Chapter 66 "Nathan, For the Rest Of My Life, I Want You To Be Happy."
The next morning, when Chloe finally emerged from Nathan's master bedroom, completely wrapped in one of his oversized university hoodies to have breakfast, Mason was already sitting at the kitchen island.
The teenager took one look at her glowing face and his father's rumpled hair, snorted violently, completely rolled his eyes, and aggressively turned his head away, utterly pretending he hadn't seen a thing.
From that victorious day onward, Chloe officially moved her things into Nathan's bedroom. She spent her days aggressively dominating her marketing job, coming home to her boys, and completely, fundamentally absorbing herself in Nathan. For the first time in twenty-three years, life unfolded with a calm, blinding happiness.
George's catastrophic legal situation was successfully, swiftly resolved.
According to Michael, the expensive corporate defense lawyer had aggressively subpoenaed a nearby ATM security camera, which had captured the entire alleyway incident. More importantly, the high school girl George had saved had seen the local news reports and bravely come forward to completely testify on his behalf in court.
George was not only immediately released with all charges dropped, but he was also formally honored by the city for his act of bravery.
Months passed in this tranquil, perfect routine, until the sudden, explosive arrival of a new life violently disrupted their peace once again.
During the grueling months of Chloe's pregnancy, Nathan completely lost his mind. He practically treated her like a fragile, priceless glass artifact, utterly terrified she might trip or catch a mild draft. He personally, aggressively inspected every single macro-nutrient she ate and desperately pleaded with her to temporarily resign from her demanding job.
However, Chloe felt perfectly healthy and saw absolutely no need for such suffocating caution. She spent her days aggressively outwitting Nathan's surveillance, secretly hoarding and snacking on the highly processed junk food he had explicitly banned from the house, which left him utterly exasperated and constantly lecturing her about blood sugar levels.
One afternoon, Chloe, annoyed by his constant hovering, carelessly teased him. "Hey, Professor, stop frowning so aggressively. If you keep stressing out and getting wrinkles, when the baby finally comes, people on the street are going to think you're a grandfather taking his tiny granddaughter out for a walk!"
Nathan completely froze.
He found the joke absolutely anything but funny. He shot her a dark, deeply wounded look, turned on his heel, and retreated into his study. He barely spoke a single word to her for three solid days afterward.
Chloe felt violently guilty. She knew she'd completely crossed a line. She knew he was deeply, fundamentally insecure about the twenty-three-year physical age gap between them, and her careless words had actually hurt him.
After much agonizing thought, Chloe aggressively marched into a high-end salon and demanded a complete transformation. She bleached her vibrant golden-brown locks completely bone-white, dying them a striking, icy silver shade.
She marched back into the mansion and aggressively confronted Nathan in his study. "See?! I am actively apologizing! Now I literally have way more gray hair than you do!"
Nathan dropped his pen, staring at her completely ruined hair in absolute horror. "You! How could you aggressively bleach your hair with toxic chemicals while pregnant?! Those fumes are completely harmful to fetal development!" He was nearly driven mad by her absolute recklessness.
"Oh, so you only care about the baby's health now, not mine?! Are you explicitly telling me that I'm not the absolute most important person in your life anymore?!" Chloe demanded, puffing out her cheeks in dramatic, hormonal anger.
"I am completely not saying that! Do not falsely accuse me!" Nathan immediately panicked, raising his hands in defense.
"You are!" Chloe countered violently. "So tell me right now, on the record—who is fundamentally more important: me or the baby?"
"You are both equally important."
"Oh, really?! You explicitly swore in college that I was your absolute priority! Nathan Archer, you have completely changed!"
"I have not! You are deliberately weaponizing your hormones to falsely accuse me again!"
The two of them were violently bickering at the top of their lungs in the study. Mason walked past the open door holding a plate of pizza rolls, completely refusing to get involved in the absolute circus.
Ever since Nathan and Chloe had officially gotten back together, Mason strongly felt that his terrifying, genius father had completely regressed into a childish, pathetic state, as if his IQ had violently dropped fifty points.
For example, just the other day when his dad had slightly burned his finger on a hot skillet while cooking, Nathan had actually run directly over to Chloe on the sofa, holding his hand out and genuinely, pathetically whining to her about the pain just to get her to kiss it. Mason had been utterly stunned.
In Mason's mind, Professor Archer used to be an untouchable, stoic badass like John Wayne! How could the man completely transform into such a needy mess?
Furthermore, Nathan had suddenly become aggressively obsessed with grooming. The man now spent hours every single morning primping in the mirror and violently hitting his home gym. He aggressively insisted to his son that he was going to rebuild his college six-pack abs!
Nathan had always looked incredibly handsome for his age, but now, fueled by pure vanity, he seemed even more vibrant—the exact kind of wealthy, established silver fox with a lethal physique and undeniable charm. He actually kept smugly telling Chloe how highly popular the 'mature academic' look was on social media, deliberately trying to make her jealous.
And only Chloe actually took his arrogant bait, violently guarding him like a fiercely territorial dragon protecting a hoard of gold.
They were an absolutely exhausting, completely perfect match.
Mason grabbed a bottle of iced tea from the fridge and took a sip as he walked back out toward the living room.
The violent argument had completely ended. The two of them had already aggressively made up and were currently tangled together on the plush couch.
