Chapter 1169
Eleanor stepped outside, where Joslyn brought her a bowl of sweet soup. “Ma’am, I made you some sweet fruit soup. It’s good for you p>
Eleanor looked at her gratefully. “Thank you p>
Joslyn was still feeling incredibly guilty about the Princess incident. Her momentary lapse had caused them to waste so much precious time.
Eleanor sat down to eat her soup, pulling out her iPad to continue analyzing data.
At eight-thirty, lan came out with their daughter for a drink of water. Evelyn’s face lit up. “Mommy, you’re back! Daddy and I were practicing how to introduce myself in French p>
“I heard, sweetie. Evelyn is making great progress,” Eleanor praised her daughter. lan’s gaze fell on her face, and Eleanor looked up at him, saying softly, “Thank you.” lan’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. “You don’t need to be so formal with me.” But Eleanor felt it was necessary. They were two separate individuals now, no longer husband and wife. She couldn’t just take it for granted that he would look after their child.
“Next week, I have to go abroad for a three-day, closed-door conference. I won’t be able to contact the outside world during that time. I’ll let Serena know to pick up Evelyn for a few days,” lan said in a low voice, watching Eleanor’s reaction.
Eleanor nodded as she sipped her soup. “I understand p>
lan’s Adam’s apple bobbed silently. Looking at the woman at the dining table, he wanted to tell her that those twelve missed calls from four years ago weren’t because he was deliberately ignoring her. It was because he was in an isolated conference room, fighting for the very survival of Goodwin & Co.
However, the thought came and went, and he suppressed it.
He looked at Eleanor’s calm profile as she focused on the data analysis report on her iPad. He realized that his explanation would mean nothing to her now; it would just be an unnecessary disturbance.
And Eleanor, of course, would no longer connect the incident of not being able to reach him back then with the conference he had just mentioned.
In the end, lan said nothing more. He glanced at his watch and told his daughter, “Evelyn, Daddy is going to go downstairs to work for a bit. I’ll take you to school tomorrow p>
“Okay, Daddy,” Evelyn said. After her studies, she was ready to play for a while.
As he reached the door, lan seemed to remember something and looked back at Eleanor. “Eleanor, tomorrow p>
Eleanor looked up at him. “What about tomorrow p>
lan shook his head. “Nothing p>
The sound of the door closing made Eleanor look up, realizing he had left. She finished her soup and went up to the second-floor study.
As she sat down, her gaze fell on the calendar on her desk, and she paused. Tomorrow was the anniversary of her father’s death. Every year on this day, Eleanor would visit his grave.
Eleanor sent a text to Ryan, telling him she had personal matters to attend to in the morning and would be at the lab by noon.
Although for Eleanor, her work had long since transcended fixed hours and
locations. Even when she was home, she rarely had time that was truly her own.
The next morning, lan arrived on time to pick up Evelyn, who skipped happily to school holding his hand.
Eleanor left shortly after. She
stopped at a nearby flower shop and had the florist wrap a bouquet of white chrysanthemums. Cradling the flowers, she drove toward her father’s cemetery.
The security detail followed her responsibly. At nine-thirty, she arrived at a cemetery on the ata.
outskirts of the city. As she parked her can by the roadside, she was startled to see a black Maybach parked ahead.
It was lan’s car.
Eleanor got out with the white chrysanthemums and walked halfway up the slope. There, in front of her father’s gravestone, she saw lan crouching down, pulling weeds.