"Leonardo Legend, I think now is the time your Nana and I tell you what really happened with your parents."
"There is nothing to tell grandpa, I know he was a coward, dad left mom and she suffered from heartbreak for years and died."
"He did leave, but he had his reasons and that was not what killed your mom, although she was heartbroken."
"The most important factor was that he left, and that is why I never want to love anyone I do not want to be like him, if not that you forced me to get married, I would rather continue my none commitment flings."
"Legend listen, your mom was born sick, she had some sort of condition and was not strong to handle things, so we cared for her, when she fell in love with your dad, he promised to stay by her side always and be her strength. When they did get married, we insisted they stayed with us in the mansion so we could be closely watching and caring for her too."
"What would you tell me different from what I know, dad broke his promise, left, and killed mom because he was selfish."
"Leonardo, your dad discovered he had cancer two years into marriage, he felt he had failed your mom, so he left.
After he left without reasons only dropping a letter to tell your mom how sorry he was, your mom found out she was pregnant. We worried that her health would not take a pregnancy, but she insisted that you were her gift and she was going to live for you."
Leonardo was quiet he had never heard this part of the story before.
"We heard that your dad died of cancer a day before you were born, because of your mom's delicate state, we didn't tell her that.
She never found out about why your dad left, and when she told you once that your dad left, it was not for you to give up on love or hate your dad, it was for you to learn to not be like your dad but stand by the woman you love even if you feel you are weak.
Your mom had moved on from your dad, you were her life, but her sickness got worst when you were five and she passed on, not because she was heartbroken, she passed on because she was sick.
Every day you saw her looking pale and feeble, it was not because she was thinking of your dad, it was because her health was failing, but she was fighing each day to spend more days with you."
Leonardo's eyes was tearing up at this point, he didn't want grandpa to see him cry, he didn't want a hug from Nana instead, so he said goodnight and went up his room and locked himself in.
Leonardo tossed on the bed throughout the night, grandpa and Nana would have him look for Alisha, and not leave her to feel alone, it is not as if she had a child she had to struggle to care for alone as his mother had to.
But the situation is different, his dad left, he didn't leave, it was Alisha that left, not him, so there was really no point going after her or looking for her.
Anyone could say whatever he or she wanted, he was not interested in looking for her, and he would not.
Deep within him, Leonardo knew he did not want to look for Alisha because he feared she was with another man and would reject him, or even if she was not with another man, she would tell him to his face to eat up his contract that she was done with him.
Leonardo focused on getting better for the next few days, when he returned to the office a week later, he did not like the new development, a minor competitor had risen to be an equal competitor.
How could that have happened if he was not busy worrying over Alisha and her disappearance.
Deciding to focus his attention on work, we was not going to let anyone fill his mind or talk him into looking for Alisha, they could do the searching if they really wanted to see her, from now henceforth, he was going to consume himself and time into work.
Leonardo worked late into the evening, and when he got to the packing lot to drive back home, a lady approached him.
"Remember me?" she said sitting by the bonnet of his car.
"I could bet I've never set my eyes on you before, and I don't know what gave you the guts to sit on my car, but I won't wait for you to get up before I drive off." he was going to be the rude, ruthless, I don't give a fuck CEO once again, he had gotten too weak, and soft and that was why Alisha had been able to penetrate through his heart and that was why he didn't see the new major competition coming.
"I knew you will forget, because you didn't even care about asking of my name that night, well I just came by to inform you that I am pregnant and it's for you."
"You must be sick or something, if I ever fucked you, I did that with a condom no doubt and if I noticed the condom was broken, I would have taken you to the hospital immediately. So you are speaky nonsense, get lost."
"I have all the proof and evidence needed to show that the baby I am carrying is yours, and I am going to fight for all the legal rights my baby and I deserves, good night and I'll be back." she said and walked away.
Leonardo gave a laugh knowiythis was a stunt or a stupid joke, there was no way he had gotten her pregnant, he was always extra careful.
The next morning he got a visit from a lawyer claiming that his client, one Monica was pregnant for him and pressing charges.
There was a pregnancy test result from a standard hospital, and a paternity test result along side. This was crazy.
He called his lawyer immediately, as well as his private investigator.
