloud but despite being certain that she was safe now, she couldn’t stop herself from looking over her shoulder. What if whoever was following her knew to get rid of the bracelet? What if it caught a drop a water and malfunctioned?

"Vivi?" Damon’s voice snapped her out of it and she was relieved to finally stop thinking about the worst case scenario.

"Are we here already? Let’s see Angel off to class." She suggested. Knowing Damon was about to ask her what was wrong, she shuffled out of the car and helped Angel down.

The boy was excited to finally be in school where he could see his friends so he grabbed her hand and dragged her towards his classroom. Damon was a step behind them, carrying his bag pack and lunch bag. When they got to their classroom, a shrill squeal for Angel was all it took to bring a smile on her face. Aubrey ran towards them and after greeting them, took Angel’s hand and led him away.

"I learned a new game yesterday. Come on, I’ll teach you how to play it."

Angel barely remembered they were still there and waved awkwardly before hurrying away with his friend.

"She’s so cute." Damon chuckled.

"Yeah. Our son finally has a true friend. Though that’s not what you thought about, is it?" She knowingly asked him.

It wasn’t, but she didn’t need to know that he had wondered what it was like to have a daughter. The little princess would probably fill the house with joy. She would skin him for having such a thought, let alone the fact that he had imagined an adorable little girl with Avery’s eyes and snarky remarks.

"Our son is settled. Let’s get you to work." He suggested.

"About that, I forgot an important document at home. I can get it and go to work myself." She felt bummed.

"I can help you pick it after dropping you off at work." He suggested, to which she shook her head.

"Damon, you need to get to work too. You cannot go running errands for me when you have an important meeting in half an hour. I’ll take a cab home and be at work in a flash."

"If you insist." He knew there was no space for negotiation with her when work was involved. Even so, he insisted on waiting with her until her cab arrived and only left once she did. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The cab dropped her off at the gates of her villa and she opened the door, feeling uneasy.

"Ma’am, is everything okay?" The driver couldn’t help asking when she lingered at the door.

"No. I’m okay." She ignored the unease.

"Good. Then please hurry. You are not the only one who needs this cab." His tone was what she would call an even mixture of rudeness and politeness, and she knitted her brows and got down. He left with a frustrated huff that she would have something to say about if she wasn’t certain she was being followed.

However, the entire street was devoid of humans. All she could see was a few cars parked down the street. She couldn’t help wondering whether her stalker was in one of them, watching them after having followed her the whole way here. Deciding it was too insane, she shook the thought off and got her documents from the house.

She felt relieved to drive herself to work after getting her documents. Who knew? Perhaps a cab driver could just happen to be her stalker in disguise. She was certain of it but didn’t know they were doing it. Who was so talented at stalking that they would make her look stupid if she told anyone?

In an attempt to throw them off, she opted to grab a cup of coffee a few meters from Vaillant Telecommunications.

"One triple espresso. I’ll need it to deal with this." She ordered at the cash registar, and as she took out the money out of her purse, she was certain she had seen a reflection of someone at the entrance, who ducked when she turned to take a clearer look.

"Did you see anyone?" She asked the cashier.

"I didn’t." The latter took the money and handed out the change, only to see Avery flee out of the cafe.

"Ma’am, your change." She reminded politely.

"Keep it."

"Do you still want your espresso?" She asked and got no response. Avery was already out, following the hint of black she had seen.

"Looking for me?" A deep voice spoke up behind her, nearly draining the blood out of her body. It took all her strength to turn and face him.

"Who are you?" She was horrified when she saw him, the man who had been stalking her. He looked more like a white collar worker in his fitting black suit than a stalker—but now that she thought about it, who said white collar worker couldn’t stalk? They could, and the evidence was right before her.

"It’s nice to finally meet you. I admit, it was not an easy feat." He held his hand out to offer a handshake.

"I cannot say the same thing. So if you’ll excuse me, I have work to get back to." She risked going through the only available route and hoped he didn’t have enough time to trap her. She was yet to sigh in relief when she managed to get close enough to her car to jump in when he spoke up.

"Your car is..." He dropped the sentence midway, but it was enough for her to take a closer, more cautious look. The red flash of light beneath it caught her eye and she shuddered. Had he rigged her car?

"If you get in, you blow up into smithereens. Are you sure you want to risk that?" He asked her, making her swallow and look back.

"What do you want?" She relented, left with no choice. She remembered the bracelet on her wrist and inwardly lamented about having to use it not even six hours after Damon gave it to her.

"To talk. Really. I can’t believe I’m saying this either but I don’t want to hurt you. You and Vaillant Telecommunications will be alright if you simply do as you’re told and not put up a meaningless fight."

Vaillant Telecommunications? The mention of her company was all it took for her to realize who she was talking to. "Dominic Romano."

He feigned shock. "How did you know? Did my useless sister finally do something useful and tell you all about me?"

She had learnt about him from Gabriel but he didn’t need to know that. A moment ago, she had thought meeting someone who might turn out to be a Romano could just begin an unlucky streak for her. But now that she knew who she was speaking to, she inwardly lamented. She must have already been on an insane streak of bad luck to meet a man like him.

"What do you want to talk about?" She asked, trying not to touch the bracelet. Damon had mentioned having an important meeting and had made time for them to drop Angel off to school nonetheless. It wouldn’t be nice of her to take more of his time unless the situation was an actual emergency.

"Your company. Come with me, Miss Vaillant." He led the way and she had no choice but to follow him.

"Don’t think about calling anyone. If you touch your phone, I will have no choice but to take it away. I hate being distracted when having serious discussions, you see."

"What a coincidence. I don’t like being interrupted when cleaning up my enemies’ bodies either. So you can be rest assured that no one will be barging in and making a grand entrance."

He made a sharp turn to glance at her and laughed. "That’s so cute. I’ve never seen a kitten putting up the act of a tiger before."

She smiled to herself. She liked being underestimated because then, the other party lowered her guard around her and no matter what she did, the impact would hit them harder than it should.

He scoffed and entered a restaurant with her tagging along, peeking over his shoulder in case she thought it was fun to use her phone. As soon as she slid it out of her purse, he leapt to her side.

"I warned you. Now I need to take this off your hands until our discussion is over."

She inwardly smirked. In his twisted way of trying to keep her safe, Gabriel had installed a sensor in her phone that would go off if her phone was taken by anyone who was not her, Damon or Angel. It wasn’t going to be long before he made his way to her.

"Better safe than sorry, I guess." She smiled, and he agreed, not knowing their reasons were as different as light and dark.

They finally sat down opposite each other and Dominic slapped a contract onto the table before her.

"I’m not signing that." She rejected it right off the bat.

"You haven’t checked the terms yet, Miss Vaillant. This deal is going to benefit your company more than anything ever could."

"I’ll pass. I’m not making my company dirty for some syndicate to clean the money they earned destroying lives. So thank you, but no thank you." She made to stand.

"I don’t think you realize it yet, Miss Vaillant, but you don’t have much choice. Your hands are tied, or to be exact, the wheels of your car."