No More Mrs. Nice Wife (Eleanor) novel Chapter 1185

Ian's expression froze for a few seconds, but his refusal was almost instantaneous. "No."

Eleanor had expected nothing less. He'd sooner let go of any chance to mend things with her than breathe a word about the secret.

"Why?" Eleanor looked directly into his eyes, her tone calm but unyielding. "What's hidden in there? What's so important that you'd rather I continue to hate you than tell me?"

Ian's throat bobbed again, his expression unreadable. "You can ask for anything else in exchange, just not that. But I can promise you, the secret has nothing to do with you, and it won't harm anyone."

Eleanor bit her lip. Even though they were divorced and she had grown so much, confronting him like this still made her eyes well up uncontrollably.

"Ian, you're always like this. You high-handedly decide what I should know and what should be kept from me. That has always been the biggest problem between us."

Ian saw the shimmer of tears in her red-rimmed eyes and felt a jolt. He immediately stood up and knelt on one knee before her, reaching out to wipe them away.

But as his hand approached, Eleanor slapped it away and turned her face from him in rejection.

Ian's hand froze in mid-air. After a few seconds, it slowly clenched into a fist and he pulled it back. "I'm sorry."

Eleanor quickly wiped the moisture from the corner of her eye, refusing to look at him. "Since you're not willing to make the exchange, there's nothing more to talk about."

"Eleanor—" Ian started to say, but she cut him off.

"You should go," she said, reopening her laptop and fixing her gaze on the screen. "I have work to do."

Joslyn had been the closest third-party witness to their relationship. She had been their live-in postpartum nurse right after Evelyn was born. Her performance had impressed Ian, so Eleanor hired her as a housekeeper to help with the baby.

Joslyn tiptoed into the kitchen and began preparing lunch, her mind drifting back through the memories of this little family.

She first met Eleanor the week she came home from the hospital after giving birth. She remembered thinking how young the new mother was.

Though only two years older, Ian seemed much more mature. While Joslyn was in charge of Evelyn's newborn care, Ian had hired two other senior nannies and a nutritionist to look after Eleanor. But most of the time, Ian cared for her himself. As a new father, the tenderness in his eyes was impossible to hide.

Ian also learned how to care for his daughter—changing diapers, feeding her. Whenever the baby cried, he was always the first one to wake up and hold her.

Back then, Eleanor was a happy young mother, with a doting husband, a wealthy home, and an adorable daughter.