After Divorce, Billionaire Ex Found Me Pregnant
Chapter 50 Hospital Encounter.

Chapter 50: Chapter 50 Hospital Encounter.

The next few days after her encounter with Gabriel had been blissfully uneventful.

Seating in the confines of her parent’s outer garden, Leonica gently sipped on the tea Benjamin had just brought back from Malaysia, while watching various beautiful butterflies hover around the flowers.

Delightful, couldn’t even grace how she was feeling. For the first time in a month and a half since Leonica had returned to Norway, she felt truly at peace.

Gently sighing out, Leonica placed the tea cup down and smiled as she caught wind of small feet meandering down her way in a Sprint. It wasn’t long before her lower body on the chair was engulfed by Ashely’s hug.

"Mommy," The younger boy called out, tone somewhere between a whine and adoration for his mother.

"What have I warned you About running, Ash?" His mother asked, scooping him from the ground and into her laps. "Hm?"

"I...I wasn’t running!" He quickly tried to defend.

However, the moment those words left his mother, another figure stepped into the outside garden, panting heavily.

"Young master...Young master Ashely, you haven’t finished eating your meal. Please come back." Grace, his nanny, called after him, searching the gardens for the small child who had quickly tucked himself close to his mother’s chest.

"Young master-" She was about to resume her calls when her eyes spotted Leonica and the young master. The latter staring at her in confusion. "Good day, Ms. Leonica," she greeted quickly, bending at the waist to accommodate a bow.

Waving her greeting off, although acknowledging it, Leonica asked. "Grace, what’s going on?"

"The young master refuses to finish his meal and ran off when I tried feeding it to him." She explained.

"Ashley, is that true?" Glancing down at the child in her arms, Leonica questioned with a raised brow.

"Veggies are bitter mommy." Ashely complained, lips forming into a frown.

Yeah, the norms for a child. Closing her eyes, Leonica sighed. When she opened them again, she waved her hand at Grace dismissing her with thanks.

"You can’t keep skipping your veggies, Ash," Leonica told the child as she transferred him from her lap into another chair.

"But they’re bitter."

"You need them if you want to grow up healthy, Ash. Don’t you want to be strong?"

"I do!" He piped up. "If I’m strong I can protect mommy!"

"Exactly." She tussled with his hair. "And in other for that to happen, what should you do?"

Her question, or rather, the answer to her question, quickly deteriorated Ashely’s mood. He held his head low but still answered none the less.

"Eat my vegetables."

"Correct. So do you promise to do so?"

"I...i promise." He reluctantly agreed.

Leonica smiled to herself. "Good."

Recalling the real reason he had fun away from his nanny in the first place, Ashely wasted no time in changing the topic. "Mommy, can we please go out today?"

"Today?" Leonica questioned, watching as her son desperately nodded his head. Which was understandable since he had been indoors for the past few days, Leonica trying her best to avoid a repeat of what had happened.

"Oh, well," She hesitated, trying to come up with another reason to keep the child inside, however failing.

Ah shit, she had used up all her reasonable excuses.

"Can we mommy?" Ashely pleaded, pulling the puppy dog eyes on her.

Leonica hesitated. Even if she was too agree to his request, where were they to go?

The answer to her question came as fast as changing a light bulb.

The hospital, they could go to the hospital.

Today was the day Arvan got discharged, a per the information Chloe had- begrudgingly- provided her with. It was the perfect opportunity to visit him as well as allow Ashely to see Daisy.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

"Sure, let’s go out today." She answered, making Ashley hop around excitedly before running off to get ready.

Leonica chuckled as she watched him rush away.

Yeah, going out with her son today was a nice idea. She’d be there with him so nothing bad could happen.

And Gabriel wasn’t coming near them any time soon. All is going well.

*~*

It was two in the afternoon when Leonica had her driver take them to Midway International hospital, just around the time Arvan was being discharged.

Arriving at the hospital, the receptionist dare not repeat her previous action and quickly assigned someone, who gushed over Ashely all through, to take them to Arvan’s room.

