From His Wife to His Uncle's Wife novel Chapter 81

The next morning, Peter showed up at Eleanor’s apartment again, carrying a thermos packed with breakfast Lisa had made. He told himself to act like the bigger person. After all, he owned a place in Whitehaven Commons too, right in this building, though Eleanor had no idea. It made getting inside a breeze.

Peter walked straight to Eleanor’s door and started jabbing at the doorbell. Ding dong. Ding dong. He didn’t let up. Across the hall, a friendly neighbor was heading out for work. She glanced over, curious, but Peter ignored her and kept pressing the bell.

A few minutes passed and he was starting to lose his patience. The neighbor was almost in the elevator, but then she doubled back, clearly too kind to just leave things be.

“You looking for the girl who used to live here? The pretty one?” she asked.

Peter nodded, already annoyed.

“She moved out! Just last night. A really handsome guy came to pick her up.”

Peter’s face went stiff. “What?”

“Yeah, a man picked her up. Super tall, really good-looking. Looked like he had money too. You didn’t know?”

Peter didn’t say another word. He just turned on his heel and stormed off, his face so dark it almost looked like a storm cloud. The neighbor’s words kept playing in his head. A man picked her up.

He let out a cold laugh. So this was how Eleanor wanted to play it. She’d gone so far as to find some guy to put on a show, all to make him feel jealous. Did she really think he’d fall for that?

Looking icy, Peter stomped downstairs, chucked the thermos right into the trash, and drove away, his mood just as grim as his expression.

Meanwhile, Eleanor didn’t care at all whether Peter knew she’d moved. She just wanted her peace and quiet, nothing more.

***

“What choice do we have? Dr. Bates is Eleanor’s mentor. Of course he’s going to look out for her. That’s just how it goes.”

Some people grumbled, but most just accepted it. Connections were a kind of strength, and that was the way things worked. There were always a few who acted bitter about it.

At Clarkson Corporation, labs were given out according to the project. When a new project started, the team could apply for their own lab space. Big projects got bigger labs, smaller projects got smaller ones. There were strict rules about who could go in and out. Break the rules, and you’d get called out in front of the whole company. The more independence a lab had, the more responsibility came with it. Everyone was expected to avoid simple mistakes, no exceptions.

Eleanor’s team got a small lab, which was just right for their size and the equipment they needed.

One day, Eleanor was the first to head out, with Skyler not far behind. Robert said he needed to wait for one last set of results, so he stayed a bit longer.

Eleanor had almost made it to the subway station when she realized she’d left her phone behind. With a sigh, she turned back and started walking toward the office.