A Caged Songbird's Escape: Into the Arms of a Predator novel Chapter 287

Elissa didn’t try to hide the truth. “Honestly, I’m not sure either.”

Lorraine paused, surprised by how unconcerned Elissa seemed, and couldn’t help but gently remind her, “He’s such a proud man. Now that you’re divorced, you really ought to tell him as soon as you can.”

Otherwise, sooner or later, things would explode into a much bigger problem.

After all, Lorraine never once thought of Rowan as someone particularly patient.

Elissa knew her relationship with Rowan was too complicated to explain in a few words, so she just nodded. “Yeah, I get it.”

But Lorraine only saw Rowan’s pride—she had no idea about Elissa’s.

For Elissa, it was almost impossible to walk up to Rowan and blurt out, “Hey, Rowan, I’m divorced now.” To her, that was like handing him an invitation to gloat over her misfortune.

Still, Lorraine knew there wasn’t much more she could do. She and Elissa were, at best, just casual friends now.

Even saying this much had taken Lorraine a lot of emotional effort. She’d given up on that old engagement, but thinking about the years she’d spent stubbornly holding on, her throat tightened with a twinge of regret.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to work. I don’t want to take up any more of your time.”

Lorraine remembered Elissa’s project team was always racing against deadlines.

No sooner had Lorraine returned to the executive office than Zachary Jones knocked on the lab door and strolled over to Elissa with a cheerful smile.

“Holding up okay? If you need, I can transfer a couple more reliable people from the Traditional Medicine Unit.”

“No need,” Elissa replied with an understanding smile. “Until this drug is fully developed, no one else is going to listen to me anyway.”

Better to leave it as is—no point bringing in more people only for them to stand around like James and the others, dragging their feet and slowing everything down.

Worse yet, it might just give Marcia an opening to make trouble.

“I get it. I have my own plans. Don’t worry.”

“You’d better,” the assistant warned quietly. “You know exactly how much money and how many resources you’ve gotten from the matriarch. If all of that goes down the drain, even if she can’t deal with Elissa just yet, she’ll have no problem dealing with you.”

With that, she turned and left before Marcia could get a word in.

When the assistant’s footsteps faded down the hall, Marcia’s face contorted with rage. She swept everything off her desk in a crashing heap.

Bitch! Bitch! Every last one of them!

What was it about Elissa? How did she always manage to slip through the cracks and come out on top?

Marcia’s chest heaved as she spat out her curses. “Just wait! Sooner or later, I’ll make every one of you pay!”