Affection that comes too late is worthless.

It was only fair that lan got a taste of loving someone he could never have. It was

his penance.

Vanessa let out a long breath. The man she couldn't have was getting the cold shoulder from another woman. Was there anything more satisfying?

Eleanor, you'd better keep that pride of yours and never give lan a chance. Just live out your life married to your career!

And she, Vanessa, would just enjoy the show from the sidelines. She would watch lan exhaust every trick in the book, and she would watch Eleanor remain completely unmoved.

Fate really was fair. Ian was finally paying the price for his past actions, getting a taste of what it was like to walk through fire to win back an ex-wife. She couldn't wait to see him get burned.

Vanessa knew better than anyone how lan had remained celibate for Eleanor over the past ten years, because she had diligently guarded him on Eleanor's behalf.

As for the incident in the dressing room she had mentioned earlier, it was no accident. It was her own deliberate setup.

Originally, lan had been pressuring her to sign an experimental consent form under Dr. Smith's purview. Wanting lan to see her at her most charming during her concert, she had asked him to meet her in the dressing room.

Just as she was working her magic on him, her assistant sent a text: Eleanor was here.

A malicious idea instantly formed in Vanessa's mind. Timing it perfectly, she pretended to trip on her gown, falling so that her head hit lan's lap. Before he could react, her hair became tangled in his belt buckle.

At the same time, she intentionally pulled at the shoulder strap of her dress, creating a more suggestive, disheveled illusion.

The moment Eleanor pushed the door open, she was greeted by that exact scene.

Anyone would have connected the dots, assuming Vanessa was trying to please lan. After all, with the concert about to start, there wasn't much else she could do but... that.

She remembered lan leaning back on the sofa, his legs spread from the impact of her fall, looking like an emperor awaiting his tribute.

Vanessa also remembered the ugly look on lan's face-furious at her scheming and shocked by Eleanor's arrival.

People make terrible decisions when they panic. For instance, she recalled lan asking Eleanor, "Why did you come in without knocking?"

That subconscious, accusatory question was like pouring gasoline on a fire.

Even if lan later realized how foolish his words had been, the damage to Eleanor was already done.

Eleanor's expression that night had

been exactly what Vanessa had hoped for. A kind of quiet despair.

She didn't cry, didn't demand an net

explanation. She looked lik

someone whose heart had died. To make matters worse, the flowers

Henry Holt sent later were also

attributed to lan.

It made Eleanor think he had sent them. It had been a perfect performance that night.

No matter how lan tried to explain things afterward, it was just his word against what she'd seen. Eleanor would never believe him.

Ha! And didn't that just make his current pursuit of Eleanor all the more difficult?

Coupled with the misleading things she'd just said, that incident would forever hang between them.

Eleanor and lan could be partners, fine. But getting remarried? Not a chance.

She didn't mind being a spectator. And when the time was right, she'd add a little more fuel to the fire, ensuring lan's path to winning her back was cut off for good.

Vanessa smoothed her dress and walked back into the banquet hall Her eyes immediately found lan standing in the center of a group of powerful men, as brilliant and captivating as the moon.

That silver white hair only enhanced his sophisticated, aloof aura. What a shame she thought. Such a prime specimen of a man was going to live out his days in lonely devation to Eleanor.