The Night I Left, He Turned Grey

The three members of the Sinclair family were all dumbfounded.

"H-How is this possible..." Mrs. Sinclair pinched herself hard, so hard that tears welled up in her eyes.

It was real.

The person sitting there, signing the documents, the one shaking hands with President Cole of The Cole Group to seal the cooperation agreement, was Leila Jennings.

The Leila Jennings they knew.

Even though she was dressed up, she could still recognize her. This was Leila Jennings, the woman who had been their daughter-in-law in the Sinclair family for four years.

The Leila who they had ordered around, the Leila who was relegated to the kitchen to toil alone during every holiday.

"Leila Jennings? Chief engineer?" Mrs. Sinclair shook her head violently, suspecting she was seeing and hearing things. "Shouldn’t the chief engineer be Sarah?"

"Right, where’s Sarah? Why don’t I see any sign of Sarah up there?" She looked at her husband. "Did you put on the wrong channel?"

Cecilia Sinclair chimed in, "Dad, you must have the wrong channel."

How was this possible?

How could this possibly be?!

"I don’t believe it. A woman like Leila Jennings, who only knows how to keep her head down, do laundry, cook, and take care of her husband—how could she possibly be involved in scientific research?"

And a top-tier researcher at that?

What a joke.

The biggest joke in the world.

The top researcher was clearly Sarah, how did it suddenly become Leila Jennings?

The signing ceremony was over. Besides the news broadcast, word of the proprietary chip project signing a strategic cooperation agreement with The Cole Group had already gone viral online.

It was the top headline on every major video and messaging app.

The lead image was the one of Leila Jennings shaking hands with Nathaniel Cole.

In an instant, congratulatory comments flooded in like a tidal wave. It was a scene of jubilation.

Mr. Sinclair looked at the various reports, finding it impossible to deny.

Leila Jennings was the one who could truly help his son.

Leila Jennings was the one who could truly bring glory to the Sinclair family name.

Leila Jennings was the one who was truly worthy of his son.

’What have I done!’

He had secretly gone and processed his son’s and Leila’s divorce papers!

How was he supposed to face the Sinclair ancestors? How was he supposed to face his son!

"It’s over. It’s all over," Mr. Sinclair moaned in a low voice, slapping his own knees.

Mrs. Sinclair also wore a bitter expression.

She understood what her husband meant by ’it’s over’—he was regretting their son’s divorce from Leila.

She tried to console her husband. "How is it over? So what if Leila is impressive? She’s still an orphan. She has skills but no background, so she’s still not good enough for our son. Sarah is so much better. She has the background and the ability; she’s not lacking in any way."

"It’s just... why haven’t we seen Sarah? And our son is nowhere to be seen either."

Cecilia Sinclair said dejectedly, "The other party must have won the bid. My brother was probably upset and left early, and Sarah was worried about him, so she left with him."

Mr. Sinclair was also wondering about this.

He didn’t think it was as his daughter described.

"Call our son."

"Okay." Mrs. Sinclair dialed the number, but there was no answer.

Mr. Sinclair had a bad feeling. ’Something might have happened.’ He quickly composed himself, stood up, and said, "I’m going out for a bit."

The mother and daughter didn’t quite understand, but they watched him leave.

As soon as the door closed, Mrs. Sinclair’s heart grew uneasy again. She muttered, "Did we really make a mistake?"

’We shouldn’t have let Leila and Sean divorce.’

’Why did they have to get a divorce?’

Cecilia Sinclair didn’t know her brother was already divorced; she just thought her mother was intimidated by Leila’s new title.

"Mom, what mistake? It’s Leila’s fault, okay? She hid this from our family the whole time. She did it on purpose! She hid it from us so she could go around later telling everyone how horribly we treated her!"

Mrs. Sinclair nodded. "She did do it on purpose. I mean, if you have such a good job, why hide it from us? Doesn’t that just mean she never saw us as family?"

"But, Leila must be getting a huge bonus for this, right? And there’ll be a lot more money later on." She truly ached at the thought of all that money. If they hadn’t divorced, it would be marital property, and half of it would belong to her son.

