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"The reason you suddenly want Chloe gone is because she's become too much, hasn't she?"
"She demands more and more, takes endlessly but never gives. You're exhausted. You remember my grace and efficiency. You thought offering this little olive branch would make me fall into your arms, gushing 'Oh darling, welcome back! I'll love you forever!'?"
Meeting his stormy expression, I sneered: "Dream on."
"Alexander, I stopped loving you long ago. We can't go back. Could you please just leave me alone?"
Saying it felt like finally exhaling the suffocating resentment of being forced to be 'gracious'.
I turned my head away calmly, wanting him gone.
Alexander couldn't accept it. His facade was shattered. He shouted: "Eleanor Winthrop! Do you realize what you're saying!"
"I am still your husband! You say you don't love me anymore? Aren't you afraid I'll divorce you!"
I turned back, icy: "Go ahead. Divorce me."
"Try it. See if you can."
Alexander couldn't divorce me.
While he was busy playing house with Chloe, I handled the bulk of his company affairs.
When his father had a medical emergency and was rushed to the ICU, it was I who stayed by his and his mother's side through the night.
While Alexander was off playing happy families with Chloe, even saying, "The old man won't kick it yet. I'll see him when it's actually serious."
His father and mother, difficult as they were, valued loyalty above all. Furious with Alexander, they formally adopted me as their daughter.
If Alexander divorced me, I became the only person capable of challenging him for control of the conglomerate.
So Alexander didn't dare divorce me. He literally couldn't.
Meanwhile, Chloe couldn't stomach being called a homewrecker, living under my roof, enduring my presence.
She staged suicide attempts weekly, blaming Alexander for not caring for her properly, for promising to help her but only making her worse.
She even tried to drug Alexander, plotting to get pregnant.
Because Alexander and I had been childless all these years, she thought a baby would secure her place.
What she didn't know was Alexander had a condition – he was infertile. He couldn't father children.
Convinced of her plan, she got pregnant with someone else's child and tried to pass it off as Alexander's. Enraged, Alexander confronted her with all her past manipulations, kicked her out of the Cunningham mansion, and threatened to send her to join her family in prison.
Chloe fled the country overnight.
Before leaving, she texted me: 【Eleanor, I admit your tactics are sharper than mine!】
【But don't get cocky! You'll always be my stand-in! Just picking up my scraps!】
Childish taunts. Pure delusion. Pathetic.
I screenshotted that message and the one from a year ago where she first called me a rebound and sent them both to Alexander.
It was pure emotional evisceration – forcing him to see the true nature of the 'dear sister' he'd pined after for years.
