After Divorce, Billionaire Ex Found Me Pregnant
Chapter 77 Do You Really Want To Risk It?

Chapter 77: Chapter 77 Do You Really Want To Risk It?

~Thirty minutes earlier~

Leonica had just finished sorting through the first batch of attending guests when Grace glided down the stairs alone. She glanced up the stairs, expecting the little demon to rush down in his usual energetic state, but he did.

“Where’s Ash?” She asked when her son was nowhere to be seen.

“The young master fell asleep right after his bath.” Grace informed as she descended the last flight of stairs and picked up the dusting rag she had dropped off before going upstairs, about to resume her duties. When she noticed Leonica’s unwavering stare on her, she asked. “Should I have stopped him? Perhaps I should have kept him awake so he could sleep better at night?”

“Uh, no. Not at all. It’s just,” There was a pause in her sentence in which Leonica chuckled to herself. “It’s not every day you see Ash fall asleep right after a bath.”

Understanding the reason for her long stare, Grace nodded her head. “Indeed. The Child must have been really exhausted.” She reasoned, reaching for the television remote and turning it on.

The device blared to life, displaying the cartoon channel Ashley had been watching late into the night yesterday. Leonica had seen the cartoon a couple of times but never really paid attention to it and right now it was no different.

She took one look at the television and buried her head back into the guest list. Unlike her, Grace hung around, folding her arms in front of her as she briefly watched the show.

“Yeah, it seems so. You know when he came back today, he couldn’t stop going on about- are... are you watching that?” Leonica questioned the moment she caught a glimpse of Grace, who was visibly engrossed in the cartoon she was watching.

However, Leonica’s voice was enough to snap her out. “Ah, forgive me, Ms. Romero, this has become a force of habit. This is Ashley’s favorite cartoon, and we watch it together a lot when you are not around.” She explained with a subtle bow.

‘Ashley’s favorite cartoon?’ Leonica thought, trying to spot the weird looking bunny her son had introduced as his favorite character. And she did.

“Shall I tune into something else or turn it off. Some music would help you concentrate rather well.”

Grace had once again picked up the remote when she spoke up. “No wait!”

“Yes Madam?”

“Leave it.” she instructed.

Grace, who had partially overheard the conversation going on between the mother and son, smiled. “Of course, Madam.” She said and placed the remote back where it belonged. “I still have a few things to finish up, so I’ll take my leave now.” She said and bowed, walking away, but glancing over her shoulder one last time to see Leonica focusing greatly on the cartoon.

Precisely on Ashley’s favorite character; Sucky Bunny.

~Present time~

Leonica snapped her finger as soon as the memory resurfaced in her mind. “Ah! Of course, that’s why you sound so familiar!”

Owen’s lips visibly stretched into a smile, and he took one step closer to her. “So, you do re-”

“You’re the voice actor that played Sucky Bunny in Ruckus House, right?” Leonica questioned, very much confident after having watched her son’s favorite cartoon for thirty minutes straight and memorizing all the characters, Sucky Bunny to be precises.

However, the response she got from Owen wasn’t what she had expected. His smile instantly faded and if she had looked hard enough, she could have seen the spark of delight burn out in his golden hues. “What?”

“You’re the voice actor for the cartoon Character ‘Sucky Bunny’, right?” Leonica repeated, this time around, glancing between the super star and his agent whose expression was contrary to his.

“Wow Ms. Romero, you’re correct. But, how exactly did you know Mr. Lee voiced that cartoon character?” Alistair questioned.

Leonica’s expression was once again filled with confusion as she chuckled and asked. “Was I.. was I not meant to know?”

“Well not exactly, it’s just that when Mr. Lee took on that job, it was kept a secret from the public and till date, not many people are aware that it was him who did the voice acting.” Alistair explained. “You must be a big fan?” He assumed.

Leonica quickly shook her head with a breathy chuckle. “No, not at all.” She had said those words so freely that she hadn’t expected it to hurt the artist himself. “But my son is... at least he’s a fan of the character Sucky Bunny,” Her face once again scrunched up at the character’s name, but she was quick to get rid of the expression. “Does... does that count?”

Alistair chuckled and was about to answer her question when Owen beat him to speaking.

“You... you have a son?” he asked with a confused expression.

“Yeah, I do. Ashley is his name.” She answered.

“That’s odd, I never saw any article about you being married, Ms. Romero.” Alistair voiced.

“That’s because I’m not.” Leonica said with a thin smile that she forced. “I’m a single mother.”

“Single mother?” Owen quipped. When Leonica looked his way, she could have sworn that his ears stood up like that of a happy puppy. No, to be more precises, he suddenly looked so happy that he looked like a happy puppy who its owner had just given a full treat.

“Yes.”

“And your son, Ashley, was it? You say he’s a fan?”

“Yeah? Well, his favorite character is Sucky Bunny. He kept going on and on about how he wanted that bunny to appear at his birthday-” She chuckled at the memory but before she could finish, Owen interrupted her.

“I’ll come.” He announced.

“Sorry?”

“To Ashley’s birthday party, I mean.”

Leonica tilted her head to the side, narrowing her eyes as if to size the artist up from head to toe, before asking. “And why would you do that?”

“Isn’t it obvious,” Owen pointed at himself with a huge grin that reminded Leonica of the character he had voiced. “I voiced Ashley’s favorite character. What better gift would there be other than the real deal itself. And besides,” He suddenly rested a hand on the table and leaned in closer to Leonica’s face. Almost like an instinct, she withdrew her face, however, now having to raise her head as the male towered over her. “If I stop now, how are you supposed to remember.”

Leonica blinked in confusion at his words, but after some time, she sighed and pushed them aside, not thinking too much about it.

