After Divorce, Billionaire Ex Found Me Pregnant
Chapter 80 Ashley’s Birthday Party.

Chapter 80: Chapter 80 Ashley’s Birthday Party.

The next few days had gone in a bliss of eventless hours. And soon, it was the day of Ashley’s birthday party.

Standing in front of the mirror, Leonica examined the dress Ashley had insisted hard on her wearing. It was a black evening gown, opened at the back with moderate neckline and golden lining at the bottom which stopped at her ankle.

At first glance, she saw nothing special about the dress and wondered why Ashley had been so insistent on her wearing it.

“Mommy, it’s time to go~” Came Ashley’s voice from outside her room door and soon, the small child appeared, dressed in a black suit and pants, a befitting attire for his birthday party.

It was then Leonica took one look at his dress and then back at hers in the mirror and chuckled. Now she understood why Ashley had insisted on her wearing the dress he had picked out. It was because he was wearing something to match her.

The lapel of his tiny black suit had glitters of gold and so did his tiny bow tie, almost as if it was made to go precisely with Leonica’s dress.

“Oh Ash,” She breathed out.

“Mommy, you look beautiful.” Ashley complimented.

“Thank you Ash, you don’t look so bad yourself.” She said and offered her hand and they both walked down the stairs.

“Grace, please watch the house well.”

“Of course. Would you need me to prepare anything? A late night dinner perhaps?”

Leonica shook her head. “Ashley won’t be needing anything after the party tonight, but I on the other hand,” Leonica shook her head with a disapproving sigh. Grace could almost imagine her counting all the junk food she’d eat at the party. As much of a sweet tooth Leonica had, she was also a healthy eater. Salad in the morning, appropriate lunch meals with as little calories as possible and then a soft night meal that she sometimes kicked off with a glass of wine and healthy stick of smoke, whenever Ashley had dozed off to wonderland and left her to her thoughts. So knowing the type of person her mistress is, Grace knew exactly what to expect.

“A plate of Salad?” She beat Leonica to her exact words and earned a grin.

“You have it all sorted out. We’ll leave now.” She said and took Ashley’s hand.

Watching the duo walk towards the door, Grace bowed once again. “Have a lovely evening, Ms. Romero. Young master Romero.”

Now standing outside, Leonica glanced at her wrist watch, trying to recall the exact time she had told Kennedy to pick them up.

If she had told Kennedy to pick them up?

“Shit,” She muttered underneath her breath as realization suddenly hit. She had in fact not told Kennedy to pick them up.

‘I fucked up,’ She thought, trying her very best to hide her expression from Ashley, who was currently skipping down their driveway with a huge grin on his face and towards a black Range Rover Velar.

Now if that, and the fact that amongst all the cars she had, A range rover Velar wasn’t part of them, personal reasons, didn’t catch Leonica’s attention, then Ashley calling out to his father surely did.

Rotted in her spot, Leonica watched as the drive’s door opened and Gabriel stepped out. Immediately her eyes landed on him and Ashley, they widened in yet another realization.

Now forego the fact that Gabriel was handsome, because of course he was. No sane woman in her right sense of mind could wake up one morning, lay eyes on Gabriel Bryce, well dressed or not, and say that he wasn’t handsome. The main reason why Leonica couldn’t take her eyes off Gabriel and Ashley too, was because their outfits looked so fucking much alike.

And now that she saw that, she also realized that she was wearing the exact same outfit as Ashley.

Dressed the way they were, someone could easily mistake them for one big happy family.

‘Ah, that sly little baby demon.’ Leonica thought as Ashley’s main motive finally formed in her mind.

“Mommy look, Daddy came to pick us up.” Ashley called out to his mother, comfortably seating in Gabriel’s arms.

“Of course he did.” Leonica muttered and folded her arms, doing very little to hide the displeasure flowing through her veins at the sight of Gabriel.

Gabriel, however, had a different view of the situation. Seeing Leonica dressed in her party gown mesmerized him and he made little to no effort to hide his expression.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” Leonica informed the instance her son and his father were in front of her.

