Eleanor had nothing to say to that this was exactly why she could never bring herself to sever her daughter''s ties withn.
"Hey! It''s been almost five months since Vanessast visited, hasn''t it?" Joy remarked.
Eleanor did a quick mental calction-Joy was right. Vanessa hadn''t been aroundtely, so it was impossible to tell if she was showing yet.
Watching her daughter, Eleanor felt a sharp sting in her chest. If Vanessa really was having a baby, wouldn still manage to be the father he''d always been?
After the pic, Evelyn insisted on riding back withn and kept chattering about having dinner at Goodwin Manor that evening. Clearly, Gina had toldn to bring his daughter home for the night.
It had already been three weekends since Evelynst visited there, so Eleanor agreed.
All four of them drove back into town separately, while Eleanor headed for theb. With her daughter away, it was the perfect chance to catch up on some work.
By the time Eleanor returned to theb, night had already fallen.
On weekends, theb was eerily quiet, the only sound the low hum of machines. She powered up herputer, plugged in the USB driven had given her, and began poring over thetest research from Dr. Smith''sb.
Suddenly, a set of anomalous data caught her eye. It was closely rted to the bottleneck she''d been facing in her own experiments, but the results showed something entirely different.
She immediately pulled up her own data, her fingers flying over the keyboard. The two sets of results appeared side by side on the screen, and she squinted,paring them carefully.
A bold idea suddenly shed through her mind. She leapt up, strode to theb bench, and began mixing new reagents.
She muttered to herself, deeply focused.
Then, atst, the reaction she''d been waiting for appeared in the test tube.
Her heart racing, Eleanor rushed back to theputer to record her findings.
On the screen, the data curve showed a wless upward trend. Her theory was finally validated.
Every nerve in her brain buzzed with excitement. This discovery wouldn''t just solve her current problem-it might mean a breakthrough for the entire field of cell sequencing.
She stayed in theb all night, and by the time she finished documenting her results, dawn was already breaking outside.
As she stood up, a wave of dizziness hit her—her head felt heavy, her legs light, and she nearly fainted.
She copsed onto a nearby chair to rest, but before she knew it, she''d fallen fast asleep.
Simone, who liked toe in early on weekends, noticed theb lights were still on when she arrived. Curious, she walked over-and was stunned to find Eleanor asleep at her workbench. Had she been working through the entire night?
Simone sighed. Eleanor''s dedication was admirable, but this was going too far. After all, her life mattered too.
When Eleanor finally woke up, it was already half past eight. On her way to her office she saw Simone, who was also working overtime. She knocked and poked her head in.
"Professor Langley, you''re here early too."
"Eleanor, did you pull an all-nighter?" Simone asked.
Eleanor gave a tired smile. "Yeah. I get my best ideas at night."
"You! No more all-nighters, you hear me?" Simone scolded gently. "Go home and get some rest!"
Eleanor grinned. "Actually, Professor Langley, I have good news about my experiment."
Excited, she pulled up her results from the night before. Simone adjusted her sses, pored over the data, and then beamed. "Eleanor, this is incredible!" Eleanor was thrilled-but what she needed most at that moment was sleep. Around nine, Simone took the initiative to calln.
"Hello, Professor Langley," camen''s usual calm voice.
n, great news-Eleanor worked through the night and finally had a breakthrough. She''s cracked the code for the thirteenth gene sequence."
"Really?"n sounded genuinely excited. "Are you sure?"
"I''ve reviewed her data myself—it''s real. This means our early leukemia diagnosis
will be more urate, and we may finally have the key to a cure."
"Dr. Langley, did you say she stayed up all night?"n seemed to only now realize.
"Yes, she''s been pushing herself too hard. When I got in this morning, she was still asleep at the bench," Simone said, then added, "Maybe you could talk to her. The research matters, but so does her health."
"She never listens to me. Maybe she''ll listen to you."
"Ian, when you refused to let me recruit Eleanor, was it because you had other ns for her?" Simone couldn''t help but probe, "If you do, perhaps "
"Professor Langley, I think you should focus on your research,"n cut her off, coldly.
Simone just chuckled. "Sorry, I was being nosy."
They chatted a bit longer before hanging up. Simone sighed-she''d hopedn had paved a better path for Eleanor, but from his tone, that clearly wasn''t the
case.
Eleanor had just made it home when her phone rang. Xavier''s voice was heavy. "Miss Sutton, my aunt doesn''t have much time. She wants to see you before she goes."
Eleanor''s mind went nk for a moment-Juliette was dying?
"Mr. Vaughn, okay-what hospital? I''lle right now," she replied quickly.
Ashford General Hospital. When Eleanor arrived at the ward, Xavier was talking quietly with some rtives. When he saw her, he stepped away and walked up to her, but before Eleanor could even speak, a wave of dizziness washed over her.
She steadied herself with a hand to her forehead. Xavier caught her in his arms. "Eleanor, are you alright?"
Just then, footsteps echoed from around the corridor''s corner. Three people appeared, catching sight of Xavier holding Eleanor.
At the front wasn, with Vanessa and Henry beside him.
Vanessa''s face went cold-she couldn''t believe Eleanor and Xavier were already getting so close, and right in public.
Henry, too, had no idea things between Eleanor and Xavier had progressed so far.
Vanessa nced atn, but he showed no emotion, just his trademark furrowed brow and intent gaze.