After Divorce, Billionaire Ex Found Me Pregnant-Chapter 108 The Place She Called Home.

It was fifteen minutes past their meeting time, and Anastasia, who was had been the first to arrive, sat in one of the restaurant chairs, grumbling underneath her breath.

"Where the heck is he?" Anastasia mumbled underneath her breath and reached for her phone, unlocking it when a text message entered.

Opening the text message, she had expected to see a message from Lloyd, but it wasn’t.

[Anastasia?]

The first message read.

[This is your number, right? I know this is your number.] The second one read and at this point, after reading those two messages alone, Anastasia doubted this number belonged to Lloyd.

[Who’s this?] She typed, hesitating for a few seconds before sending it.

Not more than a few seconds had gone by before both bars turned blue, indicating that the sender has read her message.

A minute passed and she was growing impatient, and as though they sensed her impatience, her phone beeped, another text message entering.

[You responded. I didn’t think you’d even read my messages.]

“Freak show alert.” She mumbled and was about to block the user without even bother to find out who they were anymore, when another message entered.

[Please don’t block me.]

Anastasia stared at the screen. Something about this message had her curious.

Who was this and what the hell did they want?

Taking a moment to ponder whether or not she should block this user, Anastasia finally decided to type and send a message, only because she was curious.

It couldn’t hurt to try and find out. Right?

And besides, what the hell was she meant to do while waiting for that Damn Riley bastard to show up?

It wasn’t that bad of a thing to do. And, she could just block the number once the conversation was over, so really, there was nothing to lose.

After much thinking, Anastasia finally made a decision.

[I won’t, if you tell me who you are and how you got my number.] She typed and sent it, watching the status change to delivered and then, after a few seconds, the status changed to read.

The bubbles showing that the sender was typing came and went, and then they stopped.

Anastasia waited for a minute or two, but the sender didn’t send a message, so, with a heavy sigh, she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, taking in the cool air of the restaurant’s AC.

She didn’t even notice when the waitress approached her, carrying a glass of water. The sound of it being placed on the table had her eyes snapping open.

"Oh, thank you." She greeted and flashed the young waitress a smile.

"You’re welcome." The girl replied before walking away.

As Anastasia watched her go, she heard her phone vibrate on the table once more and picked it up, eyes scanning the message.

It was from the same unknown number, only this time around, for some reason- a gut feeling as one would call it- she hesitated to open the message.

After staring at her phone for a good solid five seconds, she finally decided to open it and see what the sender wanted.

Upon opening the message, her eyes landed on the one word, or rather, name give, and her entire expression crumbled.

[Derek.]

Before she had the chance to even process, talk less respond to the text she has received, a sudden hand on her shoulder startled her.

"Sorry I’m late." The voice apologized.

Her body suddenly became alert and she nearly snapped her head around to view the owner of the hand who stepped beside her.

"Damn you Riley!" She hissed.

The man chuckled at her reaction, removing his hand from her shoulder.

"My, my, you really are mad, aren’t you?" He joked and pulled the chair opposite her and seated down.

"You think?" Anastasia asked sarcastically and shook her head, hastily burying her phone inside her purse. "What took you so long?"

"I was stuck in traffic, had a meeting and all that jazz," Lloyd waved his hand dismissively. "Now, how about we order?"

Anastasia so wanted to take him up on his words, traffic and all, but today, no recently, she wasn’t really in the mood to play cat and mouse, more so after seeing the text message she had just gotten.

Remembering it for a moment was enough to have her fingers curling around the table cloth.

‘Calm down, it might just be a prank.’ She told herself while Lloyd raised his hand and beckoned the waitress over.

“Two glasses of lemonade and uh,” He paused to glance at Anastasia, who was still looking somewhat distracted. “Anastasia, you hungry?”

“Huh?”

“Food, are you hungry?” Lloyd questioned, watching as she blinked a handful of times as if too think deeply about his simple question before shaking her head.

“Oh, uh, no.”

Lloyd nodded his head and ordered two plates of pasta, handing the waitress the menu and sending her off.

“Are you okay?” He asked once they were alone.

“Yes, of course.” Anastasia said.

Lloyd didn’t believe her, but saw no reason to push on. He had simple asked out of courtesy, so, whether she really was okay or not, wasn’t really any of his business.

“Okay then, shall we get started?” He asked, clapping his hands together and smiling.

“Yeah, we should.” Anastasia replied. “So, you have a plan or not?”

At her question, Lloyd brought out his phone and placed it on the table, sliding it to her. “Here, is operation memory recovery.”

Anastasia took the phone and glanced at the screen. The moment she did, she couldn’t help but frown.

“This is just a list of random activities.”

“Exactly.” Lloyd smiled, clearly proud. “The best way to help one recover their memory is to do activities they’re familiar with. Says medical research.”

“Medical research?” Anastasia repeated, her frown growing deeper.

“Yup,” Lloyd said, popping the ‘P’. “I looked it up.”

Anastasia shook her head and handed the phone back to him. “Look, I don’t know what the hell you’re thinking, but, there is no way Gabriel’s memory can be treated with a bunch of random activities. You need a professional and a plan. A good one.”

Lloyd grumbled underneath his breath, annoyed by the fact that Anastasia was shooting down his plan.

“Alright then,” He said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the chair. “How do you propose we handle this?”

“How do I propose? This is your idea, you brought me out here because you had an idea to help my best friend and her son, my godson, but well, from the looks of it, you’ve got nothing.”

Lloyd didn’t seem too pleased with her answer and his frown deepened.

“Well, if you’ve got a better plan, speak up.”

At his words, Anastasia opened her mouth, ready to speak. Only, she paused and closed it.

She had a plan, well, kind of.