“Yeah well Ashley called, informed me that you had forgotten to call Kennedy.” Gabriel explained and watched as Leonica glared at the little demon in his hold. Chuckling, he took a more to examine her dress all the more.

Disregarding the fact that their entire attire looked like it was cut from one bit fat fabric, Ashley responsible as the culprit, Gabriel wholeheartedly admitted that Leonica looked Stunning, godlessly even.

“That dress, it suits you.” Gabriel praised with a calm smile.

Oh sweet lord. Paint Leonica a freaking liar if she could look you in the face, right this moment and tell you that Gabriel’s words hadn’t affected her one bit. Because, it did.

His words affected her so much that her cheeks warmed and if not for the dimed skies, the white-Ette was sure that either Gabriel of her son would start teasing her over the blush creeping onto her cheeks that made it seem like she had added extra blush to her makeup.

Pulling herself together, foregoing the burning feeling in her cheeks and tingling sensations all over her body, Leonica feigned indifference towards Gabriel’s conversation.

“Oh yeah?” She mused half heartedly, walking past him and towards their vehicle of departure.

Gabriel thinned his lip and swallowed thickly at the familiar treatment from Leonica. Sure, it was familiar and very much expected, but that did not stop his heart from experiencing the little pinch it did every now and then.

Ah, how the tables had painfully been turned. Five years ago he had ignored her, detested her existence even, while she visibly pinned for him. And now, five years later, he wanted her in his life, even the smallest bit, while she didn’t want him in hers, not even as the father of her child.

Everything about how the whole situation was turning out frustrated him in a way he never knew existed. He had been sure that after that night that they had spent at Stellar’s party and their common ground of being Ashley’s parents, things would gradually get better, but oh, how wrong could he have been.

Although there had been instances where rays of light shone, the situation had ridden downhill, scaling a new type of low as they... well he, tried to sort of several of their past mistakes.

Leonica on the other hand, well it was so obvious that she was deliberately distancing herself, building the wall- that he so desperately wanted to scale, higher. What greater pain could you feel other than when your heart suddenly yearns for something you know is right in front of your reach? You can see it, scent it and feel it, but never have it as yours to claim.

“Daddy?” Ashley called out as if sensing his father’s wandering mind down the lane of wonderland regret. “We’re going to be late.” He repeated the same mantra he had said to his mother, watching as Gabriel smiled and ruffled his hair.

“Yeah, let’s go now.” He said and focused his sight back on their vehicle, missing the way Ashley pouted offended at his ruined hair do. He had succeeded this far in keeping it out of the reach of his mother, only for his father to come along and ruin it.

‘Adults,’ He thought as Gabriel placed him in the back seat and found his way around the car, soon settling in the driver’s seat. ‘Can’t they for once keep to themselves?’

And he didn’t just mean their touchy hands, his father’s in particular that had ruined the hair do that took his stylist nearly an hour to perm, he was also referring to the tensed and adoration filled glancing that were exchanged halfway throughout their drive.

Now he may have been a child, supposedly innocent and shy in his case, but he couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

Putting on an excited tone, which he was, the child said in a sing song tone. “We’re one big family, mommy, and daddy. And it’s my birthday. My birthday!” He rejoiced so innocently that neither Gabriel nor Leonica, mostly Leonica, could refute his words and stayed silent.

But that didn’t solve the problem. It probed Ashley to try harder. After racking his brain for a few seconds, he asked. “Mommy, Daddy, when’s my younger sibling gonna join us?”

Leonica chocked on her saliva, giving Gabriel more than enough chance to beat her to an answer after smirking her way. However, just as he opened his mouth, sly words as usual forming on the tip of his tongue, Leonica’s voice boomed.

“After... after the party, your daddy and I would go to the hospital and visit the doctor and make sure he renders his utmost help in helping us make your sibling.”

“What?” Ashley questioned with creased brows.

The doctor? What did Doctor Bailey have to do with helping his parent’s make babies? Didn’t babies come from-?

“Ah, Ashley, before I forget,” Leonica interrupted her son’s thought almost as if sensing the direction it was going in.