The lawyer confirmed that all evidence provided were legal. He assured him he was going to set an appointment so they could rerun the tests in any hospital Leonardo could trust to give an authentic result.
"It's all positive sir, here are the results" the doctor handed it over to Leonardo as he sat in the doctors office two days after the retest was done.
"How is that even possible, I am very certain that the condom never broke."
"All I can say sir is that she had access to your semen." Leonardo thought hard, this lady was three months pregnant, that's a month after Alisha had left, he remembered how he had picked the lady from the bar and they had gone to his apartment, he was not drunk, they had had two rounds of sex, and he must have disposed both condoms after the second round.
Leonardo was having constant migraine since the day Monica's lawyer had brought in the papers requesting him to fulfill his obligations towards her and the child.
He was not willing to pay her off until he found out how she actually got pregnant for him, Monica on the other hand didn't want him to pay her off, she wanted him to be involved in her life and that of the unborn baby.
Paying her off was not even an option for him, if he did send her off with his child, he would be no different from his father that left his mother with child, he would even be worst.
He looked at the result closely, pregnancy test... Positive, paternity ... Leonardo Legend.., he took his eyes off the paper, one more look at it and he could lose his mind, those words stood boldly towards him.
He waited for his private investigator to find out what he could about Monica.
"Thank you for the table decor" Monica said to Leonardo over the phone when he picked up her call.
"What decor?" Leonardo asked surprised
"The one you sent to me, it just got delivered, thank you." she said, before he could respond, there was a knock on his office door.
"Come in" he said and the investigator worked in.
"I have to go now, we'll talk about that later." he said over the phone and hung up
"Did you find anything yet?" he asked the investigator after making sure the call had already been disconnected.
"Not yet but soon, I overheard her on phone talking to a friend called Cecelia, this Cecelia I presume is her best friend and would probably share a secret with her, so I placed a recording device in the decor and said it was a gift from you, that way we could listen to her conversation."
"Inform me before you make any move, I almost denied sending her anything just now, how can we get across that friend of hers, we could pay our way into getting a hint to all this mystery."
"I'm working on getting her address, once I do I'll let you know Sir"
"Please do, and don't say a word to her, I will speak to the friend myself."
Leonardo had planned how he was going to get to Cecelia and make her say the truth, so he anxiously waited for the investigator to get her address.
Few days later, Leonardo was leaving the office when the investigator sent him Cecilia's address, "finally" he muttered and got into his car to drive there.
"What are you doing here, does Monica know that you are here?" Cecilia asked when she saw him by the door, he was not surprised that she knew who he was and that he was associated with Monica at the moment.
"May I come in? I have a proposal to make."
"Make it quick I don't want Monica to find out you are here" she opened the door for him to come in, she then looked outside to make sure no one saw him come in before she closed the door.
"What do you want?" she stood restlessly while Leonardo took a seat without been told.
"Tell me how Monica was able to manipulate this pregnancy and paternity stunt and I'll give you whatever you want." Leonardo shamelessly told her to her face that he was here to have her betray her friend.
"Nothing, she manipulated nothing.
"Covering for her won't get you any reward if she wins whatever she is trying to get."
"I don't want anything"
"How about a million dollars?"
"I can't betray my friend"
"Ten million dollars"
"Monica would kill me if she finds out I told on her" at this point Leonardo smiled, there was a secret and it would be out with a little more pushing.
"How about she doesn't find out you were involved, and I could give you enough money to start up a business and and life in any country of your choice."
"You wouldn't want to pay 50 million dollars just for a tiny secret would you?" she was pacing around now and chewing on one of her artificial nail.
"I"d give you a hundred million dollars right now" Leonardo said bringing out a cheque from his breast pocket.
Monica smiled and watched him sign a hundred million dollars to her name.
"Well, she stole one of the condom you had used and I don't really know how she did it but she used the semen to get herself pregnant, apparently she had planned this for lond and had been looking for a way to get your attention from the bar until you finally noticed."
"That's not possible, I disposed two used condoms that night, I remember clearly." Leonardo was confused already.
A knock on the door got he and Cecelia staring at the door simultaneously before Monica's voice came from outside.