Only when they were in front of Arvan’s door, did the female attendant stop gushing over the younger boy and take her leave.

Now left alone, Leonica turned to face the boy guards who were standing outside Arvan’s room.

They bowed upon seeing her and then one of them turned around and knocked on the door, informing Arvan of Leonica’s arrival.

"Let her in!" He announced, missing the way Chloe shut her eyes and silently sighed from behind him.

The moment the door was opened and Leonica stepped in, Daisy’s small figure rushed her away. She was just about ready to embrace the small girl when she ducked underneath her arms and flung herself into Ashely, who despite his age, skillfully caught her.

"Ashely!" She exclaimed, hugging her new best friend tightly, while Leonica blinked in surprise and slowly lowered her arms. "Where did you go? You haven’t been in class for the past few days, so I thought you’ve moved schools, are you coming back now?" She quickly bombarded him with several questions.

While Ashley scrambled his brain, trying to answer one question before another was forced on him, Arvan quietly settled beside Leonica, joining her in watching the two.

She took notice of his presence, turning to flash him a smile, before turning back to gaze at the kids, mind still somewhat frizzled about Daisy’s action.

It was obvious that Ashely was the more liked one when it came to she and him, but at least, Daisy should have said a ’hello’ to her rather than just going straight for her son.

Despite it sounding childish, Leonica was somewhat hurt by her actions.

Seeing the unintentionally pout on her face, Arvan held back a chuckle and shifted his weight from one leg to another, once again gaining her attention, before he asked.

"Ashely hasn’t been going to school? Did something happen?"

"No," she lied with a smile. Arvan was simply a friend, there was no need to drag him into her messy affairs.

"Is that so?" He mused while nodding, not seeming a hundred percent convinced.

Leonica swallowed thickly and nodded her head. "Yeah. But that aside," there was a pause as she thought of ways to arrange her words that wouldn’t make her sound... sketchy? "Do you perhaps know of any school in Norway that isn’t funded by...Bryce Empire, of the Bryce family in general?"

"Ah, that’s a tough one. Norway’s educational system is mostly supported by the Bryce family." He stated the obvious, unintentionally causing Leonica’s mood to deteriorate. Sensing this, he quickly added. "But I’m sure there’s at least one out there." He comforted.

Leonica nodded her head. "You’re right."

"Yeah, but, are you really sure everything’s okay?" He asked, golden yellow eyes following her fidgety movements.

This time, it was Leonica’s turn to shift her weight from one leg to the other and fiddle with the hem of her shirt-gown under Arvan’s gaze.

She was unsure of what to say.

Arvan was an intelligent man, she was sure he could sense something was off and yet, he was giving her an easy out, allowing her the choice of whether or not she wished to share the problem.

And for that, Leonica was grateful.

"Well, enough about that," Arvan changed the topic, much to her relief, and glanced at the duo who had just finished their chat and was now playing together. She followed his gaze, mind trailing off to her thought space.

A school in Norway that wasn’t being back by Gabriel’s influence...finding something like that was going to be hard, no, difficult.

But she was determined to keep Ashely out of Gabriel’s reach, especially after their last encounter.

She was willing to go to any length to achieve that. If she couldn’t find a school that wasn’t being backed by Gabriel, then she’d simply just build one.

Money wasn’t a fucking problem to her.

But what was, was the fact that Gabriel still possessed some of her company’s shares.

If she wanted to build a school for Ashely that was clean of Gabriel’s influence, then she’d need to completely take back her company.

For the next couple minutes, the two adults chatted idly. While Chloe processed his final discharge papers.

Once the entire procedure was completed, they all checked out of the hospital wing.

On their way out, movement of a family silhouette caught Ashely’s eyes.

Turning to face the direction, a grin spread across his face and he happily called out.

"Gabriel!"

Gabriel? Leonica’s head whipped in the direction of Ashely’s stare, spotting the male in particular who had stopped at the sound of his name and was now staring their way.

Ah shit, was he every fucking where?

"Gabriel," Ashley called out once more, grinning wider.

"Ashely stop that..." Leonica tried to warn, however, halfway through her statement, Ashely had began sprinting in Gabriel’s direction.