Well, sensing it wasn’t as much of a task as it seemed seeing as his entire expression gave it away.

“Forget what mommy?” Ashley asked, tilting his head to the side. Leonica and Gabriel both gushed at the gesture through the rearview mirror.

“Remember that one request you made? Your special guest?” Leonica asked with a little bit of mischief.

It took Ashley a few seconds to remember, but the moment he did, his eyes brightened up and he gasped. “Sucky Bunny!”

‘Sucky Bunny?’ Gabriel thought, stealing a glance at his son through the mirror, while Leonica nodded her head.

“Sucky Bunny is gonna be attending my birthday party?”

Leonica nodded again and giggled as she watched her son nearly explode with excitement.

‘Good choice bringing Owen.’ She thought as Gabriel pulled the car into the venue’s parking space.

“Alright birthday boy, it’s time to stun the world.” Gabriel gave a pep talk as he pulled the door open and watched his son step out.

Ashley took both of his parents hand and offered them a delighted smile the moment he stepped out. As they walked towards the entrance, he was too excited that he missed the glances his parents exchanged on each side of him.

“Ashley!” Daisy exclaimed happily as she spotted her friend approaching.

Quickly, she left her father’s side and ran towards him. Ashley also detached his hand from his parent’s and rushed forward, accepting Daisy as she threw herself at him in a big hug.

“Happy birthday Ashley!” She said as soon as they separated and pecked his cheek.

“Thank you.” Ashley blushed. “You look beautiful, Daisy.” He said and pecked her cheek back.

Leonica chuckled at the cute scene when she heard footsteps approaching beside her and turned to look. “A sweet talker, isn’t he?” Arvan said as he mounted himself beside her, taking a second to examine her attire before smiling. “You look lovely today.”

Leonica smiled, a genuine one, Gabriel could tell as he watched them.

“Thank you.” She scanned him and her smile turned cheeky, almost teasing. “You don’t look so bad yourself, Senator.”

As they both laughed, Gabriel looked away and clenched his jaw, wishing he had a set of ear plugs he could stick in, momentarily block out the sound of their... no, Arvan’s laughs. The sound of Leonica’s laugh was like harmonic bells to his ear.

And because of that, he was more than thankful towards his son when Ashley pulled his mother away by the hand. “Mommy look, its Aunt Megan. Can we go meet her? Can we? Can we?”

“Alright.” Leonica chuckled and turned to Arvan. “Seems like I have to take my leave now.”

“Go on ahead; don’t let me keep you here.”

Leonica nodded, but just as she was about to leave, Ashley asked. “Daisy, do you want to come along? Aunt Megan owns a cake shop and gives out treats.” He added the last part with the intention of persuading his friend to come along.

And he succeeded.

“Daddy, can I please go?”

“Of course.” Arvan waved and watched them walk off. Only after they were alone did he turn to face Gabriel. “You have something to say to me, don’t you?”

“When are you going to stop? Don’t you think it’s about time you keep your distance from Leonica?”

“I don’t see why I should.” He said with an unbothered shrug. “Leonica and I are both single, so I don’t see any reason... why as to not court her.”

Gabriel couldn’t help scoffing at his words, veins bulging with anger. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Might I remind you, single or not, Senator Arvan Richardson, Leonica is the mother of Ashley, my child and soon another child.”

Arvan would be a liar if he said he wasn’t affected by Gabriel’s words. Sure, he loved Ashley, who couldn’t, but the thought of Leonica having another child with Gabriel, he didn’t like it all too much.

But what could he do? From everything Leonica had told him, it was clear that she would be doing this just for Ashley’s sake. That was enough to give him some sort of hope.

“And might I remind you, Gabriel Bryce,” He took a step forward and stared Gabriel in the eyes with a vague smile. “The only reason why Leonica’s having your child is so that she could save Ashley. But even at that,” He stepped back and shrugged with a more pronounced and meaningful smile. “I still don’t see any reason as to why I shouldn’t court Leonica Romero. She a gorgeous woman, wonderful If I may say. And any man would be a fool to know someone like her and allow her walk away”