It was as though the man could comprehend her train of thought, he shook his head in disapproval.
"You have to be patient with all matters regarding your son, and I think it's about time for you to get him a home-schooling tutor."
"But the school curriculum is too complex for him." She worriedly gazed at the boy. She had tried taking him to kindergarten in the past, and the result was the boy becoming so introverted that she thought she would never hear him talk again.
"I'm not asking you to make him learn numbers and whatnot. Just get a tutor who will focus on communication and social skills. I can recommend one." Chris responded, giving her a portfolio.
She looked through it and approved of the woman recommended by Chris, who had specialized in teaching autistic children.
When he was done speaking to Avery, he looked at the boy who was still trying to hide from him. "Angel, come here."
Instead of going over, he grabbed Avery's clothes and stuck to her.
"He is learning to express himself better. It's a good sign."
She picked him up with a smile. "I hope I don't need to hold him down for you to inject?"
"Don't worry. That won't be necessary." Chris reached his arm forward and opened it in front of Angel to reveal a small, blue crystal ball. He looked up at his mother as though asking for permission and when she nodded, he touched the crystal ball curiously and eventually picked it up with his tiny fingers.
Chris took the chance to pick him up, soothing him when he started in shock.
"Good boy. You are very brave." He praised.
Avery patted his head to get his attention and took the crystal ball from his hand, to distract him as Chris prepared the medication.
When the injection was finally over, Angel glared up at Chris like he was a traitor before opening up his arms to his mother with teary eyes.
She patted him and kissed his arm which he was pointing at to complain. He soon fell asleep and she lay him in his bed before returning to see Chris out.
He carried his briefcase to the door and was just about to enter his car when she asked, "Do you think I should introduce him to his dad?"
She had fought with herself before finally asking the question which had been bugging her since that man made an appearance in their lives once again.
"Or...should I get him a step dad perhaps?"
Chris was almost shocked that she would ask about such a thing, but he comprehended her train of thought when he remembered just how much pressure she had been under in the last four years.
"Whether it's a stepfather or his biological father, it depends on the kind of man he is. If you think the presence of a man in his life will influence him negatively, then keep him away from it."
She thought about Damon and didn't dare to imagine what kind of father he would be, if he was capable of ditching his pregnant girlfriend. Even though she knew that Angel missed him, she would rather see him cry every day until he forgot about it than watch him get his heart broken later.
"I get it. Thank you, Dr. Chris."
"Don't be too hard on yourself." He advised before getting into his car.
She nodded and returned to the house.
"Papa," Angel hugged a picture in his arms as he happily called, making Avery's blood run cold. She rushed over and pulled the picture out of her hands. To her relief, it was a picture of her and him. It turned out he was merely missing Damon.
___
Villa D'aboville .
"Turns out you actually know your way back." An elderly woman—Damon's grandmother, remarked, as soon as he made his way into the living room.
"I've always known my way back." He responded listlessly and procedded towards the staircase.
"Stop right there." The elderly lady glared at him, and he had no choice but to stop and turn back to him.
"Do you have something to say to me, grandmother? What a coincidence, I have something to talk to you about as well." He went over to sit on the couch opposite her, looking at her with a grin on his thin lips.
"You better tell me that you have made progress regarding the matters we talked about." The woman looked at him sternly.
"We talked about two matters, what exactly are you asking about? Giving you a granddaughter-in-law, or forgetting about the woman who bore your great grandson?"
The woman was overjoyed when he actively brought up the topic of his marriage but when she heard the second part, her expression changed into a frown. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Avery has a son. Are you aware of this?" Damon asked while crossing his arms.
"Why are you bringing up that woman?" The elderly woman, Dorthe, snapped at her grandson. "I don't know whether or not she has a son and if she does, that has nothing to do with us."
Damon stood up, his lips twitching. "Is that so? That is my son and he has everything to do with me."
"Are you seriously going to claim the son of that whore? I will not allow it!" She stood to follow Damon who was making his way out of the living room furiously.
"I can tolerate you bugging me to get married but this? Forget it." He turned on his heel and went up to his room, ignoring the yelling behind his back.
"Don't you dare bring that thing into this house! You!" She yelled.
"What's going on?" Her son Ferdinand entered the living room following the commotion. His wife, Celeste, hurried into the living room behind him.
"It's your very good son!" the elderly lady huffed and sat back down to calm herself. "He has already caused us enough trouble and now, he is about to rekindle his relationship with that Vaillant girl."
"What? I will not let that happen!" exclaimed Celeste, Damon's mother.
