No More Mrs. Nice Wife (Eleanor) novel Chapter 1548

It had unwittingly gotten quite late. Eleanor turned to Ian and said, "You should head back and get some rest."

"Mom, I want to play with Dad a little longer," Evelyn protested, clinging to Ian's hand to stop him from leaving.

"How about Dad walks you upstairs?" Ian asked, crouching down to her eye level.

"Will you read me a dinosaur story before I sleep?" Evelyn pleaded, pushing her luck.

Ian glanced up at Eleanor. After all, her master bedroom was strictly off-limits, and he knew better than to linger without her permission.

"Go ahead and take her up to my room to read. I still have a little work to finish," Eleanor said, choosing not to deny her daughter this small request.

Evelyn had been asking for bedtime stories from her father a lot lately, and Eleanor had repeatedly said no. She figured she could give in this once.

"Yay! Let's go, Dad!" Evelyn cheered, eagerly pulling Ian by the hand as they bounded up the stairs.

Joslyn finished wiping down the counters and said, "I'll be heading to bed now, Ellie."

Eleanor nodded and headed up to her study on the second floor. Her work was already finished, but since she wanted to give Ian some time to read to their daughter, she opened a streaming app on her computer and decided to catch up on a show she had been meaning to watch.

It was a show she had been highly anticipating, but she found herself entirely distracted. She kept glancing at the clock. It was ten minutes to ten. Ever since Evelyn started school, Eleanor had developed a neurotic anxiety regarding her sleep schedule.

If Evelyn wasn't in bed by ten, Eleanor was convinced the lack of sleep would stunt her daughter's growth.

It was the kind of irrational worry that plagued every mother.

At ten o'clock on the dot, Eleanor shut her laptop and walked over to the master bedroom. Standing outside the door, she could hear Evelyn chattering excitedly about dinosaurs.

Eleanor leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms. Ian was sitting against the headboard with Evelyn nestled comfortably in his lap, the two of them pouring over a pop-up dinosaur book.

Eleanor watched them in silence, a profound sense of peace washing over her, tinged with a faint, bitter ache.

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