She wasn’t sure if her idea would work, or if it was a good idea, but, it was better than nothing.

"I do." She spoke.

"Really?" Lloyd asked, raising a brow. "Care to share it?"

"Gladly." Anastasia said, leaning forward and flashing a smirk.

"Alright, let’s hear it."

"The key to regaining lost memories is to make the person relive their old days. So, if Gabriel is going to regain his memories, he needs to relive his old life."

Lloyd seemed to have been thinking over her words, nodding his head a few times.

"Okay," He said. "So what’s the plan?"

Gabriel needs to live with Leonica," She painfully admitted, cringing at the thought and the thought of her friend’s face if she were to suggest something like this to her.

"Okay, I’m all for that."

"Wait," Anastasia raised her hand. "You are?"

Lloyd nodded his head. "Why wouldn’t I? If living with his ex wife would help him, why wouldn’t I be for it."

"Wow, didn’t think you’d actually agree."

"And why’s that?" Lloyd asked with a slight pout as he leaned forward on the table.

Anastasia stared at him for a few seconds, seemingly caught in the look in his eyes but after a few seconds, she shook her head and waved her hand dismissively.

"Never mind," She said and glanced away, watching as the waitress approached.

Lloyd on the other hand, watched her, something about the way she has been acting, now avoiding his gaze and all, pricked him.

Perhaps it was because no woman, at least the ones he had scored, never did something like this.

Maybe it was a sign that she was different. In a good way?

Lloyd couldn’t help but scoff at the thought, shaking his head and chuckling, not knowing what else to do.

‘Maybe I’m just imagining things.’

With a deep breath, Lloyd sighed.

‘Yeah, I probably am.’

~*~

Two days later, Gabriel was discharged from the hospital, given a few drugs to help with the recovery of small scratches and the stab wound and some to help with his memory. Simply vitamins, nothing too much.

Once that was taken care of, his papers of discharge were handed over and after a short conversation with Doctor Bailey, he along with Bill left his office.

However, on their way out, Gabriel spotted two familiar faces standing outside the hospital.

"Hey," He called out.

The two, whom had been conversing turned their heads and the younger one’s lips instantly curved into a smile when he saw his father.

"Daddy!" Ashley called out and rushed towards him.

Gabriel caught him with a grunt, wincing slightly when he felt a sharp pain on his right shoulder.

"How are you champ?" He asked.

"Fine." Ashley answered while his mother’s presence looked behind him and soon she placed her hand on his head, ruffling his hair.

"Hey, you need to be careful. Your dad still needs to recover." She scolded him gently.

Ashley nodded his head. "I will, mommy."

"Good." She said and glanced at Gabriel. " Hey." Her greeting was so quiet that not only did Gabriel nearly miss it because of the volume, but also because he had not expected her to great first.

"Hi." He returned, the corner of his lips unconsciously stretching. "How are you."

"Fine." Leonica answered abruptly. "Ready to leave?" She asked, changing the subject, her attention no longer on him, but rather her son.

"Yeah, uh, Bill’s gonna drive me...home." He pointed back to the assistant who bowed once his presence was recognized.

"Home?!" Ashley perked up at the word. "Can we follow daddy home?" He asked.

"What? No!" Leonica shook her head.

"Aww," He whined, a pout on his face.

"Ash, we talked about this. Your daddy has to take things slow."

"I’m okay with you guys coming around." Gabriel announced.

"You are?" Both Ashley and Leonica asked at the same time, the latter seemingly more surprised by his words.

Gabriel nodded.

"Of course." He said while nodding. "I’m sure Bill wouldn’t mind driving two more people."

"Not at all, Sir." Bill said with a shake of his head.

"See." Gabriel grinned. "So, are you guys coming or not?"

"I..." Leonica paused, hesitant to be back in the house she and Gabriel had shared during the two years of their marriage.

"Please mommy, please!" Ashley pleaded.

"Okay, okay, we’ll come." She finally gave in and watched as her son cheered loudly, jumping up and down.

"Yay!" He exclaimed.

While his son cheered, Gabriel couldn’t help but chuckle, but that soon disappeared when he noticed Leonica’s expression.

It was clear that she was hesitant to come along. He couldn’t understand why. Hadn’t it been her house as well?

But then, she had said their divorce was messy, so, maybe she felt uncomfortable being there, even though it was her home.

Sighing, Gabriel took a step forward.

"Come on, let’s go." He told her, watching as she looked at him in the eye and nodded her head.

"Let’s."

And with that, they walked towards the car, Bill holding the doors open for them one after the other.

When he was the only one left, he quickly walked around the car, got in and started the engine.

As they drove off, Ashley’s cheerful voice filled the car as he told Gabriel everything that happened the last couple of days and the older man listened, smiling at his son’s excitement.

Leonica on the other hand, remained silent, occasionally stealing glances at the man sitting next to her son.

A part of her wondered suddenly wondered if he was going to be different if he ever recovered his memory.

Of course, what’s to expect, those words concluded her thoughts as they pulled into the familiar drive way of Gabriel’s house.

The one they had lived in. The one she had called home.

It was a place of good and bad memories, both which she couldn’t decide if she wanted to remember or forget.

But, there was no turning back now. She had decided to help him, so, there was no way she was backing out now.

After all, she was the one who had chosen to accept the fact that she would have to work closely with her ex husband, in order to help him regain his memories.

’It’s okay,’ She told herself, watching as Gabriel stepped out of the car, followed by her son and soon, he was by her side, holding the door open with a hand offered out to her.

’Nothing could possibly go wrong.’ She told herself, dragging in one long, silent breath before gingerly putting her hand in his and stepping out.

But that thought however, would soon be proven wrong. freёnovelkiss.com