Cecilia Sinclair rolled her eyes. "Mom, Leila is such a miser. Do you really think she’d give us any money to spend? All these years, she’s been hoarding my brother’s money. How much of it did she ever spend on us? The most she ever did was buy me a two-thousand-yuan bowl of porridge. Have you ever seen her buy me luxury goods? Sarah, on the other hand, has bought me plenty."

Mr. Sinclair favored Sarah Lynch because he thought she was talented and came from a good family, able to provide tangible help to Sean Sinclair’s career.

Mrs. Sinclair wanted Sarah Lynch as a daughter-in-law because she felt Sarah was gentle, considerate, and presentable. A girl raised in wealth wouldn’t be stingy and would surely be filial to her in-laws.

Cecilia Sinclair’s reason was simpler: she despised Leila for being an orphan and had long been bought over by Sarah Lynch’s numerous favors.

So what if Leila was some incredible research expert? In this day and age, who even paid attention to scientific research? Who knew who she was?

It’s not like she was an academician, and even academicians aren’t universally known or adored.

Anyway, she didn’t care.

After hearing her daughter’s words, Mrs. Sinclair surprisingly found it all very reasonable and nodded in agreement.

"You’re right. If Leila stayed in our Sinclair family, aside from a nice-sounding title, there’d be no real benefits. What if she tried to climb all over us later? That would be unacceptable."

Exchanging words back and forth, the mother and daughter managed to convince themselves.

...

「Evening.」

Sean Sinclair was cleared of suspicion and released.

He asked, "Where’s Sarah?"

"Sarah Lynch hasn’t been cleared of suspicion. She can’t leave yet."

The officer’s words made Sean Sinclair stop in his tracks. He frowned. "How could that be?"

"President Sinclair, are you saying you’d like to stay and continue cooperating with the investigation?"

Of course, Sean Sinclair didn’t want to.

He had been there all afternoon, answering the same questions over and over, leaving him mentally and physically exhausted.

By the time he walked out of the police station, the sky had already turned dark.

Charles Jordan was already waiting for him at the entrance and immediately went up to him when he saw him.

"President Sinclair."

The first thing Sean Sinclair asked was, "Did The Cole Group win the bid?"

Charles Jordan nodded. "Yes."

Sean Sinclair wasn’t particularly surprised. The only company capable of overpowering Stellaxis was Lantech, which was backed by The Cole Group. Furthermore, Nathaniel Cole had bid under The Cole Group’s name this time, and he had also gone to great lengths to frame him.

In the end, it was only natural that The Cole Group would win the bid.

He had lost.

But he couldn’t lose heart. He still had to figure out how to face the onslaught from Chairman Forrester and the other shareholders and hold on to his current position.

"Does Chairman Forrester know?"

"Mr. Forrester informed Chairman Forrester immediately. We went to headquarters to discuss countermeasures. All media and public opinion have been suppressed, so nothing has leaked to the public. But within our circle, the news is everywhere."

"About losing the bid, and about you and Ms. Lynch," Charles Jordan said tactfully, not mentioning the affair.

Sean Sinclair knew perfectly well what he meant.

The fig leaf had finally been ripped away, exposing everything for the world to see.

The two of them got into the car.

Charles Jordan said, "Chairman Forrester wants you to pay a visit to the Forrester family tonight."

Sean Sinclair grunted in acknowledgment, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, his face a mask of exhaustion.

He suddenly thought of Leila Jennings.

Leila was there today too. Nathaniel Cole had handed out materials to everyone; there was no way Leila hadn’t heard a thing.

"Charles, did you see Leila Jennings today?"

Charles Jordan’s hands paused on the steering wheel. "I did."

"Does she know? How is she reacting?" Sean Sinclair looked at Charles Jordan intently, a hint of nervousness in his eyes.

Charles Jordan was even more nervous.

’How am I supposed to tell President Sinclair that his wife is the director-in-chief of the proprietary chip project?’

And at this very moment, the exclusive interview with her and her team had already been posted online.

"President Sinclair, you should take a look at the news on your phone."