After Divorce, Billionaire Ex Found Me Pregnant-Chapter 126 The One Pulling The Strings.

That one eerie feeling, did, in fact not go away.

That was the first and probably the only thing Leonica took notice of as she woke up.

Staring at the ceiling, she once again tried to reassure herself, giving a short speech to herself. Telling her mind that she was only feeling this way because of the temporary happiness Owen provided to her life yesterday.

Speaking of happiness, she thought, vividly recalling their date yesterday and how it had ended. She blushed and quickly hopped out of bed, hoping to distract herself from the heat rising to her cheek as she got about her daily routine.

It was a Saturday morning, so thankfully, she didn’t need to wake Ashley up for school. Leaving the child in bed and leaving Grace with the responsibility to prepare breakfast as usual, Leonica took a refreshing bath and got dressed in a comfortable work wear, intending of going into work today to finalize things with the entertainment sector of her company and make Owen an official employee of that sector.

With the way things were going, she could have beaten her chest and proudly announced that all her problems have been solved. But it didn’t quite feel that way.

The turning feeling in her gut that refused to dissipate, made it feel like there was danger lingering around, somewhere.

Her thoughts were immediately dismissed when her phone rang.

Picking it up, she smiled softly. “Good morning, Owen.”

“Hey Leo.” He greeted, the smile in his voice was loud and clear. “Sorry, did I wake you up?”

Leonica shook her head. “No, not at all. I was getting dressed.”

“Dressed?”

“Yeah. I’m going into the office.” She said, an idea suddenly popping into her head as she spoke. She hesitated, but after a second long pep talk, she spat it out. “Wanna meet us and grab some breakfast?”

“Breakfast?” She nodded her head, knowing fully well that he couldn’t see her.

“Yeah.” As she waited for his answer, she bit down on her lower lip and tapped her finger on her thigh.

“Mhm, that sounds like a great plan.” He responded, and just like that, she felt the air in her lungs return. “Would it be okay for me to pick you up from the office?”

“Yeah, yeah that can work.”

“Alright. Two hours, would that be okay?”

“Yes, that would be perfect.”

“Alright.” Leonica whispered and cut the call, looking at the screen and sighing.

“What are you doing?” She asked herself, her brows furrowing and her finger pressing against her temple.

She was doing it again, letting a man into her life. But then again, Owen wasn’t just any man.

She knew him.

He wasn’t Gabriel, he was different, and she wasn’t going to let her past experiences dictate her life.

“Letting yourself go, is a good thing.” She reminded herself, looking at her reflection. “You can’t live forever, afraid of being hurt. That’s no way to live. If you keep doing that, you’re gonna lose people. People that matter.”

She shook her head and turned away from the mirror, heading downstairs for breakfast, which she didn’t intend to stay long for.

“Good morning, Ms. Romero.” Grace greeted and placed a plate in front of her, a cup of freshly brewed tea beside it.

“Good morning.” She replied, picking up the cup and taking a sip, the warm liquid instantly warming her.

As she ate, her phone buzzed again. She picked it up and groaned when seeing it was a message from Kennedy.

She opened it.

[Ms. Romero, there’s a problem.]

Her eyes narrowed at the message and she placed her cup down, using both hands to type a response.

[What is it, Kennedy?]

A few seconds passed before Kennedy replied. [Earlier this week, you had requested I do a background check on Mr. Reeds, well I did...]

Reeds, Stuart Reeds. Seeing the name made Leonica swallow hard, all seriousness being stirred up by the eerie feeling she had been feeling all morning.

[And what was the result?]

She replied after the rest of Kennedy’s words had taken quite a while to come.

A few seconds went by. A minute, two minutes and yet no response.

[Kennedy?] She texted again, growing slightly worried.

Was the information so bad, Kennedy couldn’t bring himself to type it?

Or maybe she was being paranoid and it wasn’t as bad as she was making it out to be.

As she waited for the reply, she found the feeling of anxiousness growing more and more. With one last forced spoon, she shoved her meal away from her.

“I’d be leaving now, Grace. Make sure Ashley has his dinner.” She instructed as she stood up, grabbed her keys and headed for the doormat, slipping on her heels and rushing out the door.

“Have a nice day, ma’am.” Grace yelled after her.

Leonica didn’t hear her, her mind too focused on the fact that Kennedy still hasn’t replied and the fear was starting to become more real.

By the time she arrived at the office, there was yet to be a reply and Kennedy wasn’t waiting for her by the usual place.

She narrowed her eyes and instead of going straight to her office, she walked towards the receptionist.

“Good morning Ms. Romero.”

“Morning. Could you help me find out if Kennedy’s arrived at work?” She asked.

“Sure.” The receptionist replied and typed something into her computer. “According to the security system, he came in an hour ago.”

But she didn’t see him anywhere.

As Leonica was looking around, her phone buzzed. It was a message from Kennedy.

[Ms. Romero, I won’t be able to come to work today. I’m sick, I apologize.]

Leonica’s eyes narrowed and as she read the message over and over again, she felt a pair of eyes watching her.

Her head snapped up and almost immediately, she locked eyes with Stuart.

He was standing a few feet away, his gaze hard and cold as he stared at her.

Her phone buzzed again, pulling her attention away from him and onto the new message.

[  ]

Seeing that message, Leonica knew something was off. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Stuart walk away, his steps slow and steady as he disappeared around a corner in a sluggish way as if telling her to follow him.