However, much to her surprise, Gabriel turned away from Ashley, fishing out his phone from his pocket and pressing it to his ear, as if he was attending to a call.

He was avoiding Ashely, Leonica saw this. She was meant to feel satisfied and happy, after all, that was what she had told him to do. But watching as her son’s steps slowed and his features visibly became droopy, upset, she couldn’t help but feel bad for the boy.

"Ashely, come to mommy. Come here." She tried to coax him back, taking the first step towards him when suddenly, his body began to tremble and before neither she nor Gabriel knew it, he busted out crying.

The sound of his cries, brought Gabriel’s steps to a halt.

What the hell, did he do? He only meant to avoid him, not make him cry.

"Ashely!" Leonica called out, rushing towards her son and crouching down. "Ashley, what’s wrong baby? Tell mommy what’s wrong." Leonica spoke gently, not wanting to frighten or upset him more than he already seemed.

But much to her dismay, Ashley didn’t stop crying...that is until a certain someone suddenly appeared and scooped him up into his arms.

“Ash... Ashley stop crying.” Gabriel demanded in a soft voice, his free hand wiping the tears that had run down his face. “That’s enough now, stop crying.”

Slowly, but surely, the boy’s cries began to seize. Watching from a distance, one could have said that his tears were just a fake act.

However it was only he that could tell whether it was an act or not. And right now, snuggling close to his precious uncle, Ashely was satisfied with the results of his tears, fake or not.

The feeling of satisfaction however, wasn’t the same for Leonica. She was relieved that Ashely had stopped crying, but at what cost?

Watching a despicable man such as Gabriel carry her son, never.

Opening her arms, she spoke. “Ashely, that’s enough. Come to mommy now,”

“But...” The child clung harder to Gabriel, clearly not wanting to leave so early.

“Ashley, don’t be like that. Come here now.” She insisted.

“But mommy...”

“Ashely...”

“Just leave the child alone...would you?” Gabriel interrupted whatever she was about to say, causing Leonica’s gaze to turn to him, except unlike when she looked at Ashely, warm gaze and all, her eyes held nothing but coldness and a sharp glare for him.

“You stay out of this.” She sneered.

Gabriel tilted his head at her words. Several locks of his hair fell out of place as he looked he looked her from head to toe, before asking. “Or what?”

Clenching her jaw and fist as well, Leonica was About to respond when Ashely beat her to it.

“Mommy, I...I want to eat ice cream.”

“Huh?” Leonica was caught off guard by his sudden demand but quickly recovered. “Sure baby. Come to mommy and we’ll go have ice cream.”

“N-no. I want to have ice cream with Arvan and Daisy and...and Gabriel included!” Ashely protested, pumping his fist in the air.

To say Leonica was surprised by his words was an understatement. And to say her jaw hadn’t hung open would be a blatant lie.

“You want to what?” She questioned.

“Have ices cream...with everyone.” Ashely repeated. “Can we please do that mommy?” He pleaded, quickly switching to his puppy dog eyes.

Leonica’s lips parted in an action to refuse his request, but seeing the look on his face, she pressed them together and hesitantly nodded her head.

“Sure...that can work.”

“Yay!” Ashely wasted no time in expressing his excitement. Quickly, he wriggled out of Gabriel’s hold and took Daisy’s hand. “I know the way, come on Daisy.”

“Ashely slow down.” Leonica called after the running duo and intended to chase after them when a hand on her shoulder stopped her. “Arvan?” Looking over her shoulder, she questioned the hand’s owner.

“I’ll take care of those two,” he began, eyes fleeting towards where Gabriel stood for a moment before coming back to meet hers. “You seem to have a few things to sort out first.”

Glancing back at Gabriel, she understood what Arvan meant. She indeed had a bone or two to pick with Gabriel.

Nodding her head, she thanked Arvan with a smile. “Thanks.”

He gently massaged her arm with a smile of his own. “Of course.”

Watching the scene play out in front of him, Gabriel clenched his fist, a feeling of Jealousy once again rising in his chest.

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