Nathan had one heavy arm securely wrapped around Chloe's shoulders, his other large hand gently, protectively resting flat against the small curve of her belly. He leaned his cheek tenderly against her silver hair.
Chloe was completely, peacefully snuggled into his broad chest, entirely exhausted by her own tantrum. They just sat there in the quiet room, occasionally exchanging deep, incredibly sweet, silent glances.
Mason took another sip of his tea, a fond, reluctant smile touching his lips. He thought to himself, \This genuinely isn't so bad.
As long as Nathan was this completely, blindingly happy, the teenager was too.
And as for the little screaming thing currently on the way—a sister—he could eventually learn to accept that, too. Maybe she would actually be an adorable little thing he could teach how to ride a bike.
"How do you absolutely know it's a girl? It could definitely be a brother," Chloe had asked him earlier that week.
"It absolutely has to be a sister. I strongly do not want another boy in this house," Mason had replied flatly.
"Why are you so against a little brother?"
"Because teenage boys are aggressively noisy and violently annoying. Little girls are quiet and adorable," Mason had stated with absolute, hypocritical teenage authority.
"Alright, boss, I'll try my absolute best," Chloe had laughed.
When Nathan had gotten home from the lab that night, she had immediately cornered him by the door. "Professor, would you honestly rather have a boy or a girl?"
Without a single second of hesitation, Nathan had replied, "I completely love both."
"You literally cannot pick both. You have to aggressively choose one hypothetical," Chloe declared, blocking his path.
Nathan paused, his dark eyes softening profoundly. "Then... a little girl, I guess."
"Why?"
"Because I already have Mason," Nathan said with a completely genuine, absolute smile. "If we have a girl, then our family will be perfectly balanced. We'll have a son and a daughter."
Hearing that single, casual sentence, Chloe realized with absolute, blinding clarity that Nathan truly, fundamentally cherished Mason exactly as his own biological child. Overwhelmed with profound gratitude and joy, she had violently thrown her arms around his neck, burying her face in his suit jacket. "Okay! I will do my absolute best to give you a girl!"
Nathan had caught her easily, laughing against her hair. "Chloe, this isn't a final exam you can study for—it's entirely dictated by basic chromosomal luck!"
"Then I'll just aggressively pray every single day, explicitly demanding that God bless us with a healthy, devastatingly beautiful little girl." Chloe pressed her palms together, closed her eyes tightly, and stated with absolute, terrifying earnestness.
"Baby, it is completely, fundamentally wonderful even if it's not a girl," Nathan murmured, gently tapping two fingers against her forehead to break her intense prayer. "Besides, I already have a gorgeous, demanding Chloe who desperately needs me to take care of her."
Chloe beamed, a blindingly sweet smile lighting up her face. "You're absolutely right! But I'm not your baby—I am your wife!"
"Yes, Mrs. Archer. Whatever you say," Nathan chuckled, pulling her entirely into his chest and kissing the top of her head. "What would Her Highness like for dinner tonight?"
"How about deep-fried, incredibly spicy buffalo chicken wings?"
"Absolutely not. Way too much heavy grease for fetal development."
"Then how about a massive bowl of macaroni and cheese?"
"Too much processed dairy. It will spike your cholesterol and cause indigestion."
"See?! There you go again!" Chloe aggressively pushed away from his chest, puffing out her cheeks in fierce indignation and glaring at the dictatorial health fanatic.
"Fine. We will completely tone down the spice level, bake the chicken, and use a low-fat, organic cheese substitute. How's that compromise?" Nathan quickly conceded, desperate to keep her happy.
"That is slightly more acceptable!" Chloe reluctantly agreed, crossing her arms.
Now, she sat comfortably on the living room sofa, a soft smile on her lips as she listened to the man aggressively bustling about in the kitchen, chopping vegetables specifically for her. Her chest completely brimmed with a heavy, agonizing sweetness.
She could clearly, fundamentally sense that Nathan had become a completely different man these past few months. The suffocating, icy grief had evaporated. He loved constantly, aggressively hugging her from behind while she cooked, and fiercely holding her hand everywhere they walked. He absolutely loved taking her to every single boring faculty dinner just to explicitly show her off to his colleagues.
He had even aggressively started working out and paying terrifying attention to his cellular health.
He constantly told her, his voice deadly serious, that he absolutely needed to live longer so he could physically be there to protect her and their child, and so she would never, ever have to endure the agonizing, suffocating pain of losing a loved one too soon.
Because Nathan knew exactly how that absolute destruction felt. It was fundamentally unbearable.
He desperately hoped to live to be at least a hundred years old so that, when Chloe was finally in her eighties and her memory began to completely fade, he would still be standing right there to take care of her.
Sitting on the couch, Chloe let out a soft, echoing chuckle. "Who the hell is going to love your grumpy ass when you're eighty years old? I might be far too busy aggressively playing with Mason's future grandchildren by then—I won't have a single second of time for you!"
Nathan paused in the kitchen doorway, holding a wooden spoon. He gazed across the room at her, his dark eyes filled with the exact same, absolute, infinite adoration he had given her in that cramped college dorm room twenty-three years ago.
"That's completely fine too," he murmured softly, a profound, breathtaking smile touching his lips. "As long as you are always happy, my Chloe."
Chloe stood up, waddling across the room to completely wrap her arms around his waist, burying her face directly over his steady, beating heart.
"Nathan," she whispered fiercely against his chest. "For the absolute rest of my life... I only ever want you to be happy."