Chapter 1668: Chapter 1668

Chapter 1668:

“Mr. Green, I’ll get the car ready.”

His offer earned him sharp glares from the others, including Aldrich, who was dreading another round of Alina’s cooking.

Robbie looked on with regret. He wished he’d been the one to volunteer at that crucial moment.

Aldrich’s desperate idea was to have Serena drug Alina so they could pretend to have finished their meals while she was unconscious. But would such a scheme provoke Harlee’s ire?

Even the usually composed Cillian was looking for the nearest exit. Faced with such a daunting meal, it was a challenge for anyone to remain calm.

Harlee gave the group a playful smile.

“It’s rare for us all to be together. Patrick, join them for the meal.”

With that, she ushered Elva out, leaving Patrick and the others to stare despondently at the uninviting spread before them.

While Harlee found amusement in their predicament, their stomachs were in for a rough night.

“Is it really that awful?” Alina furrowed her brow as she lifted a fork from the table, bringing a piece of sparerib close to her nose to sniff it.

A foul odor assaulted her senses. She mustered all her strength to suppress the urge to vomit. Yet, she couldn’t let it show. She absolutely couldn’t let anyone see how repulsed she was by her own cooking. Still, the taste was simply inhumane.

Alina had initially thought Aldrich’s stomach upset was just from adjusting to a new place, but now she realized with remorse that it was her cooking that was to blame. She cast an apologetic look his way.

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Aldrich, unsettled by her stare, managed a strained smile, recoiled slightly, and silently prayed for divine intervention to save him.

Alina fought back the nausea, tears welling up in her eyes from the effort, and forced a cheerful demeanor.

“If any of you need to get going, please don’t hesitate. We can always dine together another time.”

Alina had wanted to share her happiness with everyone. She hadn’t intended to serve a table full of culinary disasters that would embarrass her guests. However, Alina was too timid to outright say, “The food is awful. Don’t eat it.”

Instead, she subtly offered everyone an escape route.

Serena suddenly slapped her hand to her forehead.

“Ah! I just remembered there’s some data I haven’t logged yet. I’ll skip the meal and head back to the lab. Enjoy your dinner, and don’t wait up for me. I might end up working late.”

As she spoke, Serena put on a sad face, pretending to be reluctant to leave. But the moment she finished speaking, Serena dashed off like a shot, vanishing in an instant.

Alina was left to swallow the words she had been about to say. Once safe in her car, Serena patted her chest and exhaled a long sigh of relief. She had narrowly avoided a culinary catastrophe. She had never run for her life as quickly as she had just then. She had to do so because she had given Aldrich several highly concentrated pills. Normally, half a pill would suffice to alleviate symptoms, but Aldrich had taken two and still made frequent trips to the restroom—an unfortunate testament to the unstable nature of Alina’s cooking.

Cillian, caught off guard by Serena’s speedy exit, was mildly taken aback. Alina turned to Patrick, Cillian, Robbie, and Aldrich with a gentle expression.

“If you’re free, maybe you could stay with me…”

Before she could finish, Cillian interjected with a firm tone.

“That might be difficult. There’s some uncertainty with the Happer family situation. Stefan and I need to exchange some information tonight.”

“That’s right!” Robbie exclaimed as he suddenly stood up.

“Cillian, I almost forgot. We need to get going now. Stefan is already on edge, so we should hurry and sort out the information we have.”

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