Todos los capítulos de The Wife He Never Knew: Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 20

"Mm." Eleanor nodded at Caleb. She and Julian were mid-divorce, technically, but nothing was finalized yet. She was still, on paper, a married woman.The thought settled heavy in her chest. She let out a breath and turned to Brooke. "I'm having lunch with a coworker. Last I checked, there's no law against a married woman eating with a man. What year do you think this is?""Coworker? You're a housewife. Since when do you have coworkers?""At least try 'classmate' you can't even keep your lies straight.""Doubt she has many classmates left either, considering she never even finished college."Watching the two women clearly gunning for a scene, Caleb jumped in to defend Eleanor. "Don't talk down to her. Ms. Hale's a counselor at the juvenile detention center now.""A detention center counselor?" Brooke rolled her eyes. "What, minimum wage?""Brooke, look at this."Whitney thrust her phone at Brooke, a job listing for the detention center, pulled up online."Volunteer? She's not even paid

After all, Cross Group carried real weight in this city. Even if Caleb had a friend at the courthouse, that friend might not risk crossing Julian Cross to help her. And if they did help, it could just as easily blow back on Caleb himself.Eleanor kept all of this to herself. She didn't need to say it out loud, Caleb read it off her face easily enough. He didn't push any promises on her, just said he'd check in after tomorrow's meeting so she wouldn't feel obligated either way.The next morning, Caleb didn't show up at the detention center at all. Eleanor asked the director, who told her Caleb had called out, citing "a major personal matter" at the courthouse. Eleanor didn't know whether to laugh or roll her eyes.She spent the morning buried in spreadsheets while a storm built outside, growing louder by the hour.She wasn't afraid of thunder. But her office sat at the far end of an isolated second-floor hallway, and by lunchtime nearly every staff member had cleared out. The facility

Eleanor never expected to be stuck in the hospital five days.The police came through during that stretch, took statements, ran their investigation. Since the detention center only held minors and Eleanor's injuries hadn't reached the threshold for anything serious, Marcus and his crew got an extended stay in juvenile lockup and nothing more.Julian never showed up during any of it.Eleanor expected as much, he hadn't shown up after the miscarriage either.Not only did he skip visiting her, he'd taken Cassandra on a deep-sea fishing trip.Eleanor blew across the surface of her water cup, took a sip, and found it bitter for no real reason.David dropped by as usual, bearing Julian's standard offering of sympathy.A bouquet of pink roses.She'd received the exact same gift after the miscarriage, and hadn't had the heart to toss it then."Lauren, do me a favor.""Name it." Lauren crossed the room."Throw this in the trash for me." Eleanor handed the bouquet over without a second thought.

"Look at Cassandra, full-time at Fenwick & York already, thanks to that Piano-line design rating. White-collar, six figures, real career. And then there's someone else, went from housewife to cleaning lady. Really moving up in the world, huh?" Brooke doubled over laughing."Comparing her to your sister-in-law is genuinely insulting to Cassandra," Tyler said, eyeing Eleanor with open contempt.Eleanor had never had strong feelings about Tyler either way. That changed the moment Cassandra came back into the picture, two overheard conversations between him and Julian had curdled that indifference into real distaste."What, you don't like hearing it?" Tyler rolled his eyes, catching the look on her face.He and Julian had gone way back, close enough that Tyler had practically had a front-row seat to the whole Julian-and-Cassandra saga. In his mind, the two of them had always been destined for each other.And then, somehow, Julian had married Eleanor instead.As far as Tyler was concerned,

"Everyone, this is our new colleague. She'll be working with us on the PO line going forward, let's all make her feel welcome." Meredith opened with that, then turned it over to the new hire."Hi, everyone. I'm Eleanor. Looking forward to working with all of you."The room applauded. Cassandra didn't move a muscle."Cassandra, you know her?" Danielle noticed the odd stillness.Cassandra managed a stiff smile, giving away nothing either way.She never in a thousand years expected Eleanor to walk into this department.She knew Eleanor had studied jewelry design in college, but she also knew Eleanor had never finished the degree. No diploma. Nothing. How could Fenwick & York possibly want someone like that?Even top-tier graduates like herself had to survive two written exams and three interview rounds just to land the internship track. And Eleanor had just... walked in.Cassandra's pen snapped clean in her fist.Then a memory surfaced, the celebration banquet. Something clicked into pla