At that moment, Garrison, who''d been looking for a chance to talk to Eleanor all evening, finally saw his opening. Spotting her standing besiden, he approached and asked politely, "Mr. Goodwin, may I borrow Miss Sutton for a few minutes?" Eleanor paused, surprised, butn just chuckled lightly. "Of course," he said. She turned and walked with Garrison toward the floor-to-ceiling windows.


    Garrison seemed excited, lowering his voice as he spoke to her. "Eleanor, two years ago I heard rumors about a neuroscience project involving brainputer interface research. I had no idea you were among the first group of people working on it."


    Eleanor nodded. "Yes, back then the project was still in its theoretical stage."


    “That''s incredible! I heard you managed to help a paralyzed monkey stand up again. I can''t believe-"


    She cut him off abruptly, frowning. "Who told you that?"


    Garrison faltered, looking at her. "Mr. Goodwin told us."


    Eleanor''s breath caught, but she quicklyposed herself. Ifn had already


    talked to Mr. Windsor about that experiment, then he must have learned about her research results from those years ago—that must have been why he first approached Mr. Windsor.


    A lot of things that hadn''t made sense now seemed to fall into ce after this meeting.


    He had quietly uncovered the real reason Mr. Windsor had returned to the country, then offered to coborate on Meridian Dynamics'' project with the military, even giving up the core interests and keeping only the civilian profits-all in order to persuade Mr. Windsor to let her stay at Meridian Dynamics.


    Keeping her at Meridian Dynamics made sense; private, for-profit research projects were much better suited for international coboration. If she''d joined a national research team, her work would have been far more restricted. Eleanor''s mind raced with realization.


    The real reasonn had gone to such lengths to keep her at Meridian Dynamics was because of her brainputer research from two years earlier.


    Even ifn was willing to give up the core technology, the civilian applications would still be highly lucrative down the line.


    Eleanor realized she''d underestimated him. He had done all of this because he already knew she''d nearly made a breakthrough-and that meant the timeline for that breakthrough could be moved forward.


    In the end,n never made a deal that lost him money.


    Eleanor nced up atn, who was chatting with Mr. ck across the room. Sensing her gaze,n looked over. There was a fleeting trace of disdain in Eleanor''s eyes.


    Later, at the guesthouse, Eleanor packed for the six o''clock flight back to Ashford City. This time, only she and Byron were returning;n still had business to take care of in Kingston.


    At the airport, Eleanor took a call from York. He''d guessed that things between her andn had grown tense after their divorce and tried to reassure her. "Eleanor, work is work. You have to keep your spirits up and face the challenges ahead."


    "Meridian Dynamics is offering you such amazing terms-that''s actually changed my opinion ofn. Thepany has one of the world''s top Al research systems, and the facilities and resources are the best you''ll find anywhere."


    York sounded a little sentimental. "Honestly, I always had my doubts about businessmen liken. But this coboration showed me a different side of him." He hesitated, then went on, "He volunteered to hand the core technology over to the military, which is almost unheard of in the business world. What surprised me even more is that he''s willing to cover all the early development costs himself. That kind of vision is rare."


    It was surprising thatn had managed to win over Mr. Windsor so thoroughly.


    "Mr. Windsor, I think you''re giving him too much credit," Eleanor couldn''t help but remark.


    York justughed on the other end of the line, and after a few more words, he hung up.


    Their return flight wasmercial. Byron looked after Eleanor throughout the trip. By the time theynded in Ashford City, it was already eight in the evening, and traffic from the airport was so bad that she didn''t get home until ten.


    Not wanting to disturb the Goodwin family at such ate hour, she decided to let her daughter stay over with them for the night.


    She hadn''t expected this business trip to be so brief, but with an early morning meeting at Meridian Dynamics the next day, she knew she''d have to be up at dawn.


    At this point, only Simone knew that Eleanor was still continuing her work in theb.


    Meridian Dynamics.


    Eleanor had taken the wrong route on her way in and ended up runningte.


    By the time she arrived, the morning meeting had already begun, but Byron hadn''t started things yet he seemed to be waiting for someone.


    Faye sat in the conference room, ncing around and noticing that everyone present was an engineer connected to the brainputer project. She leaned over to Joel Kingsley and murmured, "Joel, who is VP Chase waiting for?"


    Joel shook his head. "No idea."


    Byron stood by the conference room door, checking his watch repeatedly, though his expression was calm and unhurried.


    For Byron to be this patient, Faye thought, the person he was waiting for had to


    be someone truly important. Byron was usually known for his strict, no-nonsense attitude at work.


    Just then, the conference room door opened and Eleanor stepped inside. She was dressed simply and professionally, her hair a little tousled, clearly having rushed to get there.


    "Sorry, there was traffic," she said to Byron.