Chapter 632

Chapter 632

Compared to Eric's utter panic, Phillips seemed much calmer. He stopped Eric from making the call, saying, "This is between the two of them. Just stay out of it for now. If they end up not going through with the divorce, your call would only create more problems for them."

Eric wasn't entirely convinced. "But Eleanor's already started dividing up their assets. How can I not worry?"

Phillips rolled his eyes. "They're the ones getting divorced. What good does your worrying do?"

He had zero patience with Eric.

The main reason was that Phillips had suddenly remembered something—before Lucas left, he'd given Lucas medication that could resist hypnosis.

Yet now Lucas had quietly brought home some strange woman.

His relationship with Eleanor had also taken an abnormal turn. Something was clearly off.

Though he couldn't be certain, Phillips's instincts told him the situation might be more complicated than he'd initially thought.

They couldn't rashly interfere with whatever Lucas and Eleanor were doing now.

After weighing all the factors, Phillips decided to keep his hands off the situation.

He also tried to hold Eric back.

Just in case Eric did something impulsive that might disrupt whatever plan Lucas and Eleanor had in motion.

Eric still hadn't grasped what Phillips was really getting at.

He snapped at the doctor, "Eleanor invested all that money in you for nothing!"

Phillips clicked his tongue impatiently, pulled Eric into a corner, and said, "Then let me ask you—what exactly are you planning to do? Make them not get divorced?"

"Of course not!"

Eric answered righteously, "If Eleanor wants a divorce, Lucas must have done something to betray her. If she wants out, she should get out."

"Then why are you running around like a headless chicken?"

"But..." Eric sighed. "I just don't think Lucas is that kind of person."

Phillips felt even more exasperated. He asked again, "Even you—someone who's never gotten along with Lucas—don't think he's that kind of person. Do you really think Eleanor would divorce him over some misunderstanding?"

Eric looked confused.

Phillips continued dropping hints. "With everything that's happening now, there's a lot we can't control. Just stop meddling and making things harder for them."

"Oh..."

In that hazy moment, Eric seemed to understand something.

He frowned, his hand gripping his phone as he wrestled with indecision.

Was the divorce part of their plan?

But what kind of trouble had they run into that required them to go as far as getting divorced?

At that thought, Eric still felt uneasy.

After a long hesitation, he finally decided to make the call.

At least the current situation proved that Lucas and Eleanor were in some kind of trouble. He felt Austin and Grace needed to know—maybe they could help somehow?

He called Grace.

The call connected quickly, but the person who answered wasn't Grace—it was Austin.

Eric's mouth opened and closed silently.

Whether it was Grace or Austin, both felt somewhat distant to Eric, making him uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Austin seemed to sense that discomfort. He took the initiative:

"Has something happened back home recently? I received an invitation from the mainland a while ago. They want to take over the lab Grace used to run there."

Eric froze.

He forgot all about feeling uncomfortable.

He immediately realized how serious the situation was. "When was this? This has to be related to Eleanor. I need to tell her right now."

Eric knew this was big trouble.

He quickly contacted Eleanor. Without worrying whether she'd blame him for overstepping, he said directly, "We've got a problem. Someone's targeting the lab Dominic used before. I suspect it's connected to Asher and the toxin."

As for who was behind it—

Most likely the person who took the child!

In Eric's mind, Asher was still in that person's hands. First they'd snatched the child, and now someone was asking about the lab...

His mind raced anxiously. The person behind this had to be after the toxin's effects on the child!

Eleanor's expression turned grave when she heard this.

She immediately asked, "Tell me everything, from the beginning."

Soon, Eleanor contacted Austin and learned the full story from him.

It turned out that recently, someone from the mainland had suddenly asked if Grace would be willing to transfer ownership of the lab. In exchange, they could work to reduce her sentence further—possibly even clear all charges completely.

That way, she wouldn't even need her current medical parole. She'd be completely free.

Admittedly, it was a very tempting offer.

But Austin and Grace had immediately realized that if the person making this deal could control her sentence, they must represent an unusually high level of authority.

Anyone who could make such an offer was no ordinary person!

So they hadn't agreed right away. Instead, they'd decided to wait and see.

Now, after Austin shared what he knew and compared notes with Eleanor, she quickly identified who was behind the offer.

It was one of Bodhi's subordinates.

At this point, the truth was almost clear.

She could be nearly certain that Bodhi was the one who'd taken the child. Now, thinking he had Eleanor's baby, he'd started eagerly restarting the lab.

Austin and Grace had been abroad this whole time and didn't know much about what had been happening around Eleanor.

But Austin knew about the toxin in Eleanor's body.

Now he could almost piece together what had happened.

He sighed and tried to reassure Eleanor. "But don't worry—we didn't agree to hand over the lab."

Eleanor frowned. "But in that case, whoever's behind this might keep causing trouble for you."

They'd already resorted to kidnapping a child.

Now that Grace had refused, since they'd once dangled the carrot of sentence reduction, they could just as easily use her prison time as a threat.

Things were exactly as Eleanor predicted. Austin said, "That's right. The mainland is now reconsidering your mother's sentencing. They might increase it. They've already started tracking our location."

"So we probably won't be able to help you much for a while, because I need to take Grace into hiding."

Eleanor understood completely.

Being relentlessly pursued wasn't what any of them wanted.

She also understood that Austin and Grace's current situation wasn't exactly stable.

"However—"

Austin did have some good news.

He quickly sent Eleanor an email containing an audio file. "This is a recording of the phone call when those people first contacted us. It might serve as useful evidence for you."

This was indeed precious to Eleanor.

They currently had no evidence against the person behind all this. A single recording was already incredibly valuable.