The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 84

"Are you hungry? We should get some breakfast." He spoke up to her relief. She was ready to do anything to forget about the awkward topic. She nodded and found something to wear. Luckily, she found a new dress in his closet just as she thought she would have to settle for his shirt. He must have bought it for her so she thanked him and slipped into it.

As soon as Chloe saw her, she burst into laughter and looked like she was going to die from it.

"Is she high?" Avery asked Damon who was a step behind her, and then wondered how Angel was surviving, being so close to the lunatic. As if y reflex, Angel ran over to her and hugged her legs.

"Good morning, baby. What’s with Chloe?"

"You still have the nerve to ask?" Chloe was on the verge of tears from laughing too hard. "You called 911 to have them put Damon on the phone. No. It’s Demon D’Aboville."

"I did what?" She’d had a feeling she did something strange last night but she didn’t think it was that stupid. And when Chloe mentioned it, it all came rushing back to her.

"Demon." The man behind her repeated the name, asking for an explanation."

"Who can I blame? You changed my speed dial number from 911 to yours. How could I stop my drunken mind from thinking I’d get to you by dialing 911?" She shirked responsibility. Luckily, he didn’t push any further.

"Let’s forget about last night and make breakfast, shall we? I’ll make pancakes." She offered.

"What a coincidence! I thought of pancakes too." Chloe’s face brightened up with a smile.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Damon muttered. It was the first thing they could agree on all day, because as soon as Chloe mentioned having thought of pancakes, her heart had skipped a beat.

"Did you make pancakes?" She asked, hoping the answer would be no. Alas, she was riding on a shitty streak of luck this morning.

"Yes. They are lovely. Angel loves them." She bragged. As soon as Angel the mention of his name, he grabbed onto his mother’s legs tightly for protection and Avery instantly knew the pancakes must be horrendous. As expected, Chloe was deflated. "Hey, I thought we were friends!"

"Forget about him. Vivi, do you want to have a taste, they are as tasty as..."

"Uhm...I’m not sure I’m in the mood for pancakes anymore." She tried to escape. When Chloe gave her an adorable pleading gaze that was too much unlike her, she had no choice but to give in, but only ’a little bite’ which ended in her forcing herself to swallow it despite her strong urge to throw up.

"Is it that bad?" Chloe’s excitement faded as soon as she detected that expression on Avery’s face.

Avery wanted to lie and tell her they were awesome but she knew that would only make her feel worse. So she smiled instead. "You know what? I have an idea. Why don’t we make them together?"

Although she was disappointed that her hard efforts had borne nothing but inedible pancakes that even the stray cat that liked sneaking in for leftover food ran away from, her combined effort with Avery brought to the table something she didn’t think she would ever be able to make on her own.

Avery had told her what to do, only stepping in once in a while, and the end result was perfectly-looking buttermilk pancakes!

"And they taste as awesome as they look!" Chloe cheered when she had a taste.

When Angel heard Chloe brag about having made the second batch with Avery’s help, he wanted to stay as far away from the pancakes as he could, and only drank his milk until Avery coaxed him to try a piece.

"Yummy!" He exclaimed and gobbled up the rest of his pancake, making his mother’s heart melt. Soon after he finished his pancake, Damon convinced him to eat his fruit—which he hated nearly as much as vegetables at dinner—and he did so with too much ease. He didn’t need any of the coaxing words she had to come up with to make him eat two bites.

She watched on with a smile. This was the kind of family she had always wished for when she was younger—a son and a man who complemented her as much as she complemented him. It was right before her but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to embrace it.

"Earth to Vivi."

She was glad when Chloe called for her attention away from the father and son, and topics she was not ready to face.

"Did you say something?" She forced a smile.

"I asked about the project Damon talked about that you are doing together. The phone model you are planning to launch."

"What about it?" She wondered.

"Do you need a model?"

Avery thought for an instant that she was talking about a different model draft but when she realized the woman was talking about herself, she was in disbelief. "No way. You are on freaking magazine covers. I thought it was an exaggeration until I bought an e-magazine this morning. You’re even on TO!"

"So?" She seemed unfazed.

"So, you don’t need a gig. If you are doing this to help me, you really don’t need to. I had a model in mind."

Chloe once again looked disappointed. "Who?"

"Henry Blanc’s wife, Lin Lihua, or his daughter Katy. You probably haven’t heard of them because they’re not from around here."

"Are you kidding me? Everyone knows the Blanc family." She almost squealed but remembered they were competition. "But hey, are you going to make them fly from overseas just to appear on an ad? You should take me instead. I’m available and if any changes need to be made, I will be right here." She used her puppy-dog eyes to plead.

Avery wasn’t sure why it mattered so much to her but she glanced over at Damon. "I have nothing against that. In fact, it would be my honor."

"But?" Chloe knew that was not all.

"It would be mannerless of me to not consult my business partners. Do you think I could get back to you later?"

"Of course. Take your time." Chloe was overjoyed.

Avery tried to think of every reason for her to want it so badly but she couldn’t find any. Was she in love with someone from her product marketing team? That was a stretch. She couldn’t want to be there because of Damon, since he was a man, and Avery didn’t even think it had to do with attraction to anyone. Maybe phones fascinated her.

.....

"How exactly did you know Chloe?" She asked Damon as soon as she cornered him in his room. Angel had gotten tired of playing and was in his room sleeping, while she needed to get to work but had to get this out of her chest first. "I need all the details."

He had known he would have to answer this question when he witnessed their little discussion earlier so he pulled her over to sit down.

"She must have told you about her ex-girlfriend." He guessed. Chloe had mentioned talking about her to calm Avery’s raging jealousy from before. When she nodded, he continued, "She is my ex-girlfriend too."

"She is what?" Her voice pitched.

"A corn artist, actually."

"Chloe said she was your step sister." She wanted to berate him from falling in love with a woman he shouldn’t think of in any way apart from his sister. Weren’t they half siblings?

He laughed at her accusation and thanked Chloe for leaving it to him. "Actually, she was an impostor. When she came to me, she pretended to be my sister, ditched by my father. She was the most innocent being you could ever meet. I didn’t think she could be lying."

"And, was she?"

"About everything. You name it, she lied about it."

"Was Shirley even her name?" She mentioned the name Chloe had ranted so much about.

"How did you know it wasn’t?" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

She was speechless. Though she was curious to know how the hell an impostor ended up being his girlfriend.

Knowing this, he continued even though it was embarrassing. "She told me the truth barely two weeks after I started helping her. Or at least it sounded like the truth; that she only needed bread on her table. I checked through her records—fake records—and she was indeed struggling financially despite juggling three jobs. She had a hefty medical debt left behind by her mother and she’d had to leave college in the final year. You know, the kind of crap that would make anyone feel pity. And the fact that she looked so innocent..."

She knitted her brows. "You fell in love just because of that?"

He admitted, ashamed of his past. "I can’t say I fell in love. If you saw her, you would know why it had to be her."

She didn’t need to see. From his words, she gathered Shirley must be her doppelganger.

"I found out she was lying one day. I uncovered everything, including the fact that she had multiple partners she was scamming for money. Her attempt at getting money out of my bank out failed but..." He sighed. "She stabbed me in the back—literally and figuratively."

"A snake." It suddenly clicked. She fumbled with his shirt. He knew what she was looking for and he let her. She lifted it at the back and inspected the snake tattoo, gasping softly when she found what it was covering up.