The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 89

"That’s true." She was confused. She had been too shocked to think about it but he was right. Unless both DNA tests were wrong, there was no way they had the same parent. She thought back to everything including his words and Bryce’s when she visited him at the prison. "Was I adopted?"

It would explain many things, including why Amelia didn’t catually love her. Maybe they adopted her as a baby and thought she would grow up to be a daughter they would love and instead, she turned out to be what they referred to as a useless little brat. Could that be why neither of them loved her?

Gabriel didn’t answer her. Instead, he pointed his chin at a key. "That’s the key to our childhood home. I won’t tell you anything because you will not believe me. Go there and find out by yourself."

She glanced at Damon and he uncuffed Gabriel’s hands, then grabbed the key. "If we find out you lied again, I will make you regret being born." Damon threatened.

"Trust me, I’ve had that regret for years already." He grinned.

His words made Avery want to turn and go back to him but she knew not to fall for his trap until she was certain that he was telling the truth. If he was still making things up to swindle her, she would be a fool if she gave him a shoulder to lean on. She led the way and Damon was right behind her, but then she noticed Mina was not following them.

She looked back just in time to see Mina hug Gabriel. She wanted to call her out but if Mina wanted to be with him even after witnessing everything, nothing would stop her. "I hope she knows what she’s doing."

Meanwhile, Gabriel scoffed at her attempt to console him. "Are you here because you feel pity? What’s this? Your way of making me think I have someone?"

"Shut up." Mina pressed her lips against his and immediately wanted to apologize. At the same time, his fiery smirk made her uncertain whether or not she had done something wrong.

"If you want to kiss me, go ahead and do so. You don’t have to use shutting me up as an excuse."

"Are you always this annoying?" She growled.

"Only when I’m trying to get free kisses." He once again gave an annoying response and looked up at her. "You just found out I’m not your best friend’s brother. You should have run for the hills when you had the chance."

"I didn’t want to." She turned sharply when she heard the door closing and looked back at him, noticing the remote control in his hand.

"You had your chance and wasted it. It’s too late to escape now." He trapped her between himself and the bar counter behind her. "Gin?"

"Wine, if you have any." She nearly whispered. Her body was a bundle of nerves but she didn’t let it show. When he poured her a glass of the rarest red wine he had, she tried not to grip the stem too hard. She took a long, hard sip to get her attention off him.

"If you are so scared of me, why didn’t you run?" He was curious. It was impossible to understand women.

"I’m not."

She was trembling while saying so, and he didn’t know what to think of that. "If you think there’s some fluffy teddy bear beneath my surface, you’re wrong."

"What a coincidence. I don’t like fluffy teddies." She slotted her wineglass on the counter and reached out to him, hugging his arm.

He had to give it to her. "Just so you know, I’ll not hesitate to break you just because you’re my sister’s best friend."

"Why do you call her your sister if she’s not?" She asked out of curiosity. Why would anyone be so obsessed with a woman who was not even related to them by blood?

"She is my sister!" He snapped, making her shrink away.

"Okay. I was just asking."

____

Entering her childhood home was not nearly as easy as it had sounded coming out of Gabriel’s mouth. This was the place she had loved as a child, only for it to quickly morph into a prison as she grew older.

Damon watched the dilemma on her face as it formed, and wordlessly accompanied her. A gust of cold wind blew past them and she hugged her arms. She was only wearing the cream-colored casual dress she had been wearing at dinner. He took off his coat and placed it on her shoulders. She thanked him softly and slid her hands through the arms. It looked and felt several sizes too big but it was warm and had his scent all over it.

"If it makes you uncomfortable, we can go back home." He offered.

It was tempting but she shook her head. "All the answers are here. I need to find out everything."

"Then let’s do it." He held her hand. She felt less nervous with him beside her and could finally think clearly.

"If mother was keeping secrets, the last place she would keep them is in the master bedroom." She eliminated it as well as the study.

"We should be looking for vaults or secret rooms." He concluded.

She tried to ignore the family pictures all over the walls in vain. In the end, she still picked up the one on the side table. It was a picture of her and Gabriel, taken on her first day of school. He had his hand around her shoulder protectively and she couldn’t help smiling. "He was so protective."

Her eyes zoomed in on her younger self and she was confused. "But if I was adopted, why do I look so much like my parents?" She remembered something and searched the walls until she found a christmas picture with her grandmother in it. She pointed at her. "If I told you that’s exactly how I will look in my forties, will you doubt me?" She asked him.

He studied the woman he knew was Sophia and shook his head. "She could pass for your mother right now. You also look a lot like Bryce."

She didn’t want to have anything to do with the man even though he was dead but at least it proved a point. She knew of an old photo album so she searched in the library and found it, and it raised more questions. The pictures at Sophia’s wedding were black and white but it was clear how similar she was to her grandmother, as well as her grandaunts.

"I’m definitely not adopted." She concluded.

"There’s a vault." He pointed at a lock that had been revealed when she took out the photo album.

"Do you know how to crack vault locks?" She asked, but it was not necessary. It had been left unlocked, and as soon as she opened it, she found a stack of documents and files.

"Gabriel knew you would come here to search for answers and left everything you would need in one place." He guessed.

’What if it’s all staged to make me believe something that’s not true?’ She wondered. Even so, she gave him the benefit of the doubt and checked the first file. It was yet another DNA test but she didn’t want to look at it.

"Why does any family need so many DNA tests?" She wanted to break down.

"Check it out. You want to." He enticed her, knowing she was only scared of what she might find out. When she didn’t move, he opened it and put it in front of her. If she really didn’t want to look, she would have averted her gaze. She skimmed it over to the conclusion yet again, which rendered her even more confused.

"Bryce Vaillant was my father." She shook her head in doubt. "I mean, I’m glad. This means you’re not my nephew and I can finally breathe, but Gabriel..." Realization dawned on her faster than she wanted to face it. "If Gabriel is not Bryce’s son, and our DNA match is 0% then he is not Amelia’s son either. But how?"

She grabbed another document hoping it would prove her conclusion wrong but it only set it in stone. It was the family’s medical insurance contract, which she remembered seeing once in her childhood but not understanding it for what she thought of as complex words back then.

But now as she flipped through it, her words were caught in her throat when she saw Gabriel’s information. "How could his blood group be B positive? Father’s is A and mother’s is B." She looked up at Damon in shock. "He is not my brother. At least not biologically. And somehow, my parents knew about this. "

"Do you think they adopted him?" He speculated.

She thought back to their childhood and recalled a time when Gabriel accidentally knocked her off her bicycle.

"I don’t think anyone would ask a child such a thing as ’are you even my son?’ when they know deep down they adopted him."

"Unless that person is as heartless as Bryce, you mean?" He reminded her just what a father Bryce was.

She wanted to agree with him but if that was the case, nothing Bryce said during her visit would make sense. If Bryce had lied about her not being his daughter to mess with her mind, then it was also possible he had lied about Gabriel’s past.

He was thinking of something else. "What if he was certain that with him in prison, the only way you would have to find out whether he was indeed your father was by taking a sibling test with Gabriel? What if it didn’t matter whether or not you found out the truth, as long as your life was shattered?"