After Divorce, Billionaire Ex Found Me Pregnant-Chapter 146 An Alliance.

The name Tyche- goddess of wealth- Smith was a name well known in the business industry. As far as Rodrigo had heard, she was a self made billionaire who had single handedly risen her fortunate to the top, yet till this day, she remained anonymous, only contacting those that she dimmed fit to be business partners.

Which was why when Rodrigo got a call from a person claiming to be her, he was beyond excited, not caring that the time was a little bit too late for a business call.

"A business proposal you say?" He repeated her words, discarding the game of chess he had been playing with himself- making strategies for his latest plan- and walking to stand by the vast window that took up one third of the wall space in his study.

"Yes," Came the answer from the other end. "You see, as of late, I’ve been wanting to expand into certain territory. Grow my fortune far more than I have built it up to be." There was a pause as his caller allowed her words sink in. "By that, I mean, I wish to buy certain companies which have potential of being very profitable under the right hand."

And at that, she totally lost him. “By buying, do perhaps mean you wish to acquire Romero Empire?” He asked for confirmation sake.

“Correct and that is exactly why I contacted you. As per my last investment with Romero Empire, I’ve gathered enough data showing that the company had potential to grown and for that, i’m willing to offer you hundred of millions for the ownership of Romero Empire.”

Rodrigo suddenly chuckled at her words. “I’m afraid to tell you this, but at Romero Empire’s current stand, throwing it away for petty millions will be a waste.”

“Current stand?” Rodrigo could already imagine the mysterious woman tilting her head to the side.

“Yes, currently, Romero Empire is backed by the two biggest houses in Norway. Bryce Empire and the Senator of Norway himself.” He boasted. “My lovely niece, the previous CEO, had worked hard to get those connections, it’d be a shame to just throw it all away.” He feigned remorse.

Leonica almost laughed at his acting skills. It was so good that if she had been anyone else, she’d have fallen hard for it.

But that didn’t matter now, she had gotten the information she wanted.

“Ah, I see. That’s a shame.” She mused. “I really thought we could get somewhere good with this.”

“Oh, but we still can.” Rodrigo quickly interjected, wanting to keep her cooperation as much as he wanted to keep the company. “You contract with Romero Empire, you know, the one my niece signed with you-“

“It reached its maturity date last month.” Her reply had him deflating. “Did your niece not inform you of this?”

“No, no she did. I must have forgotten, old age and all.”

“Indeed. Well, in case you change your mind, don’t hesitate to call me, you have my number.”

“Yes, Mrs. Smith, have a nice evening.”

And with that, the call ended and Leonica was left with a subtle smirk on her lips.

“Old fool,”

She had known full well that Rodrigo would reject her offer of buying the company. In fact, he was quite right. With the company’s current standing, hundred of millions was too little to buy it.

But, all that could be changed if the company suffered a ‘sudden’ and devastating blow.

As if in line with her thoughts, she received a message from Arvan. When she clicked it open, she recognized it to be a picture of the termination contract she had asked him to do, earlier.

Below it, the words read: Do you really want me to do this?

More than ever so, she thought with a smile on her lips before typing a reply, giving him the go ahead to send the contract as soon as tomorrow morning.

Now, with that handled, she just needed to take care of one last thing; the contract with Gabriel’s company.

Dang, she knew all that stalling and constant diversion before signing that termination contract would come back to bite her in the ass one day.

Placing her hand on her chin, she pondered. What could she possibly do to remedy this?

And then it hit her, she didn’t need a remedy solution, what she needed- painfully admitted- was an alliance.

An alliance with the very same person she wanted nothing to do with. Just the thought of that had her brows creasing in displeasure, but right now, she really couldn’t afford losing the company in an unjust way.

“Looks like I have to do just that.” She groaned, still not hundred percent on board with this plan.

But what could she do? She needed the standing of Romero Empire to drop and Rodrigo’s greed take over, before she could be able to acquire the company that had once rightfully been hers.

And what better way to make all that plan unravel if not this?

She sighed. Well, there was no avoiding it. With Ashley being their son, there was no way she could go without having involvement with him.

Even if the idea didn’t please her, she still had to do it.

“Well, guess like I now have a purpose to visit Gabriel.”

~•~

Being less occupied, Leonica learnt the hard way that days didn’t fly by as fast as it did when she had piles of work files to look through.

To put it in a simple way, she found it excruciating to wait a whole two days before taking the next step of her plan. When Saturday came around, Ashley was the first one to bounce into her room, literally, he had been bouncing with the excitement of finally having to see his father for more than a few hours.

“Can we go now?”

Leonica looked back at him from where she say in front of her vanity mirror. She smiled at his excitement before applying the final touches to her simple make up and nodding.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

In a matter of seconds, she had finished the rest of her getting ready process and had joined her son downstairs.

