Just then, a hand offered her a tissue. Eleanor took it and closed her eyes, trying to accept the reality of the situation.

Her father's death was her fault.

lan suddenly leaned down and gently patted her shoulder. "Don't blame yourself too much. Your father's death wasn't your fault, Eleanor. He loved you so much that he was willing to do all of this for you."

Tears slipped through Eleanor's fingers, dripping onto the floor. She couldn't forgive herself.

Suddenly, two hands grasped her shoulders. She looked up through her tears and met lan's gaze.

"You can be sad, you can reminisce, you can have regrets, but you cannot take all the responsibility for this on yourself. Your father wouldn't want to see you like this," lan urged in a low voice.

Eleanor's tears continued to fall. If it weren't for her, her father wouldn't have had to push his body to its limits in his final days, dying from overexertion.

She hadn't even made it back to see him one last time before he passed.

Eleanor's lips trembled as she bit down on them. "You should have told me. If—"

lan gently cut her off. "There are no 'ifs.' You're his daughter, his greatest concern. Even if you had known, you couldn't have changed the outcome. This was his decision."

Eleanor suddenly broke down, crying out loud.

lan sighed softly, leaned in, and pulled her against his chest, holding her tight.

Eleanor didn't push him away. At that moment, she was enveloped in pain and guilt, gnawed at by waves of intense remorse. She knew lan was right; given her father's personality, once he set his mind on something, no one could talk him out of it.

But even so, the pain was heart-wrenching, utterly agonizing.

lan gently patted her back. He recalled his father-in-law's final days; he was never worried about his own health, but rather that he couldn't find a solution, that he couldn't come up with a plan. Even his final words were a request for lan not to give up on medical investments, to keep searching for a cure.

Eleanor was sobbing uncontrollably, feeling like a sinner.

An unforgivable one.

"Eleanor, you have to accept this," lan said with a heavy sigh.

She closed her eyes, her tears soaking his shirt. She remembered the last time she had forced him to open this document. He had refused, not yielding even when she said she hated him.

Thinking back, she realized she had misjudged him.

"Your father wanted you to be healthy. If he could see you now, knowing you've solved his greatest challenge and fulfilled his wish, he would be at peace," lan consoled her in a low voice. "Remember that patient, Marilyn? She had the same condition as your mother and sha made a full recovery. Her daughter hasn't shown any signs of inheriting it. The probability of transmission isn't high; it might never pass to the next generation."

Eleanor's teary eyes shot up to meet the man's gaze. "So, the reason you were rushing my research back then was because Marilyn was the only available test subject in the country?"

lan hadn't expected her to connect

the dots so quickly. He looked slightly stunned for a few seconds before nodding. "Yes. Marilyn was the last subject with the same condition as your mother. If she had passed away, there would have been no one to test the cure on, even if

you developed it."

Eleanor lowered her gaze. So that was why he had constantly pushed for progress, personally demanding weekly reports from her.

Marilyn's condition had already reached the terminal stage; her life was on a countdown.

"So, you were the one who covered Marilyn's medical expenses?" Eleanor asked, looking up at him again.