Chapter 681: Put on Paid Leave

Chapter 681: Chapter 681: Put on Paid Leave

Claire Sinclair followed him into the editor-in-chief’s office. She shut the door and immediately challenged him, "Teacher Hartwell, I never said I wanted to take leave."

Henry Hartwell said with a humorless smile, "It was your man’s idea."

Claire Sinclair was at a loss for words. She was just pregnant, not sick. "Teacher Hartwell, I’m not even showing yet. I think I can keep working for a few more months."

Henry Hartwell chuckled. "You can take that up with your man when you get home. It’s no use telling me. My only job is to approve your leave."

"..."

’What else could I say?’

And just like that, Claire Sinclair was inexplicably put on paid leave. Landon Winston picked her up and took her back to Evergreen Garden that very same day.

The moment she got home, Claire Sinclair eagerly called a certain someone to protest, but she couldn’t get through. A message informed her that The Great Demon King Quincy was in a meeting.

Resigned, Claire Sinclair flopped onto her bed and started scrolling through her phone.

Bored, she logged onto Weibo and casually glanced at her recent comments. She found quite a few people bashing her, and for the most bizarre reasons.

One person said: "So what if you can write articles? You don’t even respect your elders. How can someone like you claim to have a strong moral compass?"

Another said: "Her own mother-in-law is sick, and she won’t even visit her in the hospital. Just wait until you’re pregnant, let’s see who’s willing to help you with the baby then!"

’What’s going on?’

Curious, Claire Sinclair scrolled through the trending topics. All the way at the bottom, she found a hashtag related to her.

#ClaireSinclairAbandonsAilingMotherInLaw — Young Master Quincy’s mother recently posted on Weibo, claiming she has been hospitalized for nearly a week without a single visit or even a phone call from Claire Sinclair, who is treating her like a complete stranger. Even worse, the post alleged that Claire Sinclair was preventing Young Master Quincy from visiting his own mother in the hospital.

Below the hashtag, the comments were filled with nothing but vitriol.

"Of all virtues, filial piety comes first. Do we really need to teach you that, Claire Sinclair?"

"She doesn’t even respect her own mother-in-law. Someone like that isn’t fit to be a journalist."

"This is just too much. Even if you don’t get along with your mother-in-law, you should at least visit when she’s in the hospital, shouldn’t you?"

"Can everyone stop calling her his ’mother-in-law’? She’s just his girlfriend, not his wife yet. I’ll bet you a bag of chips Claire Sinclair and Young Master Quincy are going to break up."

"They should just break up. A fake, pretentious woman like Claire Sinclair doesn’t deserve to marry into the Quincy Family."

...

Reading all this, Claire Sinclair didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

When her private life was being blown completely out of proportion by strangers online, with fabricated accusations thrown into the mix, she found she couldn’t just ignore it.

The relationship between a woman and her mother-in-law has always been one of the hardest to navigate. If she did nothing, people online would surely latch onto this and never let it go.

Her own reputation didn’t matter much, but it was a different story for Mr. Quincy.

People online would say that Adrian Quincy had found a woman who was nothing but trouble—a woman for whom he would even abandon his own mother.

Claire Sinclair couldn’t bear the thought of him being dragged into this kind of negativity. She had to stand up and say something.

’But what should I do?’

Regardless of whether she or Mrs. Quincy was at fault, it would reflect poorly on Mr. Quincy.

She was only just realizing how tricky this situation was—far more complex than any article she had ever written.

After thinking for a long time, Claire Sinclair still couldn’t come up with a solution. She had no choice but to message Adrian Quincy on WeChat for help: "Mr. Quincy, Mrs. Quincy is dissing me online. She’s saying she’s sick and I didn’t visit her in the hospital. Now everyone online is attacking me. What’s the best way to handle this?"

He replied nearly half an hour later: "Sorry, just got out of a meeting."

Adrian Quincy: "Ignore it."