Clarissa had slept until the next afternoon.
When she woke up, she laid down blankly for a while before realizing where she was.
Hearing voices outside, she got up, looked at her crumpled clothes, changed into a T-shirt and shorts, and walked out of the room.
Catherine was talking softly to the nanny while kneading dough.
When she saw Clarissa coming out, the old lady acted as if nothing happened and smiled. “You’ve woken up? You must be hungry after sleeping for so long. I’m making dumplings with Julia; they’re ready in no time. I also made your favorite pancakes! Eat as much as you want.”
Clarissa’s eyes were a little swollen, and her hair was messy, but she was unaware of it as she didn’t look in the mirror. She sat in front of her grandmother and hugged her coquettishly.
“Grandma, I love you so much. You’re the best grandmother in the world.”
The old lady laughed and poked Clarissa’s forehead with her flour-stained fingers.
“Come on. I become the best grandmother only when I feed you? Look at how messy you look! Go wash up quickly.”
“I don’t want to! I’m still your baby even if I look like a mess.”
“You…” Catherine smiled helplessly. “Alright, don’t act like a baby when you’re already a big girl. Go wash up, and you can eat.”
“Alright.” Clarissa pecked her grandmother on the cheek. After a shower, she felt refreshed.
After helping Catherine with the dumplings, Julia fried them while Clarissa and her grandmother sat in the living room and listened to the music playing from her phone while munching on snacks.
One of the old lady’s habits was listening to music, and Clarissa hummed along somewhat inaccurately to it.
Her grandmother suddenly asked, “Didn’t you say you had a boyfriend? Did you come back because you fought with each other? Or something else?”
Her chewing stopped, and she shook her head.
“No, we didn’t fight. It has nothing to do with him; it’s because of something at work.”
She only remembered that she didn’t inform Matthew about leaving D City in a hurry and was worried that he would be angry at her for turning off her phone.
“Did you tell him that you came back?”
Clarissa shook her head truthfully. “No.”
The old lady couldn’t help complaining, “Sigh. Can you hurry up and tell him already? Don’t make him worried about you. I know that you tend to hide in your room whenever something happened, but you’re a big girl now, and you’ll live the rest of your life with your loved one when I’m gone…” She sighed. “Clare, Grandma knows that you’re used to being independent, but you don’t always have to do so. It’s all my fault, I’m so old, and I can’t help you with anything…”
Clarissa almost cried when she saw her grandmother like this.
“Grandma, don’t say that…You’re making me feel bad. You have to stay with me for the rest of my life. You can’t leave…”
“Alright, don’t cry. Just go and call your boyfriend.”
She then reluctantly took out her phone and called Matthew but was disappointed when no one answered.
“Grandma, he might be busy right now. I’ll try again tonight.”
The old lady did not force her, nor did she ask what happened as she knew Clarissa wouldn’t tell her anything.
She had never shared her inner feelings all these years but only acted like a warm and strong girl. Nevertheless, the old lady knew that she was fragile, so she only sighed and let it go.
After having an early lunch, Clarissa walked with her grandmother downstairs to the square. Then, they went home after she watched the old lady join her friends for a dance session until around 8 p.m.
When they saw a black car parked in front of the entrance of the apartment, Catherine circled it and complained, “Whose car is this? Which unscrupulous guy dared to block the road?”
Clarissa’s eyelids twitched at the sight of the car.
“Gr-Grandma, you can go up first because I want to take a stroll. Don’t you always nag me for not exercising? Let me run two more laps in the area, alright?”
“Two laps? Alright, just stay nearby and don’t go too far. It’s dangerous at night.”
“I know. You can go up first.”
After her grandmother went upstairs, Clarissa stood by the car.
For a long time, nothing happened.
Is it a mistake?
Clarissa walked to the front of the car and looked at the license plate. It was him indeed.
Then, she knocked on the rear car window, but the driver got off instead of the man in the back seat.
