Chapter 52 I Am Not Pregnant
"I'm sorry, Linda. I've let you down after all these years of mentoring. I'll seriously reconsider designing new work."
Getting the answer she wanted, Linda said a few more words with a smile before hanging up.
She actually didn't mean to make things difficult for Chris today—she just couldn't accept that such an excellent student would quit the design world for good.
She felt sorry about Joanna's talent, and even more upset that she had lost to a woman like Cynthia.
Either way, Joanna's willingness to return to the design world was at least fulfilling her wish.
Back home, Joanna couldn't fight off her exhaustion. She put her phone on silent and went straight to sleep.
Meanwhile, Cynthia was still asking with red-rimmed eyes, "Chris, I asked William about it. He clearly gave Linda a heads-up beforehand. Even if our work couldn't win an award, it at least shouldn't have lost so badly. I just don't know why she would do this on purpose... Could it be that Joanna knows Y and said something to her? I thought it was strange when she had Y's draft at home... Do you think she might be trying to sabotage our company's transformation on purpose?"
Chris's expression was already grim, but he still maintained a bit of rationality. "If the Coopers go down, Jones Corp can't survive either. There's no benefit for her to do this."
A flash of malice crossed Cynthia's eyes. "But... doesn't Joanna have a bad relationship with her dad and brother? Though maybe I'm just overthinking it."
Her words made Chris think deeply.
When Joanna first brought up divorce, he was certain the woman was just throwing a tantrum and couldn't leave him at all.
But recently, he'd started to have doubts.
Maybe Cynthia's guesses were true!
Chris immediately felt uncomfortable and decided to call Joanna about the divorce agreement.
But after several calls, no one answered!
Chris couldn't save face. With a dark expression, he returned to the company, where shareholders' questions awaited him.
Of course, Joanna knew nothing about all this. After working on surgery for a day and night without rest, she woke up to find it was already midnight.
She naturally saw all those calls from Chris, but didn't plan to respond.
After losing the competition, Cynthia must have said something again to make Chris uncomfortable, and now he was coming to give her trouble.
Joanna was used to such tactics.
Though it hurt, as long as she didn't face it, she could feel a little better.
Joanna first dealt with Peter's messages. Because the divorce agreement didn't count, Joanna had specifically consulted her.
The reply she got was: [Miss Jones, rest assured. As long as you confirm you're not pregnant or having an affair, and have a medical report from a regular hospital, Chris can't determine you're having an affair. If you want, we can also pursue defamation charges against the other party. As for divorce, it will indeed be troublesome if Chris regrets and withdraws during the cooling-off period. I suggest collecting more evidence of his wrongdoing to facilitate filing a lawsuit.]
Divorce cases are generally the most troublesome.
After understanding this, Joanna sighed.
But there was some good news—Dr. Bruce said her mother's condition had improved, and there was a high probability she would wake up.
She planned to visit her mother again after work tomorrow.
The next day, Joanna went to work as usual, but unexpectedly ran into Chris in the office.
She was a bit impatient, but this was a hospital, and besides, Chris's grandfather was a patient here, so she couldn't stop Chris from coming.
"Joanna! Why didn't you answer my calls yesterday? Do you realize your draft put the whole company's future at risk? If my dad hadn't stepped in to vouch for me and made me sign a letter taking full responsibility for the new project—promising I'll find a better direction for the company within three months—I'd be out of a job by now!"
Although Chris's father was the group's chairman, he had also sacrificed and compromised many of his interests to secure this guarantee. Chris was under a lot of pressure, and even looked at Joanna with some resentment.
"I told you, I didn't tell Cynthia to plagiarize someone else's work. Since she chose to do it, she should bear the company's losses."
Joanna felt a bitter taste in her mouth. It was clearly Cynthia's fault—why was Chris still coming to question her?
Chris said impatiently, "Wasn't it because you brought Y's draft home? If there hadn't been that draft, nothing would have happened! And do you know Y? Did you get Linda to sabotage us on purpose so we'd lose the competition?"
He had thought it over carefully last night—without that draft, nothing would have happened.
He couldn't blame Cynthia. Besides, Cynthia had already felt guilty enough to resign once, and she had worked so hard to contact William, staying up all night to work on new designs. She had put in so much effort, while Joanna stayed out of it, completely unaffected!
"I am Y. That was my own work draft; I didn't deliberately leave it lying around." Joanna's eyes showed disappointment. "You should ask Cynthia why she was going through my studio!"
Chris had been angry, but hearing this, he laughed. "Joanna, how many more times do you want to impersonate people? Cynthia and I both saw the person receiving the award yesterday. You still want to impersonate her? That's Mrs. Stone's student. How could a full-time housewife like you, who stays home all day, possibly be her!"
His smile wasn't kind—it was full of contempt.
Joanna felt uncomfortable inside and didn't want to explain anymore.
Whatever she said, Chris wouldn't believe her anyway. But any random guess from Cynthia would definitely be true to Chris!
"Think whatever you want. I need to work."
Chris was here today to handle David's discharge. After such a long post-surgery recovery, he was doing well enough.
Although they couldn't completely rule out the risk of complications, at least nothing would happen in the short term.
Chris wouldn't let it go. He had finally managed to see Joanna today, so of course, he wanted to get to the bottom of things. Besides, there was still the matter of the divorce to resolve.
Chris said unhappily, "If you don't want to talk about the draft, then let's talk about something else. The divorce agreement doesn't count anymore, but are you just going to ignore the fact that you're pregnant with someone else's kid?"
Thinking about Joanna having an affair and carrying some other man's child made Chris angry.
But strangely, even knowing that, he didn't want to let go and divorce.
He couldn't explain why—maybe it was because he'd been betrayed and didn't want to let Joanna off easy!
"I am not pregnant!" Joanna suddenly looked up and said calmly.
Chris had been suppressing his anger, and hearing Joanna make excuses, he couldn't hold back anymore.