Avery's Game Of Revenge
Chapter 116: Mr Donovan and Miss Sinclair.

Chapter 116: Mr Donovan and Miss Sinclair.

"She’s 14 then," she murmured, lowering her eyes back to her fingers. Thirty two minus fourteen would result to...

"What are you doing?" Archie asked, the skepticism in his tone sparking annoyance in Avery’s chest.

"I should be the one asking that," she retorted, resuming her finger arithmetics for the next few seconds. When she raised her head to look at him, the cloud of suspicions in her eyes were more than enough to make an innocent man confess to a crime he had no idea of. "How come you got to know on the same day Kathy discovered she was pregnant?" she asked. "I can only think of one reason why that is so."

"Let’s have it." Archie shrugged in indifference.

How towering height did nothing to stop Avery from letting out her absurd guess, "That you are the girl’s father?" A 17 year old was capable of impregnating someone, right? And Archie...well, she had no idea how he used to look as a teenager; but there was a high probability he looked hellish handsome...so Kathy tricked him into sleeping with her?

Avery knew very well that the thought she just voiced out was stupid, and that her guts to speak it out made it even more stupid. But what other reason could there be for a man like Archibald Donovan who shouldn’t have had anything to do with her family at the time, be privy to a private information from 15 years ago? Besides, why would he still remember the girl—and her name—if he had absolutely nothing to do with her?

"It would actually be great if you projected your wild imaginations in the right direction, Mrs Donovan. As for your guess, I don’t have a child...for now," he debunked her guess, casting a quick glance at his watch. "I have to go now. Don’t worry about Anastasia Keller thwarting your plan. The girl would gladly gun her mother down if you promise to protect her when she’s done and make sure the crime will never be traced back to her. She hates her mother that much."

Avery’s brows shot up at that, "What? Why does she hate her mother? And how do you know so much about her?"

A mirage of indecipherable emotions flickered past Archie’s face. And when he replied, his set jaw gave off the notion that he was displeased,

"Why don’t we face the matter at hand for now? She’s not a McCallum and she hates her mother so spare her from your revenge plan," he demanded in a curt tone, "If you want, you could recruit her as an ally instead. As long as you keep it within what an high school junior can do, I believe she’ll do well."

His dismissive tone showed Avery he didn’t want to talk about this anymore, so she let it go even though her curiosity was itching her to ask more questions.

"I guess so," she whispered, deciding to ignore him too. Swinging the chair around to face the city’s landscape view, she didn’t say a word more until she heard the ping sound of the elevator arriving.

Avery’s eyes glazed over as she pored over her plan one more time, inwardly. At least, she could stop beating herself over rousing Kathy’s suspicions of who she was now that Archie already told her Anastasia Keller wasn’t going to tell her mother about it.

Meanwhile, Archie was stepping out of the elevator, his expression grim as he walked past the row of cars with his personal plate number on them, deeper into the private garage until he arrived at the section where a stable of bikes were arraigned.

Selecting his partner for the night among them, he fished out the keys and unclasped the helmet before retrieving his phone from his pocket.

’Don’t try protecting your brother, Ian. Get him to the race track in twenty minutes,’ he texted.

The reply came almost immediately, ’He’s up. We will be there in ten minutes.’

★★★

Two days after her question about Anastasia Keller had made Archie adopt a dismissive tone, Avery realized his sour mood wasn’t going to last just for that night. It was to spill over to the next day where they saw each other only twice and was to affect him to the extent of giving her monosyllabic responses to every single question and greeting she sent to him. Not only that; the bad mood was also not expressed to her alone, but to every other person he met.

Even as Avery pulled open the door to let Jodi in, he was still in that sour mood with a cold atmosphere hanging above him.

"Ignore him," she whispered to Jodi, as she led the latter from the door to the couch. As the both of them had planned to go to the set together, Jodi had arrived to pick her up just few minutes ago, only to find Archie on his signature ’throne’ couch with countless books piled upon one another surrounding him.

"Why?" Jodi whispered back.

"Wasting your time to greet someone who will only reply with a mmhh or ahhh is useless," was Avery’s simple reply.

Jodi tilted her head sideways, as if trying to make out if Avery was telling a joke or not.

"What?" the latter asked, noticing the strange stare.

Jodi shook her head and waved her two hands at the same time.

"Nothing. Just trying to ingrain a lesson in my mind," she stated.

"A lesson? You haven’t gone to school for so long, Special student."

Jodi scoffed, "Of course, no one said the lesson has anything to do with academic knowledge. It’s a survival technique, and it states never to listen to you in matters concerning Mr Donovan if I want to live a long, stress free life." She added, "You ask me not to acknowledge him because he’ll reply with just a mmhh or ahhh? Ask anyone around what he replies their greeting with except in cases he actually has something to say to them. And you want me to rebel against something I’ve been used to for years? Thanks, Ava, your love is well appreciated."

Turning in the direction where Archie was still sitting, ignoring but hearing every single word they were saying, she said out loud, "Morning, Mr Donovan!"

The man in question turned, his eyes roving past the person that had greeted him to settle on Avery, while a slight smirk formed on his face.

"Morning, Miss Sinclair," he acknowledged, "That was a nice survival technique you adopted."

Holding his blue eyes with burning intensity in her brown ones, Avery realized belatedly that he didn’t have his glasses on his face. That could only mean he hadn’t been reading all these while when she had thought he was ignoring her so as not to break concentration on whatever he was reading.

One of these days, she would make sure to confiscate those books!

"Yeah!" she snapped, unable to stop herself from doing so, "I am the dumb one here anyways! Miss Sinclair, Mr Donovan, keep up with your techniques!"

With that, she turned abruptly and headed to the kitchen, leaving both Jodi and Archie behind.

"Is the tea ready?" she asked in a forced pleasant voice, walking around the kitchen island so she could stand directly beside Nancy.

"It is," the older woman replied.

Muttering her appreciation, Avery accepted the small teacup that was being offered and watched absentmindedly as Nancy kept the rest of the tea ingredients in the lower drawer.

"Nancy?" Archie’s voice called out.

Though Avery didn’t turn around at the sound of his call, she could tell where he was standing from the sound of his voice—the kitchen’s entrance. She continued to ignore him as the conversation progressed between him and the caretaker.

"Mr Donovan, what can I help you with?"

"Tea. The exact one Ava says you’ve been making for her everyday," came his reply.

Avery almost turned so he could see her rolling her eyes, but Nancy’s reply to his question slowed her movement.

"Oh that, Sir? I just made the last quantity for her now. I’ll have to get to the store later on to pick up a new batch."

"Didn’t you just..." she trailed off, deciding not to point out that the older woman had just stacked the rest of the ingredients into the drawer. Instead, a smug smile curled on her face as she turned around to face Archie.