Vanessa''s expression soured. She opened her mouth to argue but realized Laverne was right. If she and Eleanor had appeared at the same gs and receptions, she would have definitely tried to assert her position, to belittle and exclude Eleanor, to make her life miserable.


    Laverne continued, n knew you too well. That''s why he kept Eleanor out of his social circles. He didn''t want her to run into you, to get hurt or feel wronged. He kept her safe at home, away from you, precisely because he cared about her and didn''t want to lose her."


    Laverne''s wordsnded hard, stripping away the story Vanessa had clung to for years.


    So, what she had always believed was ''Eleanor isn''t presentable'' was actuallyn''s careful protection? She refused to ept it. "If he loved her so much, why did he divorce her?" she retorted.


    Laverne''s reply was calm and direct. "Even if they got a divorce, it had nothing to do with you. It was clearly an issue between them. Besides, whenn divorced her, he gave half his fortune to Eleanor. Do you realize what that means?"


    Vanessa bit her lip hard. She knew, but she had never truly thought about its implications.


    "It meansn never intended to cut ties with herpletely. Giving her eightpanies was a long-term strategy to stay entangled with her. It was his way of keeping her tethered to him. That wasn''t abandonment; it was a deeper, more desperate strategy he was forced into at the time."


    Laverne''s analysis was like a series of invisible needles piercing Vanessa''s heart.


    It turned out that inn and Eleanor''s world, she was just an outsider, a tool to be used and then casually discarded.


    "Hah!" Vanessaughed at herself. "So, you''re sayingn has been going to great lengths for Eleanor this whole time?"


    Laverne''s analysis maden sound like some deeply devoted, tragic figure.


    "Since you''re so good at analyzing, why don''t you tell me this: willn and Eleanor get back together?" Vanessa stared at Laverne, desperate for her opinion.


    She just couldn''t let it go.


    Ifn and Eleanor remarried, it would be the deepest, most painful blow she could ever suffer.


    Though unmarried, Laverne was thirty-nine and had spent half her life in the


    entertainment industry. She had a certain depth when it came to reading people and situations.


    She thought for a moment, then spoke from an observer''s perspective: "Imagine being a wife excluded from your husband''s world, forced to watch another woman parading around by his side, even being mistaken for his partner by the public. That feeling of being middens away and isted is a profound


    wound in itself."


    Vanessa raised an eyebrow, a triumphant look on her face. This was what she wanted to hear.


    Laverne went on, n might have thought he was protecting Eleanor, but to her, that kind of protection was a sign of mistrust.n was too arrogant. He ignored her feelings and her dignity as his wife. And for someone as proud and intelligent as Eleanor, it''spletely. understandable why she would divorce him without a second


    thought."


    Laverne continued, "But their divorce doesn''t necessarily mean he stopped loving her. His desperation and deep feelings might be real, but the oue was the result of his overbearing and arrogant behavior. If they were to get back together-"


    Vanessa clenched her jaw and scoffed.