The Hidden Empress Stripping Her Secrets After Divorce novel Chapter 4

Three years had passed.

She had been waiting all this time, waiting for him to look back at her, waiting for him to realize she wasn't someone else's substitute—she was Evelyn Sullivan.-

Now, she finally understood.

Some people could never be waited for.

Her phone screen lit up again. This time, it was a text message.

It was from Madeline Thorne, her best friend from college and now the most formidable divorce attorney in the city.

"Eve, I saw the news. Are you... holding up okay?"

Evelyn stared at the message, letting a long silence stretch before she typed back, "I'm fine."

The reply came instantly. "Fine, my ass! Christian is crossing the line! Picking her up at the airport is one thing, but saying that to the media? What does he take you for?"

Madeline's fury radiated through the screen.

Evelyn gripped her phone, her thumb hovering over the keyboard for a long time before she slowly typed, "Maddy, do me a favor."

"Name it!"

"Draft a divorce agreement for me."

After she sent that text, the chat went completely silent.

A full five minutes later, Madeline bypassed texting and called her directly.

"Eve, are you serious?" Madeline's voice was uncharacteristically solemn.

"Yeah." Evelyn walked to the window, gazing out at the shadowy rose garden in the night. "It's been three years. It's time to end it."

"But... are you willing to just let it go?" Madeline's voice ached with sympathy. "Do you know how much you've done for him? He has a bad stomach, so you woke up early every day to make him oatmeal. He's stressed, so you learned massage therapy to help him relax. You—"

"Maddy." Evelyn cut her off gently. "He never knew any of that."

Silence fell over the line.

"He never once really looked at me," Evelyn continued, her tone as detached as if she were recounting someone else's life. "I used to think that as long as I tried hard enough, one day he would see me. Now I know that some people aren't blind; they just refuse to look."

Madeline took a deep breath. "Alright, I'll draft it. But Eve, you need to think this through. Once you sign those papers, there's no turning back."

Her assistant sent a message: "Dr. S, the NIH sent another invitation. They are requesting you to present a keynote in the States."

Evelyn typed back, "Decline it."

"But Doctor, this is their third invitation..."

"I said, decline it."

She closed the chat window and pulled up another encrypted folder. It contained all the research papers she had published in international medical journals, all credited to "Evelyn S.", completely devoid of photos or personal information.

For years, she had been conducting this research from the underground lab at The Lancaster Estate. Christian had no idea that the "arranged corporate wife" who only knew how to garden and cook was actually the Director of Project Serenity, a national priority initiative.

Her phone buzzed again, this time through the laboratory's emergency channel.

"Doctor, we have a severe adverse reaction in the phase three trial! The patient is experiencing acute liver failure and requires an immediate remote consultation."

Evelyn checked the time. It was one in the morning.

She replied, "Logging in in ten minutes."

She stood up, changed her clothes, and quietly headed downstairs.