Never Again Yours (Isadora and Magnus) novel Chapter 263

Isadora frowned, thinking she must have misheard.

“Suicide?” she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper.

Laura, worried Isadora wouldn’t believe her, spoke slowly and clearly. “Yes. Mr. Vaughan and Mrs. Vaughan have been fighting a lot lately. This morning, after another huge argument, Mrs. Vaughan went straight to her room and didn’t say a word. She stayed in there for ages. When we were cleaning, we found her in the bathroom—she’d cut her wrists. Thank God we found her in time, or she would’ve bled out.”

Only then did the weight of the situation hit Isadora.

Eleanor Vaughan was the kind of woman who’d never even lift a finger for chores, let alone tolerate pain. If she’d tried to take her own life, something truly devastating must have happened.

Isadora glanced up at the looming glass tower of The Fitzgerald Group just ahead, hesitated, then turned the steering wheel and changed direction.

Half an hour later, she pulled up in front of Vaughan Manor.

She got out of the car and hurried through the grand foyer, heading straight for Eleanor’s bedroom.

The moment she opened the door, she saw Eleanor lying motionless on the bed.

Her face was utterly drained of color, lips a ghostly pale, her whole appearance aged by ten years overnight. A fresh, angry slash marked her wrist.

Two family doctors were at her bedside, administering an IV.

Isadora stepped forward.

One of the doctors gave a quick update. “Mrs. Vaughan tried to take her own life just now. We found her in time—any later, and we wouldn’t have been able to save her.”

Isadora’s voice was firm. “Thank you. Could you please give us a moment?”

The doctors nodded and left quietly.

On the bed, Eleanor’s eyes were blank and hollow, empty as a deserted house. It was as if all life had drained from her.

Eleanor’s whole body shook as she beat her fists weakly against the bed. “How could I be so blind? I raised someone else’s children as my own, doted on them, and all the while, my own daughter—my real daughter—I pushed away. I’m worthless, Isadora. I don’t deserve to live. I’m so sorry.”

Isadora finally pieced together the story from Eleanor’s broken sentences.

It all started when Richard had asked Isadora to help him connect with Victor. She’d refused, and Richard, furious, turned his anger on Eleanor. He shamelessly brought his mistress—his beloved “innocent” woman—into Vaughan Manor, again and again.

Eleanor, unable to bear the humiliation, had confronted the mistress directly, and in the heat of the argument, the woman had sneered that Prescott was actually her own child.

Eleanor, devastated, hired someone to investigate. When she got the results, her world fell apart. She confronted Richard, but he’d long since stopped needing the Vaughan family’s support. He was done with her.

He tossed the divorce papers in her face and made it clear: she’d be left with nothing.

Even though Isadora thought she’d stopped caring about the Vaughan family years ago, hearing all this made her blood boil. Richard’s cruelty was beyond belief.

Eleanor’s sobs grew louder, her anguish pouring out.