After Divorce, Billionaire Ex Found Me Pregnant
Chapter 97 Aftermath Of The Flames.

Chapter 97: Chapter 97 Aftermath Of The Flames.

Leonica eyes remained glued to the burning house, frozen shut in place, even after Owen tucked Ashley in the back seat and came back for her, leading her towards the passenger seat and whispering to her that everything was going to be alright and for now, he’d drive she and Ashley some for safety. The moment his hands released her to pull open the door, the spell had broken and the world around her began to make sense again.

Owen was about to open the door, intending to lead her in when Leonica’s hand caught his. He turned to look at her with a confused gaze.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

"He’s still in there." Came her reply. "He’s in there. I’m sure of it." She repeated sternly and broke out of his hold.

"Leo... Leonica, where are you going." Owen said and chased after her, standing in her path to block her.

At times like this, Leonica cursed the fact that the younger boy had somehow grown taller than her.

"Get out of my way." She demanded.

"You’re not thinking rationally." Owen countered. "If you walk in there you’ll get hurt, or worse, die. Do you want Ashley to live with a sense of guilt that all this was his fault? Cause that’s what your about to do."

“Ashley would understand, because right now, I have time save his father." She said and without another word, pushed past Owen.

She rushed towards the burning house, ignoring Owen’s calls for her. In a matter of seconds, she had gotten as close as she could to the house and brought the door down with one hit from a sturdy wood she had picked up nearby.

Tying a piece of her cloth around her nose, she stepped into the burning building.

"Gabriel! Gabriel, where are you?!" She called out and coughed into her fist while trying to navigate her way in the part of the building that was yet to be touched by the fire but covered in smoke.

It wasn’t until her lungs were about to burst and the heat was beginning to cause her skin to blister, that she heard the faint cough coming from a place not to far from where she presumed had once been the living room.

Quickly making her way over, she found him, lying face flat on the floor, unconscious and beside him was Angelina, crying as she tried to wake him up.

Leonica wasted no time and went towards him, not minding the fact that the fire was eating through her pants.

"What have you done?" Leonica questioned after shoving Angelina aside and quickly turned Gabriel over, hoping he was unharmed.

Sadly, not all wishes come true.

"It wasn’t my fault... The bomb... It didn’t go off as planned... And he... He shielded me when the whole thing went side ways and..." Angelina made a mess of her words as she tried to explain to Leonica who was currently staring in horror at the wound in Gabriel’s lower abdomen with a piece of wood sticking out.

“Shit!” Leonica cursed. She didn’t need to be a doctor to know the situation was dire.

Without thinking twice, she pulled off her upper layer, leaving herself in a sleeveless undershirt. She wrapped Gabriel’s wound as best she could and tried her best not to cry as she lifted him in her arms and began dragging him out.

Her tears eventually fell when she realized the journey was still a long way to go and the probability of escaping was slowly becoming thin. Admits the discouraging realization, she spotted Angelina who was still sitting there, staring at where Gabriel had laid with a guilty gaze.

“Help me,” Leonica requested, not expecting the woman to actually oblige her.

Surprisingly, she did, and despite the small weight difference between the two females, the task became much easier for them.

The moment they step foot out of the burning house, firemen and paramedics ambushed them, taking Gabriel from their hold and leading them both further away.

As much as Leonica had been surprised to see them, she has been much more relieved. As she watches the paramedic rush to tend to Gabriel’s wounds, she couldn’t help but wonder how they had gotten here.

Had they been alerted from the explosion? Not likely. The explosion hadn’t been big enough to alert fire fighters towards a house that was situated on the top of a private valley, isolated from the rest of the world.

As she pondered the question, the corner of her yes caught Owen fighting his way under the yellow tape and rushing towards her.

He slowed his steps at her side and examined her for any bodily harm. Except for the few minor burns on her arm and lower leg, everything seemed fine.

“How did they get here?” Leonica asked, finally voicing out her question.

“Me.” Owen simply answered and the way his eyes were fixated on a distance gave her an idea of what had happened. “I called them, after all, there’s no way you can handle a fire on your own.” He explained and finally tore his eyes from the distance, turning to look at her. "what you did was stupid.” He scolded, much to his surprise, she didn’t retort anything back and simply stared at him.

“What happened to knowing the difference between being brave and stupid? Knowing when and when not to play hero? “ Owen questioned and the longer she remained silent, the more he grew anxious.

“Leonica, talk to me, please.” He begged.

Although he had begged for her to speak, the next words she said wasn’t exactly what he wanted.

“I’m sorry Owen...”

‘Even after all those years, I’m still the same selfish girl you knew.’

*~*

The storm after the entire incident had slowly died down.

Angelina had been arrested and pleaded guilty to her crimes the following week in court, but the judge had reduced her sentence after her attorney had presented evidence that her actions had been as a result of her mentally unstable condition.

But even at that, she got a reasonable amount of time behind bars and addition counseling time.

A happy ending, one might have thought, but not quiet. After Gabriel was stabbed by the piece of wood and rushed to the hospital, it was found out that there wer several complications. The first one being that the wood had gone deeper than Leonica could have anticipated.

The second one being that the wood had quickly infected the wound. And the third one being that by the time Leonica had found Gabriel and managed to pull him out, he had lost a large amount of blood.

All of this combined together, lead to one indefinite result.

A sleep coma.

But on the bright side, Doctor Bailey had assured that he wouldn’t be in the coma for more than a week, however, that was approximately, two weeks ago.

And right now, current day, Leonica was seated in Gabriel’s room, doing her daily check ins with Ashley. As the boy tucked away the new set of flowers they had picked up, Leonica stared at Gabriel’s face, which looked much healthier than a couple days back.

