No More Mrs. Nice Wife (Eleanor) novel Chapter 1172

"Dr. Sutton, good morning," a female assistant greeted her.

Eleanor snapped back to reality and offered a polite smile. She walked slowly toward the laboratory building, pushing aside the fragmented memories she had deliberately buried, and shifted into work mode.

That morning, Eleanor had a meeting with Ryan to discuss preparations for the new round of experiments. To speed things up, their research had taken a much bolder step forward.

In the cafeteria at noon, just as Eleanor and Ryan sat down, Joel approached with his tray. "Dr. Lyman, could I have a word with Dr. Sutton alone?"

Ryan graciously stood up and moved his tray to another table. Eleanor looked at Joel in surprise. "Joel, is something important?"

After sitting down, Joel looked at her with a profound gaze. "Ellie, I've suddenly realized I did something wrong, and I feel quite guilty about it."

Eleanor was slightly taken aback. "Joel, what are you talking about?"

Joel sighed. "Do you remember how we got in touch? I was the one who reached out to you. That period when we first started talking, I felt so happy and gratified."

Eleanor blinked, recalling the night she had connected with Joel. He had sent an email first, and since she happened to be online, she replied immediately. After that, they had their first phone call.

Seeing Joel's guilty expression, Eleanor comforted him, "Joel, you're overthinking it. The root of the problems between us wasn't that."

But the guilt in Joel's eyes was real. "If I hadn't contacted you so frequently during your marriage—"

If he hadn't affectionately called her Ellie, if he hadn't expressed admiration and care that went beyond friendship while she was still married, perhaps—

Eleanor looked at Joel with clear eyes. "Even without you, something or someone else would have become the trigger. He chose to hide his family's genetic condition, and I chose to hide my ambitions and dreams. He chose not to ask about my personal life, and I tolerated his ambiguous relationship with Vanessa without question. We both gave up on communicating with each other. Ultimately, it wasn't a healthy marriage. It was doomed to fail."