Madly Yours (Nora Reed) novel Chapter 672

Meanwhile, at the Lancaster Group Research Institute.

Learning that Hudson was stuck working through lunch, Nora volunteered to drop off some food for him.

The cafeteria at the institute operated on an extravagant daily budget of a thousand dollars per person, offering meals that rivaled the private chefs at Cloudwater Estate. Yet, Hudson immediately agreed to let Nora bring him lunch.

Any excuse to spend his lunch break alone with his wife was one he would gladly take.

The Lancaster Group Research Institute was hidden away in an unassuming technology park nestled against the mountains of Azure Bay.

From the outside, the pale gray walls looked incredibly low-profile—hardly the sort of place that housed San Francisco's most elite scientific minds.

When their car approached the final security checkpoint, the heavily armed guards scanned their IDs three times and ran a retinal scan before finally raising the gate.

Nora had always assumed all of Hudson's properties were this intensely guarded, but as the car pulled into the underground parking garage and she saw the sprawling complex of sleek gray buildings, she realized this facility was vastly larger and more secure than she had imagined.

"Mrs. Lancaster, look over there."

Olive killed the engine and pointed through the windshield toward a heavily fortified building on the right, keeping her voice low. "That's where they develop the military-grade chips. The Boss brought me here once. The guards at those doors aren't carrying props. Those rifles are loaded with live rounds."

Nora followed her gaze. The building looked identical to the others, lacking any distinct signage, but the guards stood with terrifying military precision, their tactical vests visibly heavy with ammunition. The atmosphere around that building was undeniably lethal.

She pulled her gaze away, opened the door, and stepped out with the insulated lunch bag in hand.

They passed through a set of reinforced glass doors and walked down a corridor lined with dark gray carpeting. Through the glass walls on either side, Nora could see dozens of researchers rushing between workstations.

At the very end of the hallway, Arthur was already waiting by a heavy oak door. He knocked twice before pushing it open for her.

"Mrs. Lancaster, Mr. Lancaster is waiting for you."

Nora walked in.

The office was massive. An entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows framed the lush, forested mountains behind the estate, turning the vibrant greenery into a living mural.

Hudson sat behind an expansive executive desk, flanked by towering stacks of technical documents. He was wearing a pair of Gold-Rimmed Glasses, looking dangerously elegant as he focused intently on a file.

Hearing her footsteps, he looked up. Across the vast distance of the room, a warm, indulgent smile broke across his face.

The gold-rimmed glasses highlighted his sharp, aristocratic features, balancing his usual predatory aura with a refined, scholarly elegance. It was a completely intoxicating contradiction.

Nora felt her ears grow hot under his intense gaze. She walked over to the leather sofa, placed the insulated bag on the coffee table, and said, "Stop looking at me and eat."

Hudson pulled off his glasses, tossing them casually onto a stack of classified files. He walked over, sitting naturally close beside her, and reached for the zipper on the bag. "What did you bring?"

"BBQ ribs, roasted asparagus, and tomato basil soup..."

He didn't take her to the ultra-classified military buildings, opting instead to walk her through the main exhibition halls. But even the public areas were enough to leave Nora absolutely speechless.

Massive digital walls streamed endless lines of real-time encrypted data. Glass display cases lined the corridors, showcasing the evolution of their microchips. Every generation was exponentially smaller, yet vastly more powerful than the last.

Along the walls hung massive black-and-white photographs of legendary scientific teams, each etched with project dates that shaped modern technology.

"This was the very first generation of Vanguard Microchips developed entirely in-house." Hudson stopped in front of a heavily armored display case, lifting his chin toward a chip the size of a fingernail.

Nora leaned in close. The chip was suspended in a block of transparent resin, its metallic connectors as thin as human hair.

Hudson's voice was calm and steady. "It was incredibly bulky compared to what's on the market today, and its power consumption was massive. But it was the Lancaster Group's very first step into changing the world."

Nora straightened up, her eyes drawn entirely to the side of his face.

He was wearing a dark gray dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing the strong, clean lines of his wrists. The midday sun slanted through the skylights, washing half of his face in a brilliant, golden glow and highlighting his sharp jawline.

Her heart hammered wildly against her ribs.

She realized...

She could fall in love with him all over again, in a thousand different ways, in a thousand different moments.