No More Mrs. Nice Wife (Eleanor) novel Chapter 1377

Ian nodded, not denying it.

Eleanor closed her eyes, her face pale and drained of color as a whirlwind of thoughts confused her.

Finally, she opened her eyes, stared into the man's deep gaze, and asked again, "The lab at Drexford—who did you really build it for? Your mother's condition, or... my father's research?"

A complex emotion flickered in Ian's eyes, as if he had anticipated this question.

He knelt down, positioning himself so he was looking up at her.

Eleanor, sitting in the chair, watched him intently, waiting for the absolute truth.

"Initially, I just had the idea of building a lab," Ian said in a low voice. "I mentioned it to your father and asked for his opinion. My own father had just passed away. Three days after I asked him that question, I was in a car accident and fell into a coma."

Eleanor knew all too well what happened after his coma. When her father told her about it, her mind went blank, completely shattered. In the end, she took a leave of absence from school to care for him at the hospital. Her father had disagreed at first, but for some reason, he eventually relented.

Now, Eleanor understood. Her father had seen Ian's financial resources and knew about his ambition to build a lab. That's why he, too, had hoped for Ian to wake up.

Ian finally did wake up. Eleanor confessed her feelings. Ian didn't respond at first, until her father showed him the nursing log she had kept.

So, Eleanor had always believed Ian married her out of gratitude. In reality, her father had his eye on the lab. He wanted her to marry him because he knew that the vast resources of the Goodwin empire were her only real hope for a cure.

"Eleanor, do you want to hear the truth about what happened back then?" Ian's gaze remained fixed on her, seeing her lost in memories, struggling. It was clear she was still troubled by many things and desperate for answers.

Eleanor's breath caught in her throat, the words pulling her back to that secret summer.

They would be in the hospital's library corner. They barely spoke, at most nodding in greeting. That silent attention he paid her was the most private secret of her teenage years.

A secret she thought only she knew.

Ian's gaze grew distant, as if he, too, had returned to that humid yet bright summer. "I noticed you the first time I bumped into you. It was only later that I found out you were Mr. Sutton's daughter. You probably don't know this, but I had a crush on you that entire summer."

Eleanor opened her mouth, but she didn't know what to say.