Eleven Years All to the Wrong Man novel Chapter 25

Despite the storm of emotions inside her, Emma showed none of it on her face.

She held her spoon and took a few more bites of porridge, but she really didn't have an appetite. “I’m full,” she finally said. “I can’t eat anymore.”

Evan frowned, looking at her barely touched bowl. “You haven’t eaten all day. How can you be full after just a few bites? Have some more.”

Emma knew he had gone to a lot of trouble to make the soup and porridge, but she truly couldn't eat another bite. She sighed, staring at her bowl, hesitating.

Suddenly, Evan’s phone rang.

He picked it up, glanced at the screen, and immediately rejected the call.

Meeting Emma's curious gaze, he explained coolly, “It’s Jason. Probably something about work.”

“Shouldn’t you take it? Will it cause any problems?”

Emma wasn't genuinely concerned. She just felt that since he had offered an explanation, a simple “oh” would have seemed unnatural, so she asked the follow-up question out of politeness.

But to Evan’s ears, her question sounded like she was concerned about his job and worried it might be affected.

At this thought, his mood lifted again. He ladled a bowl of soup and placed it in front of her, saying softly, “It’s fine. It’s late, it can’t be anything urgent. Since you can’t finish the porridge, at least have some soup, okay?”

She was at a loss for words.

Unable to refuse Evan's persistence, Emma reluctantly picked up the soup bowl and took a small sip.

Emma stood ramrod straight in front of the stove, her back to the room. She wasn’t doing anything, wasn’t crying. Her mind was a complete blank. She didn’t even know what she was doing.

In the past, if a woman had dared to call Evan this late and in her presence, she would have lost her temper. She would have snatched the phone, answered it, and unleashed a tirade on whatever mistress was on the other end before hanging up and throwing the phone in the toilet.

And then, any trace of guilt or shame on Evan’s face would have vanished, replaced by a matching fury as he launched into a screaming match with her.

The two of them would turn into a pair of angry roosters, endlessly pecking at each other's flaws and lamenting their own hardships over the years. They would both say a lot, but in the end, nothing would ever be resolved.

And then, in a show of apparent victory, Emma would drive Evan away, making him not want to stay in the house for a second longer.

Over the past year, it had been the same cycle, repeating over and over again.