No More Mrs. Nice Wife (Eleanor) novel Chapter 216

Eleanor’s expression hardened. “I don’t have time.”

“I’ll, uh, use the restroom. You two go ahead and talk!” Byron, ever the tactful one, quickly excused himself and slipped away.

Ian frowned. “I heard Ellington, the former VP at Vaughn Group, is working under you now.”

Eleanor gave a noncommittal shrug. “So what if he is?”

“He’s talented. Someone you can trust,” Ian offered, weighing his words.

Eleanor’s brow furrowed. Was this really what he wanted to discuss?

“My mom and grandma want to see Evelyn this weekend. I’ll pick her up Friday afternoon,” Ian added.

Gina had mentioned on the phone last time that they wanted to have Evelyn over for the weekend, so Eleanor nodded. “That’s fine.”

Ian looked like he had more to say, but his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. “I have to go. We’ll talk later.”

Eleanor waited by Byron’s office door. It was ten minutes before he returned. Spotting her alone, he smiled. “Mr. Goodwin already left?”

“VP Chase, I think there’s an issue with one of the data sets from the last round of experiments. I wanted to double-check on your end.”

“Absolutely. Let’s go inside and take a look.” Byron immediately shifted into work mode.

He genuinely admired Eleanor’s relentless pursuit of excellence in research. Over the past few days, he’d interacted with Faye as well. She was talented, no doubt, but there was a clear gap between her and Eleanor—Faye lacked that deep-seated respect and curiosity for science that set Eleanor apart.

By four in the afternoon, Eleanor had reanalyzed the data and sent the corrected results to Simone. After reviewing them, Simone immediately called Faye in.

“Faye, research is about curiosity and discovery. How did you miss such a glaring discrepancy in the parameters?”

Faye twisted her hands behind her back, guilt flickering in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Professor. It was my mistake.”

“If Eleanor hadn’t caught it, we would have headed down the wrong path entirely. Do you understand how serious that is?”

Princess, their golden retriever, bounded over, tail wagging furiously, nuzzling affectionately against Ian’s leg.

Ian grinned and crouched down, ruffling Princess’s head. Eleanor watched, unable to hide her annoyance.

At last, Evelyn emerged with a toy dinosaur clutched in her arms. “Daddy, let’s go!”

Ian took her hand. “Say goodbye to Mommy.”

“Bye, Mommy!” Evelyn called out, waving.

Eleanor smiled and waved back. “I’ll be waiting for you to come home.”

Evelyn paused at the gate, her big eyes shining. “Mom, why don’t you come with me to Grandma’s? It’ll be fun!”

Eleanor blinked in surprise.