"I'm afraid it's going to be more difficult. That woman has a son and must have claimed that it is Damon's. We have to do something about it."
"What if the child is really our grandchild? We have to investigate it first." He reasoned. Although he didn't like Avery, that didn't mean he was going to abandon his grandson, his blood. Besides, he had realized that all these years, his son had been unable to forget Avery despite their efforts to make him forget about her. If the boy was three or four years old, then it was really possible that he was Damon's.
Celeste blinked and looked at her husband in disbelief. "Are you listening to yourself? Don't even think of bringing that witch into this family!"
…
In his room, Damon slumped onto his bed and reached under his pillow to take out a picture. It was old and slightly dog eared thanks to its age.
He caressed the face of the girl in the picture, Avery who had just turned twenty three. She was so beautiful and radiant that it was impossible to think of her as the woman she had turned out to be, a bitter and emotionless woman.
"It's all my fault, my love. I'm sorry." He sighed. If he knew that she was pregnant, she would never have left no matter what the ultimatum was. His Avery had suffered so much in the past, not to mention how difficult it had been for her to bring the boy up on her own.
It was already too late since she no longer needed him, but he would do his best to ensure that Angel grew up in a complete family, and to win her back.
Thinking about this, he gave a call to his assistant. "Set up a meeting with Vaillant Telecommunications' CEO."
"But sir, Vaillant Telecommunications has blackmailed us. We can no longer meet up with them." The assistant reponded fearfully after having received a warning from Avery's assistant.
Damon frowned slightly. He had expected it. It wouldn't be easy to meet up with Avery and to apologize to her, let alone convince her that he was not seeking any trouble with her.
However, that didn't mean he was about to give up.
"I know what to do." He let out a sigh. It was uncertain why his parents and grandmother hated Avery so much, and what made them make her life so difficult in the past, but he would do his best to make things right.
_
The following day.
"Avery, your parents called." Mina reported.
"I didn't know I still had something to do with them." Avery sneered. Needless to ask, it had to be something regarding Markus. They must be mad at her for rejecting the asshole, and she didn't want to spare them any time.
"If they want my audience, I'll be there."
Vaillant residence.
"You are here." Avery's mother, Amelia, stated indifferently when her daughter was shown to the living room. It was almost as though she did not expect her, and Avery didn't care about her tone.
"Yes. It's amazing to know that you didn't expect me despite calling me over." She sat on the couch without waiting to be invited, knowing that no one would waste their time doing so anyway.
They were all in the living room and it couldn't be any more obvious that she was the one they were waiting for.
Her father waved her over. "Don't cause trouble. Come here."
Avery was yet to respond when her brother returned into the living room, with another guest in tow. It had to be Markus, out of all people. She looked at him with a sneer. "May I know what he's doing here?"
"We want to know that too." Her mother spoke tauntingly, then zeroed her gaze on her daughter. "And apart from that, we want to know why you didn't ever tell us that you have a son. All these years, Avery?"
Avery looked up at the man beside her brother, her lips twitching. What an idle fool. Did he have to tattle to the whole world about it?
She wanted to scold him but in the end chose not to, and instead averted her gaze to ignore him. She sat back opposite her mother and gently asked, "Mother, do you know that my company is going to win a deal?"
"Your company… congratulations." The woman said superficially, fumbling with her words. Avery smiled with a harrumph.
"So you know about it. I thought you didn't even know that I own a company."
"How could that be? You are so famous. Is there anyone who doesn't know about you?" She smiled awkwardly.
"Really? Then you should know what I majorly deal with, right?" Avery pushed, her eyes hiding the malice behind them.
"Avery, I'm too busy to pay attention to the details, but I know you're doing well." Came Amelia's strained answer, and she was obviously trying her best to get rid of this topic.
"Hey, do you have a magazine?" She called to a maid who had just brought her water. "Any business magazine, thank you."
When it was brought, Avery looked through the pages and opened one of them. "Here. Do you know who this woman is? You could have read. I guess you ignored it as soon as you realized that it was about me."
"Honey…"
Avery cut her off with a wave of her hand. "You don't know the primary thing about me. You've always been too busy to care. Why should I care to tell you anything, especially something of such importance?"
"How dare you speak to your mother like that?" Her father, Bryce, roared across the room, frowning at his daughter who was audacious enough to say such disrespectful things.
Avery's lips twitched to one side. "I'm starting to doubt if you really are my parents. I mean, the first person to suspect that a girl is pregnant is usually her mother, right? But you didn't even know it when my stomach grew so big that I couldn't hide it anymore. Until I made an excuse to leave. Do you remember why I left?"
