Chapter Seventeen

Gabriella "Mr Deville will see you, Miss," the maid from earlier informed me and I followed behind her as we headed toward where I presume would be David's office. We finally arrived in front of an office and she turned back to look at me for a while before gesturing that I walk in, which I did almost immediately. I didn't intend on wasting any time and as soon as I walked in, I spotted David Deville and when our eyes met, he smirked. "I have to say, Gabriella, you are a lot more daring than I thought you were and I'm actually surprised that you were bold enough to actually come here knowing very well that I could get you locked up for a very long time for going against the court order and trespassing on my property with a false identity. Always thought you were too much of a scaredy-cat to ever take such bold steps but I guess that I was wrong," he said to me as soon as I walked in and I scoffed before walking closer to his table. "Just because I don't react as quickly as others, does not necessarily mean that I'm scared, David and yes, you're very wrong to assume anything about me because you don't know me and you have no idea what I'm actually capable of especially when I'm pissed," I responded, taking a seat on the chair opposite him without bothering to wait for his permission. "Oh, you're pissed? That's surprising. Whatever or rather, whoever could have made a lovely lady like yourself so pissed that she would willingly jump into fire? Care to share the reason behind your anger, dear?" he asked. "How about you take a wild guess, David? I'm pretty sure you can easily come up with a reason why I would be so pissed to the point where I would willingly walk into danger just to give the bastard that is pissing me off a piece of my mind," I responded and he chuckled lightly, with a sly smile playing on his lips. "Okay, Gabriella, how about we put an end to the small talk and get to the real reason why you are actually here. Mind you, I sincerely hope that for your sake, you're not here for anything related to my son because if you mention anything about wanting to see him or wanting to have any sort of interaction with him, I'll make sure to let the judge know that you're going against his orders and you only make things even much worse for yourself," he threatened and I rolled my eyes. As expected, he wasn't going to let me speak to Martin and I already knew that he was going to try to threaten me which is why his words were of no surprise to me at all and I could not help but roll my eyes at how predictable he was and how embarrassed I felt on his behalf that the only thing that he could do was just threaten me with my situation. "You can rest assured that I have no intentions of asking you anything related to Martin because I'm already aware that you're not going to tell me anything and even if you do, you're probably going to make up some sort of lie and I don't need you to lie to me concerning my friend because at the end of the day, all of this is going to be cleared up and I would not need your permission to see my friend. Also, you don't need to threaten me like that because that only makes you seem even more silly and way too predictable and I doubt you want to be seen as someone that is too predictable," I told him off quickly. "Anyways, I'm not here to mention anything about Martin but instead, I wanted to ask you what exactly is going on with you and why exactly you are being such a selfish bastard until the very end. Pardon me if I seem rude or if my question comes across as disrespectful in any way but I feel like, this is something that I really need to ask you because it has been bothering me for a while now and I just could not help but feel the need to personally meet with you and just confirm from you if you're right in the head," I said and judging by how his expression switched, he was shocked. "Just to confirm, you do realise where you are right now and who you're speaking with, right?" he asked. "I might be anything in this world but there is one thing that I'm not, it's stupid or dense and yes, I'm very much aware of who I'm speaking with and my question is directed at you David. I need to understand what exactly is going through your head because I just can't comprehend how a person can be so selfish and wicked to the point where you don't even care about your son and would rather watch your son suffer and allow the criminal responsible for his condition to go scot-free just because of whatever foolish reason that you have," "Excuse me for my use of words but, it honestly confuses me that you care more about your reputation and about saving face to the public instead of being more concerned and more attentive to the well-being of your only child. Just in case you're forgetting, you're not going to live forever and eventually, you're going to end up dead one day and I can't imagine that this is the best way you want to treat your son and how you want him to remember you as a father who could care less about his life and would rather manipulate him and ruin his life," I blurted out angrily, not giving a care in the world that I might be digging my own grave. I'm aware that David Deville is a very dangerous man that shouldn't be messed with and I'm also aware that he could actually ruin my life in more ways than I can imagine just to get back at me for the things that I'm saying to him but for some reason, I just couldn't care less anymore. After everything that has happened to me in the last few weeks, starting from being accused of trying to kill my best friend to what happened to my coffee shop and then the unfortunate incident that happened with my employee, I just stopped caring about a lot of things and now, I was just going to say whatever it is that I had in mind without giving a fuck about how anyone was going to take it. David must have found something that I said very funny because almost immediately I stopped talking, I burst into guffaws and I knew that behind his laughter was nothing but pain which means that I did hit a spot with my words. "You see Gabriella, it's one thing to be bold and courageous and it's a completely different thing to be plain stupid and unreasonable and you, my dear, you just proved to me that you are not exactly as intelligent and as smart as the people around you say you are. I wouldn't have expected someone like you to walk into the lion's den and as if that wasn't enough, you dared to insult me in my own home, question the way that I choose to handle situations with my son and even go as far as referring to me as a fool," "I don't know what got into you but whatever it is, I'm going to make you wish that you never stepped foot inside here because my dear, if I planned to keep you in jail forever, now I'm going to make sure that I make your life even more miserable than it already is to the point where jail would seem like a blessing to you. I'm going to ruin not just you, but every person that you care about and I'm going to make you come back in here and beg me to stop," he threatened with a dark look on his face and I didn't need anyone to tell me that he meant it. "I'm not afraid of you, David. I already knew who you were before I walked in here and I can assure you that nothing you said right now was a surprise to me and I am not scared of whatever it is that you have planned or whatever you're going to do. The only thing I'm going to add to what you just said is, while you're focused on trying to make my life miserable, I'll make sure to focus on saving my friend and getting him away from you and I would have to advise you not to underestimate me because I am a lot crazier than you think I am," "Just because I've been quiet all this while does not mean that I'm always going to be quiet about everything and I can assure you that if you're successfully able to make my life a living hell, I'll also make sure that I make life very difficult for you and that perfect reputation you're trying so hard to protect, I'll break into it and ruin it in ways that you can't even imagine so let me give you a piece of advice, stop trying to pin a crime that I did not commit on me and you better refrain from doing anything harmful to Martin if you don't want to see my completely different side. Have a good day and see you soon," I responded to him before getting up and taking my leave. I didn't need to hear him try to scare me even more by threatening me so I just chose to leave first and get myself together. While heading down the stairs, I had my head bowed slightly and because of this, I didn't realise when I ran into someone when I looked up to see who it was that I had run into, I was more than shocked when my eyes met with the familiar face of Martin, who simply stared at me with a blank look on his face.