He took the pills and swallowed them with the water. Then, his eyes lifted to Eleanor''s face as he said softly, "Thank you."


    Eleanor disposed of the paper cup and ced the box of medicine in his hand. "You should take this home with you."


    She got back in the car and drove into the building''s underground parking garage.n closed his eyes again, looking as if he had drifted off to sleep.


    By the time Eleanor parked,n was slowly opening his eyes. The pain in his stomach seemed to have subsided.


    He pushed open the car door and got out. They walked toward the elevator together.


    "Eleanor, thank you for tonight,"n said in a low, earnest tone.


    "You''re wee," Eleanor replied, pursing her lips. It didn''t matter if it was him, Joel, or any other passenger; she would have done the same.


    Inside the confines of the elevator, with just the two of them,n leaned against the wall, his gaze fixed on Eleanor. A deep, nostalgic longing gradually surfaced in his hazy eyes.


    The elevator doors opened. They had reached the twenty-seventh floor.


    Eleanor said nothing as the elevator doors closed.


    After returning to her apartment, Eleanor yed with Princess for a while before heading upstairs to shower. She felt as though the faint scent of alcohol had clung to her.


    With her daughter away for the night, she could enjoy a quiet evening reading a book or doing something for herself, like putting on a face mask.


    Downstairs,n stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of his own apartment, gazing out at the city lights, the box of Mnta still clutched in his hand.


    The difort in his stomach was almost gone, but the storm in his heart was growing more turbulent.


    She remembered his specific medication. Did that mean.....


    He looked down at the box, his fingers tightening slightly.


    Finally, a small smile touched his lips. This was a good start.


    That night, however, someone else was too angry to sleep.


    Faye had messaged Gwenda again to ask how the dinner went. Gwenda told her everything: Ian had shown up, had been drinking nonstop for Eleanor, Eleanor had shown concern for him, and, in the end, had supposedly driven him home.


    Each piece of news fueled Faye''s anger, making sleep impossible. After ten years, had Vanessa failed to break them up for good? What was she even doing? Wasn''t she some world-ss pianist? Wasn''t she supposed to be charming?


    If Eleanor andn remarried, all the research funding and resources would undoubtedly be funneled to Eleanor. It wasn''t impossible she might actually win a Nobel Prize one day.


    A heavy frustration settled in Faye''s chest. The only good news was that the case against her father had been offierally filed. No matter how much he tried to talk his way out of it, he was facing ten or twenty years behind bars.


    Faye felt no pity for him. He deserved it. And soon, her mother''s side of the family would learn what Cathie, that distant cousin, had done. She would turn her into a social pariah, the homewrecker everyone despised.


    Tomorrow was her grandmother''s seventieth birthday, and Cathie was one of the invited guests. Faye had prepared a special performance just for her. The entire family would be there at the hotel banquet hall, and she would make sure everyst one of them saw how Cathie had, schemed behind her mother''s back; seduced her father, and even borne


    his illegitimate child.


    As for her father''s one billion dors, she would have to wait until after his case was


    settled to figure out how to get it.


    The next day.


    In the soft morning light, Eleanor was already on her secondp around theplex, dressed in a light gray tracksuit with her hair tied in a ponytail. A fine sheen of sweat dotted her temples and the tip of her nose, and a healthy, rosy glow from the exercise colored her cheeks. She radiated a vibrant energy.