The Year She Stopped Being Crazy for Him novel Chapter 86

She proactively walked over and sat beside Augustus, lowering her voice. "Grandpa, thank you for stepping in. I'm sorry for the trouble."

Augustus rolled the wooden worry beads between his fingers and shook his head. "You are a member of the Carlson family. If someone bullies you, of course you strike back. Otherwise, people will think the Carlsons are easy targets."

Sitting to the side, Hassan said flatly, "Let's eat."

Augustus shot him a look. "Since when has your mind been so focused on food?"

After Augustus's remark, Hassan fell silent, shifting his gaze toward Natalie instead.

She kept her eyes cast downward, refusing to meet his gaze even once.

Augustus gave a rather lengthy lecture.

She absorbed about half of it.

The half she listened to was about being more careful when out in public.

The half she tuned out was about having children.

However, Augustus wasn't nearly as pushy as Cecily.

Having long stepped away from managing the family, he didn't care to micromanage his grandchildren's lives, nor was he the type to awkwardly pressure them into producing heirs.

He merely said, "The Carlson family doesn't have a rule about needing a massive brood. One child to inherit the legacy is enough."

Compared to other wealthy patriarchs—who expected their wives to bear three or four children while they fathered dozens more with mistresses outside—this was practically an anomaly.

Once the lecture concluded, they moved to the dining table.

Cecily and Faust were present, along with Hassan's uncle Cormac.

Cormac was a man with very little presence. So much so that even after marrying into the Carlson family, Natalie often found it hard to believe that he was the one who had sent assassins after Hassan back on that remote island.

Natalie had almost no memories of her time on that island. The only thing she remembered was taking a bullet, and eventually, the Carlson family rescue team finding them and bringing them home.

Counting the days, they had been stranded there for a year.

Yet she had zero recollection of that entire year.

Perhaps the trauma of being shot had been too great, causing her brain to subconsciously block out the memories.

Cormac had three children: a pair of twin boys, Caspian and Cyrus, who had just finished their degrees, and a younger daughter currently studying abroad.

The twins had both recently joined the corporate group as interns, though their performance paled in comparison to what Hassan had achieved at their age.

It was Hassan's.

The pop-up notifications on the screen were from Gardenia, showing thumbnails of several photos, though Natalie couldn't make out the details.

Without thinking, she pressed her thumb to the sensor.

A long time ago, she had playfully taken his phone and added her own fingerprint to it.

The screen unlocked, revealing the pictures.

The first few were of a child's homework.

The last few were selfies of Gardenia.

*—I'm thinking of wearing this to drop Adrian off at school tomorrow. He says it looks bad, but I don't believe him. Give me your opinion, Boss Carlson.*

Natalie's expression didn't change. She locked the screen and set the phone back down.

Hassan emerged from the bathroom with a towel slung low around his waist. He paused when he saw what she had just done.

Natalie offered zero explanation for snooping through his phone. She simply turned around and climbed into bed.