The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 123

A sharp screech resounded and out of the corner she had not found in the slightest bit suspicious, Gabriel stormed over to them and grabbed Dominic by the collar of his overpriced shirt. "Did you not hear what my sister said? She doesn’t want to collaborate with you."

Dominic pushed his hands off with a smile as though he didn’t feel threatened and invited Gabriel to feel. "Women can be quite fickle sometimes. They have no idea what’s best for everyone but maybe you could talk to her a little and..."

A punch made him stop speaking and when he met Gabriel’s enraged gaze, he shuddered.

"I want my sister’s car in its normal, perfect condition within ten minutes. I have no idea how you will make that happen but if I find a single scratch..."

"What will you do? Kill me?" Dominic scoffed.

Gabriel didn’t state aloud what he would do but he had always wanted an excuse to sweep out the Romanos. Damon had set their lair on fire and Jose had died in the inferno but apparently, the same couldn’t be said about his offspring.

"Can I kill him?" She asked Avery, who preferred to peel his hands off the scumbag.

"Not here. Let’s get out of here first. We prefer not to taint the very company we are protecting, don’t we?" She sternly reminded him.

To her relief, he relented and let go of Dominic, much to her relief. Though from the glare that sent off a subtle message between them, she knew one of their heads would be rolling by the following morning. She could only hope it was not Gabriel’s.

Gabriel snatched Avery’s phone from him and reluctantly walked out. Heaven knew he wanted nothing more than to take care of this problem once and for all.

....

"How did you come here? I’m pretty sure you couldn’t have gotten here that fast." She asked when they were out in the parking lot.

"That’s easy. I had my eyes on the rats and knew he was going after you. I had to make sure you were safe."

"Okay?" She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. At least she now knew she couldn’t be attacked by anyone as long as Gabriel had suspicions that it might happen.

"I believe you have a pile of work waiting for you." He pointed at his car and gave her the key.

She fiddled with it as she stared at him. "You are not going to commit murder when I leave, are you?"

"Don’t make it sound so awful. I’m only going to swat a fly away." He scratched his head and she didn’t need to ask to know what he was going to do. Dominic Romano was probably not going to be heard of again.

"Actually, I don’t care. Enjoy swatting your flies." She hurried to his car and after checking to ensure there wouldn’t be any surprise blasts once she got in, she entered and drove off.

____

"Avery, you’re finally here." Mina looked happy to see her.

"Did I miss anything important?" She ignored the latter’s enthusiasm and stepped into her office.

"A call from GH. Johnson claims to have a deal to offer you." Mina pretended not to notice.

"It’s funny how everyone has a deal to offer me out of the blue. I must have made them think I’m in desperate need for this help they all think they are offering me. Do you think they sell deal repellent in any of the stores nearby?

Mina cleared her throat to stop herself from smiling. Avery wouldn’t be joking around if she was as angry with her as she was the day before. "I don’t think so. But if you tell me all about these ’deals’, maybe I can help you reject them and prevent it from happening.

Avery thought deeply about it before deciding to reveal it. "I had an extra special chat with your brother earlier. He invited me to a restaurant to discuss Vaillant Telecommunications and the billions of dollars he is willing to spend on investing."

"Billions of dollars? You should have swindled him!" Mina joked and when she realized she was getting a glare for it, laughed it off.

"Well, I can tell you how to get rid of Dominic Romano. He will be gone at the snap of your finger."

She was making it sound easy, Avery observed. But she listened anyway. "Tell me about it."

"There are people he owes way too much. He insulted the daughter of a man he shouldn’t ever cross. Let’s just say, she was so insulted that if they ever caught wind of his location, they would slot him into a shredder."

"It’s a good idea to get him shredded. Do you have a way to ’spread a rumor’?" She asked, and Mina gave her a meaningful look.

"No one spreads rumor better than the media. Leave it to me." She walked out.

Avery had no idea how it was going to work out but the siblings knew each other best so she knew it was best to let them battle it out on their own.

"Let me know when I no longer have to worry about him." She picked up one of the files Mina had brought and opened it. "Do you need anything else?" She asked about the fact that Mina was still standing before her.

"Yes. The quarterly financial report is out. Do you want to take a look at it?" She suggested.

"Sure." She let Mina search through the files and gave her one of them. "Right here."

She took a brief glance and immediately spotted the most disappointing outcome.

"We have lost one percent in just two weeks? What the hell is Gabriel Vaillant high on?" She gritted her teeth.

"I think we would have lost more if Gabriel didn’t step in and..."

"Stop." Avery interrupted her with a chuckle of annoyance. "Before he started working here, you and him both promised to keep your feelings out of company matters. How long has it taken you to let your feelings cloud your judgement?"

"My feelings are not clouding my judgement." Mina retorted. "On the other hand, you are letting yourself be blinded by disappointment. Just because you no longer trust me, you don’t think you need to listen to my opinion."

Avery frowned. "Have you ever willingly listened to the opinion of someone you don’t trust?"

"I have not. But at the same time, I would not dismiss something despite knowing it is true, just because I no longer want to trust them. There’s no harm in keeping a fine balance between friendship and enmity."

"That’s easy for you to say." She shrugged. "Call Gabriel on your way out."

"Yes boss." Mina smiled and sauntered out, trying not to get mad at Avery. It was not her fault after all.

____

Meanwhile, the door to Mabella’s office opened and she instantly knew who had just walked in. Those graceful footsteps could only belong to one person. She looked up and sure enough, it was Chloe.

She checked her itinerary and looked up. "I do have an appointment in ten minutes but it’s not with you. You missed yours three days ago."

"Don’t lecture me about appointments." Chloe welcomed herself to sit. "Is there a ten minute session? We need to talk."

"I don’t usually do this and you know it." Mabella argued.

"What do you prefer? To spend the next ten minutes idle without knowing whether or not your next appointment is coming? They could be late. Maybe have their car break down..."

"You didn’t do anything you shouldn’t, did you?" Mabella squinted her eyes at her. "You know where I live. If you needed to see me so badly, you could have shown up at my place. You didn’t need to ruin someone else’s chances of getting better merely for the sake of seeing me."

Chloe scoffed, lightly placing a leg over another. "Why would I ever go through so much trouble just to see you? Do you think so highly of yourself?"

Mabella was used to getting such responses when Chloe was trying to hide something so she pointed it right out.

"Something happened that made you feel the need to show your claws. What was it?" She asked directly.

"That’s not how you speak to your patients." Chloe glared at her.

"Not my regular patients but you are something else so out with it. Who did you meet, that you knew you were trying to avoid?"

Hearing her oddly specific question, Chloe’s eyes stung. "When Angel was kidnapped, I thought there was someone with the potential to impersonate Avery and the motive to punish Damon. I went after her."

"Shirley." Mabella guessed. Having met Shirley before, she had to admit it had crossed her mind for a second too. The woman was practically a copy of Avery, only with minor differences that could easily be made up for by makeup and padded clothes in certain areas.

"Did you confront her?"

Chloe bit her bottom lip. "I did meet her. She’s having the time of her life, scamming her current victim. I wanted to walk away as soon as the man came to the door to ask who the visitor was and...and I felt stupid. But she came after me to tell me she still loves me."

Mabella was studying her expression and squinted her eyes. "How did that make you feel? Did you wish it were true?"

Chloe looked up at her briefly, only to avert her gaze and play with her fingers. "If I said I did, would you think I’m stupid?"

Mabella took off her glasses as though that would make her see more clearly. "No. Only that you’re a bad liar."