In this short span of time, Owen had managed to slip her phone out of her hold, typed in his personal number and handed it back to her. “That’s my personal phone number.” He informed, ignoring Alistair who was behind him, grumbling about the number of times he had been warned not to give out his personal number.

Leonica retrieved her phone and vaguely smiled at it. However, the smile faded as soon as a text message entered her phone.

[Leonica, we need to talk. Can we please meet up?]

It was Gabriel and Leonica sighed after reading the message.

As much as she wanted to turn his request down, she couldn’t. After all, Ashley’s subsequential treatments required his cooperation. And knowing the type of person Gabriel is; Petty and arrogant, a horrible combination if you asked her, she was more than a hundred percent sure he could use her action against Ashley if she decided to offend him.

And right now, she loved her son more than she disliked him.

[Alright. Location?] She replied.

Her text was read immediately, and a response came. After ensuring that she knew the place Gabriel had asked to meet it, she shoved the phone into the pocket of her suit pants and fixed her attention back on Owen who was getting a round of scolding from his agent.

“I’ll have to take my leave now.” She announced, causing the duo to stop their squabble. “Since the negotiations are done and decided, I believe that wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Of course,” Alistair confirmed, offering her a smile as well as his hand for a departing handshake. “Have a pleasant day Ms. Romero.”

“Same too you.”

“Bye Guseju!” Owen waved and didn’t hesitate to grin at Leonica’s confused face as she walked out of the conference room.

*~*

“Savior.” Staring at the screen of her tablet while seated in the back seat of her moving car, Leonica muttered the Korean name Owen had addressed her with. A smile tugged at her lips at this and shortly after, the car came to a stop, pulling into the driveway of the Café Gabriel had given the location to.

“Ms. Romero, we’ve arrived.” Kennedy announced as he held the door open for her to step out, to which she did as soon as she had switched the tablet off and dropped it off in the usual place.

“Thank you, Kennedy,” She flashed the assistant a smile as he closed the door behind her. “You can just wait in the car; I won’t be long.”

“Of course, Ms. Romero.” He answered and bowed, soon after returning to his position in the driver’s seat.

Now it was Leonica’s turn to head in. She took one good look at the building in front of her, drew in a nice deep breath and then walked in its direction.

As she entered, spotting Gabriel was easy as, not to her surprise, the café was empty, booked entirely by the man who sat beside the non-opening wall window, admiring the dog park just across the street.

Leonica observed him for a few seconds, readying herself before she approached his table. The sound of her pulling the chair across drew Gabriel’s attention.

“You came,” He adjusted in his seat.

“Did I have a choice.” Leonica sassed lazily as she placed her bag down and fixed her eyes on the only drink on the table, precisely in front of her. The very next second, surprise painted her visage. “This,” She pointed at the cup that held a quantity of chilled lime juice, her favorite drink and then at the man in front of her. “Did you order this... for me?”

Gabriel nodded his head. “Uh... yeah. I happened to run into Butler Winslow a few days ago and when he got talking about you, I... I asked for your preferences.”

Leonica was quiet for a few seconds, surprised. This was the first time Gabriel had ever ordered her drink and the first time she had ever seen him this way.

It was a new version, a new side that would have impressed Leonica, her five years ago self, that is, but not now, not this one.

“Oh,” She muttered after a few seconds and when Gabriel was expecting some sort of compliment, he saw her shift the drink away from herself. “Well sadly, my preferences in the last five years have changed. So don’t bother wasting your time.” She offered him the vague smile he was used to, acting as if she had not just undermined his efforts. “Now tell me, what was it you needed to talk about?”

“Oh, uh...” Gabriel licked his lips, eyes fluttering for a few seconds as he tried to get the buzzing sound out of his head. That damned buzzing sound that started the moment Leonica undermined his effort.

After some time, he finally got rid of the sound. “Angelina and I... we’re over. I dissolved the engagement with her and I’m making plans to have her sent abroad.”

“Oh,” Once again, she was left speechless by his sudden change in attitude, after all, it was not every day that you see a man dissolve his engagement with the woman he claimed to love.

So of course, she was surprised and almost swayed for a moment. But then something in the back of her mind reminded her that this was none of her business. Gabriel’s life was none of her business, after all, the only reason why she was still in touch with him was because of Ashley.

“And you’re telling me this, why?” Leonica asked as soon as she had recovered from his shocking announcement.

Gabriel’s face visibly showed the disappointment to her reaction, but not as much as his heart. “Because-”

“I think you seem to have forgotten, Gabriel,” Leonica interrupted him. “Whatever happens in my life is none of your business and whatever happens in your life... if none of my business. The only reason why we can sit here, and talk is because of Ashley. Remembering that occasionally, would do you a lot of good and make sure you don’t cross any boundary.”

Gabriel reluctantly nodded at her words, but his hand underneath the table folded into a ball.

“If you understand, and that’s all you called me here to speak of, then I guess I’ll take my leave.”

“That’s not all,” Gabriel spoke up before she could stand up from her seat.

“Oh,” Leonica tilted her head to the side, the usual gesture that he found lovable and adorable, and still would have if not for her blatant rejection just seconds ago. “There’s more?”

“...the main reason why I wanted to see you, is because of your choice for artificial insemination. I know you won’t care to hear my opinion, but I’m against it,” He paused for a moment to gauge her reaction. Leonica was silently staring at him, showing no form of getting ready for an argument. “I’ve done my research and asked around, Leonica. The chances of artificial insemination working are five to thirty percent. Looking at it that way, it doesn’t have the best success rate and would need several trials. But Leonica, Ashley doesn’t have that much time to wait. Do you really want to risk it... risk Ashley’s life?”