“Ms. Quigley.”
The driver greeted politely and left.
She sighed softly, opened the back door, and got in.
Matthew was indeed in the car. When she got in, he didn’t face her and only showed his side profile.
She then knew that he was upset with her for leaving without letting him know.
She explained simply, “I was fired from the company during the day and had a bad encounter, so I came back. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you in advance.”
The man finally turned to face her and gazed at her sharply with his dark, cold eyes.
“That’s it?”
She was already in a bad mood as she suppressed her emotions, and his overbearing presence frustrated her even more.
“That’s it.”
Clarissa looked away without further explanations.
However, his gaze grew colder, and the atmosphere became suffocating.
Not only did he not comfort her, but his frosty attitude had also annoyed her, and she lost her patience. “Thank you for dropping by to see me. It’s getting late; my grandmother is waiting for me. Goodnight.”
Clarissa immediately got off the car, slammed the door, and went back.
Meanwhile, Matthew’s expression darkened, and his gaze was exceedingly dangerous.
…
Clarissa’s mood went from bad to worse when she got back.
Since she didn’t want to worry her grandmother, she thought of making up an excuse about working on coding in her room, but she didn’t feel like actually doing it.
She was more afraid of turning on her computer as she was traumatized by the hate comments and couldn’t bear the sight of her painstaking efforts being trampled over.
She couldn’t understand why the same readers who liked her work could turn their backs on her and insult her.
Such encounters certainly did not help her face the music. Besides, her insomnia was probably because of sleeping too much in the day and as well as her troubles.
Since her insomnia was too tormenting, she decided to go for a jog instead. Then, she bought breakfast for both her and her grandmother.
While Clarissa was isolated from the world for several days, her phone rang when she turned it on.
It was from Ellie.
“Your problem has been settled. When will you return to D City?”
“Settled?”
Ellie sighed. “Clare, I know that you’re strong enough to handle it alone, but you should at least defend yourself!”
‘How can I go against millions of Netizens?”
This was what she hated the most.
“I’m not talking about them—they would’ve contradicted themselves if you had clarified it. Besides, your target should be those jerks in Twilight Company.”
“Ellie, you might not know about this, but plagiarism is really difficult to define, and I might not even win the lawsuit. I…”
“That’s because you didn’t find the right person. How did I not know that you’re such a loser before? You really pissed me off by running away and suffering like that.”
“I’m sorry that I’ve worried you.”
“Worried? I knew you must have run home, but I don’t care. However, they have clarified it online, and Mr. Graham has agreed to help and promised to destroy that Snowy b*tch from Twilight Company to pay you back. Besides, Justin had also fired the one who posted it off his own bat and had defended you online. If you check it out again, you’ll see that they’ve turned to criticize Twilight now.”
Nevertheless, this did not cheer Clarissa up.
She thanked her weakly, “Ellie, I’m sorry for always causing you trouble. Help me thank Director Yates as well. I’m very grateful to both of you.”
“Don’t thank me; thank Uncle Matt because he’s the one who asked Mr. Graham and Mr. Justin for help. Uncle Matt even solved it as soon as I reached out to him. And you don’t have to be so formal with me!”
Clarissa fell silent. “Help me thank Uncle Matthew.”
“Alright. But why are you still so upset?”
“Nothing. I’m just tired.”
“Oh. I’ll let you rest then. And come back soon! We’ll destroy Twilight Company and the copycat together.”
“Alright, we’ll talk later.”
After hanging up, Clarissa still didn’t look up the comments online.
On the other end, Ellie was deep in thoughts while holding her phone.
After a while, she turned and looked at Matthew.
“Oh, Uncle Matt, Clare wanted to thank you for your help.”
Ellie had just met Mr. Graham and was still in Matthew’s office.
However, Matthew’s expression became more aloof after hearing Ellie’s words.
He sneered, “How perfunctory of her to let you thank me in her place.”