“I think daddy’s going to wake up soon.” Ashley said, appearing beside his mother.

Leonica nodded her head in agreement.

“Yeah, I think so too.” She said, not wanting to burst the little boy’s bubble and tell him that the chances of his father waking up the following day was slowly dropping.

However, as much as she tried to hide it, Ashley could sense the aura around her and some part of him told him that his mother was lying.

“Mommy,” He began with a frown. “Is daddy ever going to wake up?”

“Of course he is.” Leonica said, at this point she wasn’t sure who she was lying to. Herself or her child.

“But what if he does?” Ashley continued. “What if daddy remains like this all because of me.” At this point, his tears had started falling and Leonica rushed to wipe them.

“Hey, this isn’t your fault. Don’t cry now.” She gently soothed. “Your daddy’s going to wake up soon, I’m sure of it, so please don’t cry.”

“B-but mommy, what if daddy wakes up and... And doesn’t love me anymore.” Ashley voiced out the fears he had held close to him for a while now.

His fears that his father would abandon him after his incident.

“You can’t say that, Ashley, and stop thinking like that. Your father loves you, more than anything else in the world.”

“Even more than you?” He questioned.

“Especially more than me.” She replied, not caring that it would be a lie.

Ashley’s fears were slowly subsiding as he processed his mother’s words. He was about to thank her when a nurse came into the room, informing them that Leonardo was here to pick Ashley as per the usual time.

“Go on ahead.” She encouraged him. “I’ll be with you at home as soon as I ensure your daddy’s okay.”

“You promise?” Ashley asked, holding up his pinky.

Leonica hooked hers around it with a smile. “I promise.”

With the promise sealed, Ashley climbed into the bed, kissing his father’s head goodbye before he hoped off and scurried away with the nurse.

When they had finally left, Leonica allowed her face to fall. She stared at Gabriel, the rise and fall of his chest the only sign of life he had.

“If you don’t wake up soon, I swear...” Leonica paused, trying her best not to allow the tears gathering in her eyes to fall.

“I’m going to take Ashley and leave. And this time, you’ll never find us. So you better wake up soon if you don’t want that to happen.” She whispered and hung her head, chuckling wistfully at the fact that she was talking to someone who couldn’t even respond.

Why was she suddenly becoming more stupid at heart with the days that passes by?

*~*

Three days had passed and Gabriel’s condition remained unchanged. Seated in a café with Owen, Leonica drank her coffee with little to no interest. It was the first coffee she had had in day, yet she wasn’t even enjoying it as much as she usual enjoyed her coffees.

“You’ve barely touched your coffee.” Owen observed, his eyes fixated on the untouched drink.

“Not really in the mood.” Came her simple answer.

“Is it because of Gabriel? His condition?” Owen questioned.

Either Leonica didn’t like the fact that someone could so easily read her expression or the fact that Owen had spoken about Gabriel’s condition, whichever one of the two it had been, suddenly caused her to feel irritated.

“Why did you call me here, Owen?” She snapped.

“What do you mean why did I call you here?” He asked. “Can’t I hang out with my friend, who has barely talked to me for the past three days.”

“I don’t feel like talking. Now if you don’t have anything better to say to me, I might just as well take my leave.” She said and was just about to stand up when Owen brought out a small envelope and placed it on the table, passing it to her. “What’s this?” She questioned.

“A commission letter from Doctor La Croix and her team. I pulled a few strings and they agreed to take a look at Gabriel’s condition. Help him to the best of their abilities.” Owen explained.

“Oh,” Leonica was stunned speechless. She had been trying to contact Amelie La Croix and her team for days but had failed.

How come Owen was able to? She thought as she opened the letter and read through it confirming that it was indeed true.

“You’re a life savor.” She said and looked up at him, the first smile in three days making its appearance on her lips.

Owen couldn’t help but mirror the smile, and for a second, he felt a bit bitter about the fact that the smile wasn’t meant for him.

"I’m always here to save your ass, so you better remember that." He teased, his words earning him a chuckle.

"I will, and I’ll always be there to save yours." She countered.

"You better," Owen said and watched as her eyes shifted back to the envelope, the smile disappearing the moment they did.

"Why do you love him?" He blurted out, the sudden question catching Leonica off guard.

She looked at him with a confused gaze. "What?"

"Why do you love him?" Owen repeated. "Because I’m trying to understand. From what I’ve seen so far, all Gabriel has done is make your life a living hell, yet you still choose to stick with him even when you don’t."

Chuckling, Leonica placed the letter down. "I think you’re mistaking. I don’t love him."

"You don’t?"

"Nope."

"Then why did you save him?"

"Cause, that’s what people who are good are supposed to do, right?" Leonica replied. "They’re supposed to help those in need, and I know for a fact that Gabriel’s a person who’s in need of help. So I helped."

“So you’re telling me, that if someone else had been in the house, instead of Gabriel, you would have gone and save them, regardless of who they were.” Owen challenged, but before she had the chance to answer, her phone began to ring.

Picking it up, her eyes widened in panic the moment she saw the name on the screen.

It was the hospital.

“Excuse me for a minute.” She quickly said and rushed outside. “Doctor Bailey? Talk to me.” She said upon answering the call.

“Ms. Romero, I have good news and bad news. Which would you care to hear first?” The doctor questioned.

Leonica hesitated, but went tackled the question the usual way she did. "Good news?"

"Great! Good news; Mr. Bryce’s condition suddenly for better today and he woke up."

Leonica’s eyes widened and a weird sense of relief flooded in her chest. But it was quickly short lived.

"Bad news; he seems to have developed partial amnesia, causing him to forget all of the events that has happened as of recently."