“Ashley would be gone for the whole weekend.” She said to Grace who nodded in understanding.

“Have a good day, ma’am.”

“Thank you.”

“Goodbye, Gracie.”

Grace waved at Ashley and then turned back to her chore.

When the pair got to the car, Leonica handed Ashley his seatbelt, while she went to the driver’s seat and got ready to pull off.

As usual, they drove in silence, with Leonica’s mind occupied by the upcoming events- her plans, her visit to Gabriel’s place and the talk she would begrudgingly have with him and most importantly, the visit she had to pay to Owen’s family estate the next day- while Ashley hummed along to the song on the radio.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at their destination. As soon as the car stopped, Ashley had jumped off the car and was running towards the main door, leaving Leonica to sigh and lock the car before chasing after him.

She had just stepped foot on the front porch when her son’s voice filled her ears.

“Daddy!”

The joy in her son’s voice, as well as the smile that had painted his face was something Leonica would never get tired of seeing, even if it was directed towards someone she didn’t like.

“Hey, big guy. You ready for your weekend sleepover?” Gabriel crouched down and caught Ashley when he rushed into his arms.

Ashley nodded his head in excitement, showing just how happy he was to finally be with his father. From behind him, Gabriel caught sight of Leonica and the smile on his lips changes to a more mature one.

“Hey, Leonica.”

She mustered a half wave, fighting against the urge to ignore him- a habit she had forced into her system months ago- and reminding herself that she needed him... For now.

“Hey.”

Her response surprised Gabriel. It was very much not expected, just like how she had flat out ignored him back at the hospital. However, he quickly fixed his expression. “Thank you for dropping him off.” He said, holding Ashley up and resting him on his hip.

“No problem.”

There was a short period of silence where they both gazed at each other, and then at Ashley who was now babbling about the toy he had seen a friend of his brought to school.

“Well, I guess I’ll be leaving.” Leonica spoke first, taking a fauxed step back in hopes that one of her boys...the boys, would ask her to stay. “Call me when he’s ready to return.”

“Wait,”

Bingo.

With a neutral expression, hiding the smile that wanted to spread across her lips, Leonica turned to back around to face Gabriel, offering him a tilt of her head.

“Yes?”

“You’re leaving so soon? Why don’t you come inside?” Gabriel asked, already opening the door and letting Ashley into the house. “Albert was just about to prepare some tea for me. Why don’t you join me.”

At his request, Leonica allowed an ample of smile grace her lips, making her features seem more pleasing to Gabriel.

“Sure.”

Once again, he was surprised by her acceptance and at this point, it was starting to become clear to him that Leonica was up to something.

“Come in,” He held the door open for her as she walked in.

Immediately, she was greeted by the familiar place she once called home.

“Margret,” Gabriel called and soon, a chubby woman with faded black hair in her late fifties appeared. “Please show Ashley to his room and as for his languages,” He paused and turned to Leonica.

She took it as her cue to complete the sentence. “It’s in the car. Please have it removed.”

“Certainly.” Margret bowed before turning to Ashley, a sweet smile playing on her lips. “Hello Young master, I’ve heard a lot about you. My name’s Margret.”

Ashley hesitated because of the unfamiliar presence, but a little pat on the back and a smile from his mother was all it took for him to slowly open up. “My name’s Ashley.”

“Ashley, huh?” She cooed. “That’s such a cute name. Come, let’s go to your room, shall we?”

As she watched Margret walk away with Ashley, Gabriel turned back to Leonica. “Let’s have the tea in my office.”

“I’m okay with that.”

Without exchanging any other words, Gabriel led the way towards his office.

It was only when they were both seated and tea had been served did Gabriel speak.

“You want something, don’t you?”

Ah, she’s been caught.

Biting on her lower lip, she asked rather than answering. “How’d you know.”

Her words confirmed his assumptions and Gabriel felt a wave of disappointment wash over him. Why did he hope it would have been otherwise.

Letting out a sigh of disappointment, he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, giving Leonica a chance to take note of his causal outfit- a plain white shirt and grey pants.

"Well, it’s not every day that you see your hostile natured ex wife being nice to you."

"I wasn’t being nice." Leonica snapped before she realized and when she did, she quickly wound her heat down. "I just didn’t want to come off as arrogant."

"Yeah?" Gabriel nodded unconvincingly at her words. "So what do you want? If it has anything to do with Ashley then you can rest assured-"

"It’s not about Ashley." She cut him off.

"It’s not?"

Nodding her head at his question, she took a moment to steel her nerves, remembering that once going down this path, there was no turning back until her plan was complete.

But at this point, she really don’t have choices to jungle with.

"I need your help, Gabriel."