Loving Lucian ✅

Chapter Forty Six

Being gone for over a month without doing what I've basically been doing all my life really had an affect on me. I didn't feel happier, I felt a little more energized, but that's it. I think that being with Peyton, and having her work right in front of me everyday, the difference between having constantly to be at work all day, and not having to constantly be at work, isn't much of a difference at all for me. Peyton's made work much easier and better, it even allows me to spend more time with my wife.

I loved staying in the beach house with Peyton, it was a small house, we didn't want to stay in my larger one, and it was located a good gorgeous hike from Derrynane beach. We did bring the dog with us, Vito, and yes, he pooped on the floor of the plane instead of a 'potty mat', twice, but he loved the beach. I was so glad the ocean was calm most days. And that Vito could swim.

Getting back, Peyton had grown a good few inches. She was now naturally paler, and I could actually see blue veins through her skin, especially on her eyelids, chest, and her legs. And she called herself a 'bleached vampire' because she was literally white. She went back to working at Monte L, but from home. Because my surprise wasn't ready yet. She wasn't even aware that I had a surprise for her. She took one two-hour nap almost every day, sometimes if she missed it because of work she would almost fall asleep eating her dinner. One time she legitimately face planted in her plate of spaghetti. Which she was eating with a side of pickles because she could not stop eating pickles. And it was really strange. She was always eating pickles with everything.

A week passed by, and we were heading into February, Peyton's 17th week, a tiny bit over four months, I believe. My surprise was ready, I had hired a shitload of people qualified for Monte L's new category of business. The floor of my office and two floors below it now had a reason to be full and occupied. I was about to make my wife very, very happy.

It was also the day before we could or could not find out the gender of the baby. The doctor might not be able to actually see it yet, and even if she was going to be able to tell, she was only supposed to tell our parents so they could throw a party and come up with a cheesily creative way to surprise us with it. I just knew Peyton was using every bit of her soul hoping that the baby would be a girl. She wanted a girl so very badly.

I didn't mind having a son to carry on the tradition of the company with, though. But then again, a little Peyton would be the cutest thing.

"Lucian, I'm going to get nauseous, are we walking any farther?" My wife asked, holding my wrists as my hands covered her eyes. We had walked from my apartment to Monte L, and all we had to do was get to the other side of the street.

She then sighed. "You covered my eyes and risked my easy nausea just to bring me to Monte L?" She guessed unbelievably. "I've been walking to work for a long time, I know it takes exactly eight minutes and thirty-seven to forty seconds to get here."

"Well about two months ago you would've been right, but from here on out, you will be very very wrong. Because we're not at Monte L," I build up the anticipation and uncover her eyes. "We are currently standing in front of Monte James, architectural designing and fashion."

She looked back at me wide eyed and looked up at the building sign, which proved my words to be true. "Holy shit." The building had a line split diagonal across it and the top half had shiny, smooth, marble exterior walls while the bottom untouched half remained normal. She turned to me again and I waited for the smile that said 'I've just now processed what you've just said and what it means to me'. First, came the shock, now, was the disbelief and flash of doubt, "Lucian, are you fucking insane? That's decades of family history and you just—"