All Chapters of The Wife He Never Knew: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

Eleanor's heart pounded, phone in hand.If Julian didn't back out, this would finally cut the last thread between them.Lauren finished two more songs before Eleanor's phone finally buzzed with his reply.Julian: Counts.Two words. Nothing more.She was about to push for details when another message came through.Julian: We'll sort it when I'm back in the country.Short. Detached.Eleanor sighed.She just hoped nothing else derailed this one.The next day, work resumed as usual.Faith and Nadia were both in the studio.Dylan wasn't.Eleanor called him."Are you taking leave today? If not, this counts as unexcused."Dylan was actually standing outside the building, downstairs. Just hadn't gone up.A beat of silence. Right as Eleanor started wondering if the line had dropped, he spoke."You still want me to come in? You already know I'm working for CL.""If you're done here, fine but you still have to go through a formal exit process."She kept it strictly professional. Dylan had nothin

When Felix leaned in to kiss her, Eleanor shoved him back without hesitation."Julian doesn't have any problems in that department."Felix smiled, catching the defensive edge in her voice."So the reason you want this divorce so badly... is because he's cheating?""What exactly do you know?"Eleanor didn't believe for a second that a lawyer like Felix had zero intel on her marriage."Cassandra. Julian's high school classmate, his first love. They split when they graduated, she went abroad, and now she's back. He's launching a whole new jewelry line for her, bankrolling her own studio. You expect me to believe there's nothing going on there?"Eleanor wasn't shocked that a lawyer with his reputation had done his homework."I had him investigated once, trying to catch something concrete. Came up empty.""Doesn't have to be an affair. His behavior alone is enough to prove the marriage is irreparably broken."That line pulled Eleanor's eyes up fast, something sharpening in them.Felix let

Eleanor stayed home all day, riding out the storm.The only thing circulating publicly was the bare outline Julian Cross, caught in an affair, mid-divorce with his wife.No name attached to the wife directly.Except one post had gone further naming Felix Shen explicitly as "the first wife's attorney."Eleanor understood instantly that whoever was behind this already knew exactly who Julian's wife was.The outrage had started squarely aimed at Julian.Then, inevitably, new angles started surfacingWas the divorce the wife's fault unable to give him children?Is the divorce even real? Rumor says his wife's the one cheating with her own male attorney.No matter how Eleanor looked at it, this entire storm read as engineered. Walking into court in the middle of this guaranteed getting ambushed by the press camped outside. She had Felix file for a postponement.Nothing from Julian.Eleanor assumed the silence meant he was buried in damage control at the company.This was, by any measure, th

As agreed, Eleanor withdrew the lawsuit.The trending story itself had already scrolled off the feeds, but the fallout would take longer to fully settle.In the meantime, Eleanor finally had room to focus on the fresh batch of orders coming in.Julian, for his part, had the full weight of his legal team working through a new, fair, enforceable divorce agreement.The litigation route had failed, but the move toward an amicable, mutual-consent divorce wasn't necessarily a worse outcome for Eleanor. Arguably better.That week, Eleanor got a call from Peter business, not personal."You remember Marcus Wren?" Peter asked.Of course she did.The first collector he'd ever introduced her to. Also the site of her first real head-to-head loss against Cassandra.She'd been crushed, decisively."How could I forget my first real failure?" She said it half-laughing."He's hosting a party Saturday celebrating his youngest daughter getting into college. Wants you there."Eleanor blinked. She and Marc

Eleanor arrived at the Longteng Grand Hotel and was shown into the Peony Private Room. Already a full table inside, all suits and ties, except for Vanessa Lee the only woman in the room, and the only face Eleanor recognized. Vanessa had been the one to connect Eleanor to this deal in the first place, a major government contract, reportedly. Eleanor wasn't about to show up unprepared. Her attire, makeup, and bearing all stayed buttoned-up formal. By the time she arrived, Vanessa assumed everyone was present. The committee director told them to wait, he'd arranged for another group to join. "Who else is coming? I don't know anyone else in this space." The second Vanessa finished the sentence, the door swung open. Julian and Cassandra walked in, straight into Eleanor's line of sight. Julian and Cassandra froze just as hard at the sight of her. Neither party had known the other was attending this same dinner. "Director Hargrove, what exactly is this supposed to mean?" V