Yours, Until Needed
Chapter 138: Gathering

Chapter 138: Gathering

I was planning on taking a nap while waiting for Lucian to finish. Honestly, it was comfortable lying down on his lap and listening to people’s monotonous reports, which would surely drive anyone to sleep.

But then I heard it.

My ears couldn’t help but twitch at the current report being discussed. By now, they’ve already been at this for close to two hours. And then, suddenly, this substandard report was open for discussion.

In all fairness to my workaholic husband, he really took his time to listen to each report and gave feedback as needed. So, it came as no surprise to me when he started tensing up.

Even I kept flinching every time he read out the values on the slides. By then, I had to glance up at Lucian’s screen to see if this was some kind of prank.

Then I ended up meeting his gaze that screamed run for the hills. Lucian looked ready to jump inside the screen to teleport into the meeting room and strangle the guy.

The reason was that the report didn’t just have one or two errors. It was like a student decided to pull out some numbers from their ass and submit it with nice formatting. In reality, Lucian may also be upset because no one else has called him out for it. Either no one realized, or they didn’t care enough to point it out.

Lucian hates wasting his time, so a report this bad would surely drive him nuts. His chest was already rumbling, and his jaw kept clenching.

And honestly, the report was so distracting that I couldn’t sleep. It was impossible to listen to that any longer, and Lucian reacted similarly.

But if Lucian gets a hold of this guy, he will likely be fired, especially since he still hasn’t even realized what was so wrong about it.

So, I decided to do my good deed for the month and stopped my husband from reaping the guy’s soul.

I was wearing loungewear and was seriously underdressed for the occasion, but I wasn’t really looking forward to a battle royale in which Lucian would take on all of them because no one even dared comment on the obvious mistakes.

"You—!"

Lucian was finally about to speak when I scooted up from his lap, effectively entering the camera frame.

I rested my head against Lucian’s shoulder in a bid to placate him a bit before apologizing for the interruption.

The other executives were shocked at my sudden appearance, and rightfully so.

"Apologies for appearing so informally. But I figured I’d interject to save everyone’s precious time."

I waited for Grandpa’s approval before continuing to speak.

"Mr. Decker, though I appreciate you showing up for the meeting, I highly suggest thoroughly reviewing this report before it can be presented again. There are multiple calculation errors from as early as the sixth slide, which compounded the errors on the 8th, 9th, 13th, and 17th slides."

"Given that the whole report is founded on the values from those calculations, there is currently no point in continuing to discuss the rest."

I tried being as cordial as possible, gauging his expression to see whether this was intentional. But then I saw the guy blanching before our eyes and figured it was probably an honest mistake, though a very rookie one.

Mr. Decker hurriedly apologized by bowing his head, flustered at being called out like that, but it could’ve been worse.

There’s only so much that I could do to prevent the guy behind me from going off on him.

And we probably look very weird right now since my husband was in a proper suit while I was in loungewear, and my hand was cradling the side of his face as if to comfort his agitation.

"Thank you, Eliana. I’m sorry for disturbing your rest," Grandpa said as the disgruntled employee packed up to give way to the next reporter.

" It’s alright, Grandpa, I’m doing better now. Sorry for suddenly interrupting." I smiled and wanted to slink back down so things would go back to normal, but Lucian really wanted to get a word out.

Why was he suddenly so talkative?

"She was woken up by the report. She’s been resting properly, then was bothered by all the wrong calculations." Lucian’s voice wasn’t loud. In fact, it was measured, but it carried a sense of coldness that made the other executive sit up straight.

All I could do was let out an embarrassed chuckle. This was a formal meeting granted these were all employees of SCC, but seriously?

"Then I won’t trouble any of you any further. I’ll return to resting. I wish you a productive meeting!"

"Yes, you should definitely follow the doctor’s orders. I’ll just see you later."

"Thank you, Grandpa!" I smiled before slinking back down into Lucian’s lap.

Maybe I was rushing so much that I didn’t get to absorb Grandpa’s words that well.

Therefore, I was stunned to see an influx of people by our door a good while after Lucian’s meeting.

It was Lucian who opened the door, but I could see from his face that he’d rather close it again. But that didn’t work because Lily bolted through his leg before he could say anything.

"Big Sis! It’s me, Lily!" She scrambled towards the sofa, where I sat dumbfounded and was about to come in for a solid hug when she was lifted by Lucian off the ground.

"She’s sick right now, and it’s not good to hug," Lucian said as a matter of fact when we both knew that it was bull. Even Lily’s face showed skepticism at his brother’s over-the-top protectiveness.

"Are you feeling any better, my dear?" It was Aunt Serena who asked this time around.

"Yes, Mom, thank you. You guys didn’t need to come here. I’m really fine, I promise."

"Visiting you is a given. We’re family, and we’re worried, especially since it’s got Lucian this worried."

I chuckled, but I really wanted to exclaim that we should avoid using Lucian as a gauge because the guy was out of his mind right now.

"Big Brother, you said Big Sis is sick and wasn’t allowed to hug, then how come you’re allowed to do it?"

Once everyone was settled in, we shared a few snacks and refreshments before Lucian went to prepare for Dinner, and Lily didn’t miss the chance to judge the hypocrite when he sat me between his legs as usual.

"That’s because you’re young and may not control your strength well."

Yeah, sure, a 5-year-old could break me over a 24-year-old with a slew of black belts.

I guess only Aunt Serena would understand. All the rest were genetically coded to function similarly. "Hopefully, you’ll get used to it, sweetie. It’s a little odd at first, but can be kind of sweet sometimes."

"Will it not let up?"

"It’s close to three decades now, and it’s still like that." Aunt Serena looked over to Uncle Lyle, who was trying to aid Lucian in the kitchen.

"Sorry!" Grandpa suddenly apologized like a guilty child caught by their parents, earning him a laugh from the two of us. It’s genetic, alright.

Dinner was finally ready by the time we finished playing a few rounds of Uno.

The Sinclairs were still in awe at the fact that Lucian cooks nearly every day and that he’s really good at it, too. And thank the heavens for that because I really sucked.

But as we clambered off the sofa and into the dining room, I felt my stomach churn at an overpowering scent that just seemed repulsive.

What the?

It got me rushing towards the nearest powder room, followed by a frantic Lucian who saw how I held my mouth and stomach.

"Call an ambulance!" Lucian shouted from behind me.

Ah fuck.

Not an ambulance!