“Stuart Reeds was his name.” Kennedy explains, pacing the office all the while his employer sat behind her desk, reading through the employee candidate list for what seemed like the hundredth time.After the interview has ended, a bit too quickly than he had expected, Leonica had requested for the file, mumbling underneath her breath about Stuart having this awful off putting vibe around him.But even after yet another back ground check, license plate scans and criminal background check up, they still couldn’t find anything to match her suspicion.“Previously worked in C&D industry as the head of their accounting department.” He continued on, unaware of how the name of the mentioned company had caught Leonica’s attention.“C&D industry?” She asked, raising her gaze from the file for the first time. Her question earned a nod from the *ssistant, which later left her to think back to where she had heard the said name.Less than a minute later, it clicked into place. Owen, he had mentione
The inevitable couldn’t be avoided, Leonica told herself over and over again, as she stood in front of the picture Gabriel had slid across the table, feeling like she had felt the day she revealed Ashley’s identity to him back at the hospital.Gabriel, noticing her hesitancy to speak, spoke up. “You seem to be keeping a lot of things from me, Leonica.”“I’m not.” She argued, gaze still glued on the picture while her mind tried to phantom about escape from the situation.But, did she really need an escape? Leonica’s definition of escape, as she has learnt, is to complicate things more than they already were. But did she really need to do that right now?What harm could it bring to come clean? The voice in the back of her mind questioned.Yeah, what harm indeed?The worse that could happen was Gabriel denying Ashley and finally cutting ties with them both, using his amnesia as an excuse. That sounded nice, until it didn’t and ended up leaving a sour taste in Leonica’s mouth and a rising
The moment Leonica had left, Bill stuck his head through the door, testing the water whether or not it was okay for him to step in.“Sir?” He called out, snapping Gabriel out of whatever he had been thinking about at that moment. “May I step in?”Gabriel waved his hand at his *ssistant’s question, indicating that he could do whatever he pleased. Tentatively, he stepped in while Gabriel returned back to the chair he had been seating in, grabbing the photo he has found in the process.Once again staring at the photo, Ashley in particular, Gabriel found his mind replaying Leonica's words, something that had somewhat become like a daily routine to him, since he had woken up a few days ago.He wondered, had he really been that much of an *sshole?Was he the reason their marriage ended? The reason why Ashley was forced to live with a broken family?Although he couldn’t recall a thing about the child, Gabriel felt connected to him, just from the photo alone and thinking about how much the ch
Alistair’s words had taken a good couple of minutes before it sank into the heads of both individuals present.“What?” Leonica was the first to question, finding what he had just said utterly ridiculous.“what the h*ll do you mean cut contact with Leonica or have my contract terminated?” Owen joined in, showing anger as he had been kept in the dark with the recent developments.Sure, he had been scolded once or twice about the speech he released, had his pay cut for an advert or two, but he was cool with that, at least if that was what it took to reduce the public pressure on Leonica, he didn’t mind.But right now, the higher ups demands was too unreasonable. Asking him to pick between Leonica and his job. They wouldn’t dare put those options on the table if they knew that Leonica was the reason why he was who he was today. She had shaped the star that was keeping their d*mned company afloat, yet they dare do what they were doing.Just the sheer thought of their demands alone angered
Anastasia stood by her window, watching as Leonica and Ashley got into their car, the former stopping to wave her goodbye, to which she waved back even though she couldn’t be seen, before they drove off.Watching the vehicle drive away, she heard the sound of her phone ringing from her study. She moved towards it, mumbling underneath her breath how much she hated answering clients late in the night while having extra work to do, you know, stuffs that only lawyers could understand.By the time she had arrived at her study and located her phone from underneath a pile of growing client cases, the phone was on its second ring. Taking a moment, she studied the unknown number calling, brows furrowing as she tried to recall which of her clients had this number.After much trying and pondering, Anastasia answered the phone by the third call.“Attorney Johansson speaking.” She said once the phone had been pressed again her ear.However, the voice that greeted her was one she was not expecting
Between the constant glances that were being thrown their way as other hospital patients walked by and the sound of Ashley chattering away with Gabriel, informing him of all the things that had happened both in Denver and here, Oslo, Leonica found it hard to focus on the meal which they had actually come here to have.“… and then, mommy got me Betty,” Ashley said, showing his father the doll he always carried around. Gabriel bummed in an understanding tone, nodding his head as he took a bite from his burger.Strange, Leonica thought as she had glanced at him in the middle of taking said bite from his beef burger. The Gabriel she knew was far too stuck up to even have a bite from a veggie burger, talk less a beef burger.Then again, she shook her head, briefly reminding herself that the Gabriel seating in front of her wasn’t the stuck up stoic man he had been a few weeks ago.“Everything okay?” Gabriel asked after noticing her somewhat weird behavior.She sucked a breath in rather hars
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 p*ssed 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 messa
Stepping into the four walls of the Bryce mansion for the first time in five years, felt foreign to Leonica. Her eyes wandered the familiar interior while she looked around like a child who had been lost in a wave of busy Monday adults.Everything was the same even after five years, she noted, walking further into the house as Ashley pulled her by the hand.“Mr. Bryce, welcome home.” The butler, who she quickly recognized as Will, the very same butler whom Lila had transferred from underneath her to look after she and Gabriel during their first year of marriage, greeted with a polite bow. His eyes was quick to widen the moment they landed on her. “Madam,” he uttered with a breathy tone of disbelief.Leonica could only force a smile under his disbelieving gaze, however, it soon turned genuine as memories, find ones at that, flashed in the back of her mind.“Glad to see you’re doing well, Will.” She said, tipping her head in a small bow to acknowledge his presence.“You too, Madam.” The