Amelia couldn't answer her and swallowed, finding a way to change the topic but Avery beat her to it.
"Of course you don't know. You were too busy to hear what I said." She should have been happy to have told a lie and gotten away with it, but that was the younger version of her who cared about nothing but to get away. She had made up a lie to move out of her home and live on her own so she would have more opportunities to meet up with Dairon, and she had done the same thing to get away and hide because she had discovered that she was pregnant.
Now that she thought about it, the things that made her happy in the past had everything to do with being away from this duo who neither loved nor cared about her. Still, she pushed it. "Do you know which university I went to further my studies?"
"Why are we dwelling in the past? We are talking about the present now." Amelia had enough and snapped at her.
"And the present is this man." Avery pointed at Markus who was trying hard to make his presence less noticeable. Whoever told you that I wanted him?"
"This is not about your whims!" Bryce yelled, which would have made her shudder in fear in the past. However, she was not the naive young woman she was in the past. She didn't give any heed to his shouting.
She stood to face him head-on. "What you mean is, it's not about what I want but about what you want, right?"
"Don't be stubborn. This is about the family's interests." He tried a different approach, knowing that yelling would no longer work against her. "Let's sit down and have a talk, okay?"
"We can do that while standing. I'm more comfortable this way." She didn't make any move to sit, which made him and Amelia uncomfortable. It seemed as though she would walk out on them as soon as they said anything that displeased her in the slightest, which made it harder for them to speak up. Of course, they forgot that she would walk out if she wanted to, regardless of whether she was standing, sitting or lying on the couch.
"Honey, the company is in a crisis." Amelia started, trying to sound as gentle as possible. If Avery had not spent her time to understand them, she would have given in to whatever the older woman wanted without having any discussion about it.
She crossed her arms and looked down at her mother. "And how is that my business?"
"We need your help." Amelia ignored the sharp tone since they were the ones at a disadvantage this time.
"I see. How much money or what resources do you need? I will have my assistant send them if that will keep you from bothering me in future." She pretended not to understand what the couple was trying to get at.
The man frowned. "You know that's not what we mean, princess." He even used a nickname he had never used before. "How can you say that? You make it sound like we only want money from you now that you are successful in the business field."
Avery snickered inwardly. Of course, what they wanted was not money. What they wanted was for her to give up the life she had worked so hard for, in exchange for something that would only benefit the two of them.
"If not money, what do you want?" She asked impatiently.
"We need a business project that will make our company recover all the losses we made recently. We tried to negotiate with Le Blanc Group, but we couldn't get our hands on it. Luckily, Markus agreed to help us. His father holds a top management position in Le Blanc group. "
Avery laughed like she had heard the most ridiculous joke. "That's why you want me to marry Markus? Why didn't you talk to me about it? I would have had a talk with Henry Blanc."
"Henry Blanc?" The man was surprised.
"His cousin. The CEO of Le Blanc Group, who is one of the partners of Vaillant Telecommunications." Her explanation sounded like she was bluffing, because the couple had never thought of her as anything great. In their minds, there wasn't anything she could achieve, much less own a company that could make Henry Blanc interested in being a partner. They had found it unbelievable even when Markus told them that Avery was the CEO of one of the country's biggest companies, and they had not had the chance to actually look it up.
She shrugged when she saw that they didn't believe her. Forget it. "The man you want me to marry is not interested in being with a woman who has 'trash left behind by an irresponsible scumbag' with her." She finally talked about the topic they wanted to hear about, sarcastically repeating Markus' remark from a few days ago.
The man so badly wanted to die. He had wanted to forget about Avery's son since she was such a beautiful woman after all. Why did she have to bring up his comment?!
Amelia shuddered when she understood the implications. "Who is the father of the boy?" She asked.
Avery huffed. "You want me to send the boy away to his scumbag father, just so I can marry another man for your benefit?" How shameless could they get?
"That's not what your mother meant." Bryce glared at his wife discreetly and tried to placate Avery. "What we mean is, we can take care of our grandchild. Right, dear?"
Amelia nodded, and Avery laughed.
"If you cannot take care of your own child, how will you be able to take care of someone else's child?"
Before they could respond, she dropped a bomb. "I came here for one reason, and it has nothing to do with your company drama, I'm here to cut ties with the two of you." She slapped a document onto the table. "Henceforth you are no longer my parents and I am not your daughter."
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