"El, did you see the scars on Vanessa Shannon''s wrist? I''m sure every one of those suicide attempts was a calcted move to control Mr. Goodwin."


    Eleanor Sutton frowned. As the world''s onlypatible donor, Vanessa could indeed holdn Goodwin''s family hostage with her life at any moment. Whatever she wanted, he would have to give her.


    Including sacrificing his own marriage.


    Eleanor''s mind shed back to the incident at the pool. Vanessa had tripped her on purpose, pulling her into the water as she fell. She had been so certain thatn would dive in to save her first, because her life was tied to the lives of three generations of the Goodwin family.


    Eleanor also remembered the panicked wayn had checked on Vanessa, and the triumphant, proud look on Vanessa''s face. At the time, Eleanor had mistaken his panic for proof of his love for the other woman.


    And then there was that time at the dinner table, when Vanessa deliberately reached for a ss of wine, promptingn to snatch it from her hand. What Eleanor had once seen as favoritism and concern, she now recognized as another cruel performance staged for her benefit.


    Time and again, Vanessa had used self-harm and the threat of her own death as bargaining chips, trappingn in their transactional rtionship. But what infuriated Eleanor most was that Vanessa hadn''t hesitated to use her own innocent, unsuspecting daughter as a pawn in her schemes.


    "Thank you for telling me this, Doctor," Eleanor said before walking to her office. She sat down at herputer and, after a moment of contemtion, logged into theboratory''s internal system.


    She pulled up a specific file: Gina Quinn''s gic report, conducted two years after her initial diagnosis. Ifn had known about the hereditary risk back then, Vanessa''s importance to him would have instantly doubled.


    Eleanor closed her eyes.


    If her marriage ton fell apart because of Vanessa''s scheming, then Vanessa had won.


    She had assumed that once they were divorced, she would have her chance to step in.


    Clearly,n had never given her that opportunity. It had all been nothing more than Vanessa''s wishful thinking.


    Eleanor shut down theputer, determined not to let the past cloud her thoughts any longer. Her path was clear now: conquer the blood disorder affecting Gira find a definitive cure for her daughter''s potential future illness, and then cut all ties with the Goodwin family. As for the pain and hurt Vanessa had caused, it all seemed like a self-directed melodrama now.


    Forn, merelypensating Vanessa with money was never enough. She had


    greedily demanded his love, his very being.


    So he had yed his part, giving


    Vanessa the emotional stability she


    craved, whether it was through psychological reassurance or


    novon!.


    physicalfort. He yed along in public and indulged her


    behavior-not out of affection, but


    out of a cold ruthless pragmat


    designed solely to keep the woman who could save his family alive andpliant.


    For that, no one could me him. Not even Eleanor.


    It had been his choice.


    After a long while,


    Eleanor let out a


    soft sigh. All the old


    entanglements-the pain, the suspicion, the hurt-seemed to have lost their meaning. The past had carved an invisible chasm between her andn She had no desire to cross it and he had no need to They could fight side by side for their daughter''s future, but that was all it would ever be.


    Some say that hate is just another way of caring.


    If that was true, then Eleanor no longer had it in her to even haten anymore.