“Ms. Romero, Is everything okay?” The reception asked.

Leonica bit her lower lip, glanced in the direction where Stuart had walked off in, and then back at the receptionist.

“I have a few matters to take care of, inform me if you see Kennedy.”

Although, some part of her told her that wasn’t a likely occurrence to happen.

“Yes, ma’am.” The woman replied, and Leonica hurried off in the same direction where Stuart had walked.

Turning the corner, she found him standing by the end of the Hall, staring at her with a smile on his lips before he walked off.

Her eyes twitched at his action. For a few seconds, she remained rooted in her spot, wondering what he was doing.

Leading her on? Where and why?

She wanted to know the answer to those questions, so despite the red signs in her head, alarm going off and telling her not to follow after him, she ignored them and walked forward.

Following after him, the more they walked, the more her anxiety rose and the faster her heart beat.

When they arrived at the storage room, a place Leonica never liked visiting, the door was open, the light was on and Stuart was nowhere in sight.

Taking a deep breath, she entered.

It was a large room, boxes upon boxes of files stacked everywhere and a small couch placed beside the door.

Leonica walked in and searched, finding nothing out of place not even Stuart was present. Yet she was sure he had stepped inside here.

She certainly hadn’t hallucinated the entire thing.

A light bulb flickering above caught her attention. She looked towards it, but then something else caught her attention. The reflection of a stainless steel behind.

Her eyes widened as she saw Stuart raise a baton.

Before she could do anything, the weapon was brought down and all went black.

~•~

Leonica regained consciousness with a throbbing pain at the back of her head, and a slight blur to her vision.

She groaned, trying to move her hand to reach up and touch the back of her head, but her wrists were bound together by rope.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open and the sight she was greeted with wasn’t a pleasant one.

“Well, you’re finally awake.” A voice spoke, a voice she was all a bit familiar with.

Slowly, her vision returned and her surroundings were clearer.

She was no longer in the storage room, instead she was sitting in a chair in the middle of what looked like a basement.

In front of her, stood Stuart, the baton he had hit her with, now placed in a bag at his feet.

“What is going on?” Leonica muttered, her eyes narrowing as she took in the look of satisfaction on Stuart’s face.

“Well, it’s quite simple,” He murmured, crouching down and meeting her at eye level. “You’ve been kidnapped, Ms. Romero.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” She retorted. “My main question’s why?”

Stuart shrugged. “Isn’t it obvious? This is me exerting revenge for what you’ve done.”

“Revenge? What for?”

At her question, he walked over to a table by the corner and picked up a picture frame. He threw it by her feet when he had gotten closer.

Taking that as her answer, Leonica lowered her gaze to the picture, a look of surprise and confirmation taking over her expression as she spotted Angelina in the picture and Stuart had his arm around her in a loving manner.

So these two were indeed connected, she thought.

“You killed my child,” Stuart began, walking closer to her. “Put Angelina behind bars for something she wasn’t guilty for. You ruined her entire life and mine also.” As he spoke, Leonica narrowed her brows when she clearly recalled Angelina’s lovers name being Stuart Campbell and even when she had checked him up, he appeared different from his current form.

“You’re Stuart Campbell.” She accused.

“Bingo!” He replied, chuckling as he did. “Stuart Reeds is just a made up name. It’s the identity I’ve taken to Infiltrate your company and take the revenge I’ve planned. Ah, I’m sure you must be wondering about the picture, you did a background check on the name, am I right?” When Leonica didn’t answer, giving him the satisfaction he wanted, he continued on. “That dude’s just my gardener.”

“Just a fall guy.”

“Correct.” He said, clapping his hand. “You truly are smart, but not smart to see the obvious threat in front of you. Your assistant on the other hand...” He trailed off, tutting his tongue and wagging his finger. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Leonica gritted her teeth, glaring daggers at him in a bid to hide the worry she was feeling for Kennedy. “What did you do to him?!”

“Well, nothing much. He’s fine. But, is now really a time to worry about others?” He said and walked around her. “Shouldn’t you worry about your own life instead?”

“I can handle myself.” She responded.

“I’m sure you can. But the question is, will you?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Ah, Ms. Romero, don’t tell me you haven’t figured it out yet. If I’m the one behind this, who’s the one helping me?”

Leonica’s heart nearly stopped at his question. She turned her head slowly to catch the look on his face. Only after seeing the huge grin that spilt his face did she realize he wasn’t joking.

There was someone helping him?!

“Ah, don’t tell me you haven’t figured it out just yet?” He mocked, his hand moving and brushing against the hair on her shoulder.

She jerked away from his touch, her eyes narrowing and the fire in her gut burning.

“Ah, you don’t have to worry. Sadly she’s not here, I can assure you that.”

“She?” Leonica questioned.

Was it Angelina? But how? She was behind bars, wasn’t she?

“Ah, I’ve already told you too much.” As if realizing he had said too much, he walked away. “Don’t worry, I better keep my mouth shut before I spoil the fun.”

“You’re sick.” Leonica spat, tugging on the rope around her wrist and trying to break free.

He chuckled at her words as he walked over to the door, holding it open and looking over his shoulder. “Yeah? Well too bad, I didn’t think that when I ran over that stupid kid of your.”

The anger and rage she was feeling, instantly simmered down, and the color on her face drained.

Her expression gave him the satisfaction he craved for. “Don’t look too surprised Princess, or else the events to come won’t be fun.”

And with that, he shut the door and the lock clicked.