Chapter 132: Chapter 132: Talking with Lucas

He had become utterly, shamefully distracted by Ethan Caldwell.

Since they had begun living together at the villa, his entire existence had been consumed by the man. Their lives had become a dizzying cycle of shared meals, shared beds, and an all-consuming physical intimacy. Ethan’s intoxicating blend of possessive care and overwhelming prowess in the bedroom had eroded Julian’s iron will. He had been transformed from an ambitious strategist into a pampered, lazy creature, content to let the world pass him by as long as he was in that man’s orbit.

The pursuit of pleasure is truly the ruin of a great man, Julian thought with a weary sigh, echoing a sentiment as old as time itself.

He rubbed his aching temples, trying to clear the fog from his brain before he was hit by a literal wall of sound from the other end of the line.

“Oh my god! My lord and savior! Are you even alive?” Lucas Hill’s voice boomed through the speaker, vibrating with a frantic energy that made Julian’s eardrums throb: “Have you fallen off the face of the earth? I’ve called you a dozen times! I’ve sent texts, I’ve sent emails, I’ve even considered calling the police! I thought Aaron Sterling had finally made you disappear, or maybe you were abducted by aliens!”

The sheer volume of Lucas’s outburst was like a physical blow. Julian winced, pulling the phone several inches away from his ear.

“I’m fine, Luke.” he managed to croak out, his voice sounding like it had been dragged over broken glass: “Stop screaming. You’re going to give me a migraine.”

As the words left his lips, Julian froze. His own voice was unrecognizable, it was a low, fractured rasp, thick with a lingering congestion that sounded both incredibly exhausted and suggestively deep.

He cursed Ethan again. During their “reconciliation,” the man had been obsessed with hearing him. He had pushed Julian to the absolute brink, ignoring his pleas for silence and driving him to cry out until his throat was raw and his voice failed him. And now, he had to try and conduct business sounding like this.

On the other end, Lucas went dead silent. The silence stretched out, becoming heavy with unspoken questions.

“Julian?” Lucas finally asked, his voice now hushed and concerned: “What the hell happened to your voice? Are you sick? Do you have the flu? Strep throat? You sound like you’ve been gargling gravel. Do I need to bring a doctor over there?”

“No, no doctor.” Julian stammered, his face flushing a deep crimson despite being alone in the dark: “It’s… it’s just a family matter. I’ve been… talking a lot. Shouting. You know how it is.”

Another long, agonizing silence followed. Lucas was many things, but he wasn’t an idiot. He was an adult living in Saint Lawrence City, and he knew exactly what “shouting” in a “family matter” meant when it resulted in a voice that sounded like that.

Lucas cleared his throat awkwardly. As a man who was perpetually single and whose romantic life was mostly limited to digital fantasies, the sheer implication of Julian’s “family business” was a bit overwhelming. He couldn’t even begin to fathom the level of intensity required to scream oneself hoarse. Was it a marriage or a battlefield?

“Right… family business.” Lucas repeated, his voice laced with a mixture of amusement and pity: “So, I take it your total disappearance over the last few days, the ignored messages, the forgotten meetings, the complete lack of interest in our future empire, was all due to being… preoccupied with your husband?”

Julian wanted the bed to swallow him whole. He pulled the duvet over his head, letting out a muffled groan: “I’m sorry, Luke. I truly am. I’ve been… compromised. It won’t happen again. I’m getting back on track.”

“I hope so.” Lucas said, his tone shifting to something more pensive. “Because honestly, Julian, you’ve been acting weird. Getting married has changed you in ways I didn’t expect.”

“What do you mean?” Julian asked, a prickle of defensiveness rising in his chest.

“I mean, look at the timeline.” Lucas explained, his voice gaining momentum: “When we first met, you were this quiet, shadow of a person, always looking like you were waiting for someone to hit you. Then, after the wedding, you suddenly turned into this… this mastermind. You were sharp, brilliant, and you had this gaze that could cut through steel. You sat me down and laid out plans for livestreaming, branding, and tech ventures that were lightyears ahead of anyone else. I was in awe of you.”

He paused, a sigh blowing through the receiver.

“I thought I was working with the next great tycoon. And then, out of nowhere, you vanish. You resurface days later sounding like you’ve been through a physical war, telling me you were too busy with ’family stuff’. I’m starting to worry you have a split personality, Julian. One minute you’re the CEO of the century, and the next you’re… well, whatever you are now.”

Julian listened to the critique with a bitter smile. He couldn’t tell Lucas the truth, that the “timid” person and the “mastermind” were literally different souls. He also couldn’t explain that his recent “disappearance” was simply the result of a very powerful man deciding he wasn’t allowed to leave the bedroom.

“Stop overthinking it.” Julian said, forcing a bit of authority back into his raspy tone: “I’m still the same person. I just had… a lapse in time management. A technical error, if you will. Now, let’s stop the psychoanalysis and get to work. You called for a reason. What’s the status of our project?”

Lucas let out a snort, though he seemed somewhat mollified by Julian’s return to business mode: “Fine, fine. I’ll spare you the lecture for now. But seriously, Jules, if you keep this up, I’m going to start charging a consulting fee for emotional labor. Regarding the Helios Technologies situation, things are moving, but they’re moving fast. After the mess with the land deal, the board is on edge. They’re looking for stability, but they’re also hungry for the kind of digital transformation you pitched. I’ve been laying the groundwork with some of the junior directors, but they need to see more than just a ghost in the machine. They need to see you.”

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