Chapter 48 The Unloved Her
Joanna found Cynthia's contact in her phone and sent her a message: [Let's meet and talk. Chris doesn't want you to leave the company.]
After leaving the company and calming down, Cynthia actually felt a bit regretful. Although she couldn't stand the strange looks from others, leaving the company meant she couldn't keep getting close to Chris.
What if Joanna and Chris made up while she was away?
When she saw Joanna's message, she immediately understood—this must be Chris's idea.
Although Chris was Joanna's husband, she was the most important person in his heart.
This time, when she left the company crying, Chris must have felt very guilty and blamed Joanna, which is why he had Joanna ask her to come back to the company.
After figuring this out, Cynthia finally cheered up. She replied proudly: [Sure, come find me at Heaven Heights. You know the address.]
Of course Joanna knew—that was the newlywed home she had carefully decorated!
Joanna didn't reply again.
The next day, she went for a checkup first. After getting the report showing she wasn't pregnant, she went to see Cynthia.
While waiting for Cynthia to open the door at Heaven Heights, Joanna felt bitter inside again.
This was supposed to be her wedding gift, but her husband had transferred it to his mistress without asking!
All those designs she had personally overseen, the plans she had stayed up late finalizing—none of it belonged to her now.
When the door opened, Joanna instinctively looked at the interior layout. She had imagined many times what it would be like when she and Chris moved in, but it had never happened.
At the entrance was a pair of men's slippers, and inside were other items that only a man would use.
Cynthia had torn down Joanna's carefully planned layout and opened it up into an open-plan dining area. What hurt Joanna most was the box of condoms on the table.
Clearly, Cynthia wasn't living here alone. And the other man wasn't hard to guess.
Joanna looked away, trying to calm herself.
"Oops, sorry, I forgot to put those away. Chris still needs them when he comes over." Cynthia seemed afraid she hadn't noticed, so she deliberately pointed it out.
Pain shot through Joanna's chest, and her face went pale.
She heard her own emotionless voice say, "I don't care about him. Chris doesn't want you to leave the company. He really values your abilities."
Cynthia sat on the sofa, eyes downcast, looking very sad. "But I caused the company's transformation to fail. I'm the guilty one—I can't show my face there again. Did Chris just ask you to tell me this? Didn't he say how to solve the plagiarism issue?"
She wanted to find out from Joanna how far Chris would go for her.
Though she had some guesses, hearing Joanna say it out loud would be twice as satisfying.
Joanna glanced at her and knew what Cynthia was after.
But she didn't care, so she laid out Chris's conditions from yesterday. "If I don't do what he says, he won't agree to the divorce."
Cynthia felt sweet inside but pretended to be surprised and sympathetic on the surface. "I can't believe Chris would make you suffer like this for me! Joanna, I really don't want to make things hard for you, but this time it was your draft that got the company caught up in plagiarism accusations. Whether you like it or not, the company needs you to admit the mistake. Chris is the CEO and has been dealing with pressure from the board. As his wife, you don't want to make things difficult for him, right?"
Seemingly sympathetic, but still showing off how good Chris was to her.
Cynthia's words only made Joanna feel bad for a moment.
She didn't take the bait, just said calmly, "The draft was just sitting there. If you hadn't copied it, there wouldn't be any trouble. Cynthia, I know you want to marry Chris, so you need to help me get divorced first. If Chris keeps refusing, when will you ever become Mrs. Cooper?"
Cynthia narrowed her eyes and finally dropped the act. "You want to work with me?"
"No." Joanna pulled up a chair and sat down. "It's a threat. If you keep blocking me or pressuring me, then I won't get divorced. I'll stop you from becoming Mrs. Cooper!"
"You!" Cynthia slammed the table and stood up angrily. "Even if you don't divorce him, Chris will ask for a divorce! He doesn't care about a housewife like you!"
Joanna raised an eyebrow. "Then why is he the one refusing to divorce now? Cynthia, aren't you scared? If I give in, we'll make up, and you'll never have a chance to come between us again."
Cynthia had to admit this was true.
She had set up many situations before, including sleeping with Chris. But when Chris woke up the next day, he just told her not to tell anyone and to pretend the mistake never happened.
Based on her usual observations, Cynthia wasn't sure whether Chris loved Joanna, but he kept refusing to divorce, which had frustrated her several times.
Could it be... that Chris actually liked Joanna?
This thought increased Cynthia's fear. She gritted her teeth. "I'll go back to the company. You'd better divorce Chris quickly! Don't forget, I'm the one he cares about most. He doesn't love you—you're the third wheel."
These words made Joanna silent for a long time.
Was she the third wheel?
Maybe.
She didn't care about that anymore.
Joanna had been disappointed too many times. She didn't want to torture herself thinking about things that would shatter her pieced-together heart again.
She stood up and mentioned Chris's second condition. "About the plagiarism, you'd better come forward and admit it yourself. I would never plagiarize my own work. Having me take the blame for you is very unconvincing."
After all, the organizer was her teacher, who knew very well that she was Y.
Cynthia's eyes widened in shock.
Just then, the door was pushed open. Chris had just walked in and heard this.
He sneered. "Joanna, you plagiarized Y's work. Do you know who that is? Y is the most famous student taken by design master Linda Stone, with several valuable works from three years ago. You just traced a draft—you don't really think you're Y, do you?"
Cynthia immediately changed her expression, walked to Chris's side, her voice aggrieved. "Chris, Joanna is forcing me to go back to the company quickly and admit the mistake myself. The shareholders are so mean, you know—they made me cry that day..."
She really needed to make these two divorce quickly and couldn't delay any longer.
Cynthia planned to make Chris fall in love with her soon, preferably have sex a few more times, so she could get pregnant.
If she had Chris's child, then Joanna would have to get off the Mrs. Cooper throne!