Chapter 350 - 334: Suppress It Immediately

The secretary, who’d been hit by the object, stammered an apology, "I’m sorry! I’ll get it done right away!"

The office door closed, but Erin Irving, still fuming, swept all the documents from his desk onto the floor.

’He’d hired a bunch of useless idiots. They can’t even handle something this simple!’

His private phone on the desk had been ringing for a while. Erin Irving casually picked it up and saw it was flooded with text messages from Quincy Rhodes.

Others might not know, but how could Quincy Rhodes not know what her own daughter looked like?

Joanne Donovan’s phone was off again, so an impatient Quincy Rhodes had no choice but to call Erin Irving and ask what on earth had happened the day before.

The person Erin Irving had dragged out of the club was Joanne Donovan. The woman he had carried from the car was also Joanne Donovan.

But frankly, she didn’t believe Erin Irving would actually touch her daughter.

It wasn’t that Joanne Donovan wasn’t beautiful enough. It was that a man as ambitious as Erin Irving wouldn’t waste his energy on something so pointless.

Erin Irving glanced at the phone, his brow twisting into a scowl. Without reading a single message, he picked up the phone and smashed it.

The office was suddenly quiet. He let out a long sigh and turned to face the floor-to-ceiling windows behind his desk.

He was high enough up to see most of Portmire spread out below him.

’Before long, most of this city will belong to me and me alone.’

’I’m going to take back everything Elliot Sheridan owes me.’

After the incident the other day, Georgia Thorne noticed she was bleeding a little.

Her first thought was that she might be losing the baby. She felt helpless and terrified.

It took her a while to realize she should go to the hospital for a check-up.

After an examination, the doctor told her it was likely due to a weakened immune system. He noted the bleeding wasn’t heavy and advised her to avoid any impacts, lessen her workload, and try not to put too much psychological stress on herself.

"Do I need to take medicine?"

"Not for now. Let’s observe for two days. If the bleeding continues, then you should come back."

"Okay, thank you!"

Georgia Thorne went home, her mind heavy with worry. For the next two days, she did her best to lighten her workload, but the psychological stress was agonizing.

Every nerve in her body felt stretched taut. She couldn’t just relax on command.

To make sure she was getting enough nutrition, Georgia Thorne called back the part-time housekeeper who used to work at her apartment.

The housekeeper was an honest woman. After Georgia Thorne had let her go, she had found work with another family for a short time.

But it hadn’t been a good fit. The lady of that house had a terrible temper and looked down on people who did manual labor.

So when Georgia Thorne called and asked if she was willing to come back, she agreed without hesitation.

She liked Georgia Thorne and Elliot Sheridan as a couple, and she had always enjoyed working for them.

That evening, the housekeeper made Georgia Thorne’s favorite dishes. "Ma’am, please, have a taste!"

Georgia Thorne sipped the chicken soup. It was savory without being greasy—quite delicious.

"Please, won’t you sit and eat with me?"

"Oh, no!" the housekeeper said, waving her hands. "I can’t eat at the main table!"

"It’s alright. It’s just the two of us, and I can’t possibly finish all this by myself anyway!"

"I really can’t!"

"Please, let me get you a bowl and some chopsticks!"

Unable to refuse Georgia Thorne’s warm insistence, the housekeeper sat down at the table to eat.

Georgia Thorne worried for two days. Thankfully, the bleeding stopped on the third day, but she still went back to the hospital, just to be safe.

She had a check-up, and the doctor told her to relax.

The results were good. The baby was developing normally. She had been worried for nothing.

Hearing those words, Georgia Thorne finally felt completely at ease.

’As long as the baby’s okay, that’s all that matters!’

The news about Erin Irving was being hyped up by the media, and the story’s popularity refused to die down.

At first, everyone assumed the woman who’d gotten a hotel room with Erin Irving was just some unknown woman from the club. But there are no secrets that can be kept forever, and no information the paparazzi can’t unearth.

Moreover, with the deliberate guidance of certain people, some reporters quickly investigated the hotel Erin Irving entered that day and found that the room was registered under the name Joanne Donovan.

And who was Joanne Donovan?

While many people might not have known her before, after the news broke, everyone knew who Joanne Donovan was.

Joanne Donovan was none other than the daughter of the current Secretary Rhodes, a debutante from a prestigious family.

Quincy Rhodes’s rise was unusual; it was only after marrying her husband that she embarked on the path of politics.

Back then, women like Quincy Rhodes, who had married into wealthy families, were generally expected to stay home, support their husbands, raise their children, and perhaps travel occasionally.

Many women were disdainful of Quincy Rhodes for entering the political world and getting as far as she had.

Plenty of people wanted to see Quincy Rhodes fail, convinced she hadn’t gotten where she was on her own merit.

If not for her husband’s family, the Donovans, who knows what remote corner of the world she’d be languishing in.

Joanne Donovan’s name was leaked, and soon her entire family history followed.

Her brother, Connor Donovan, and her deceased husband were also dragged into the public eye. The story developed in unexpected ways, and no matter how many people Erin Irving sent to suppress it, the scandal only burned hotter.

Joanne Donovan realized the gravity of the situation. Quincy Rhodes confined her to the house, forbidding her from going anywhere.

While she was shut in the apartment, Quincy Rhodes would call her every few hours.

She called the landline to make sure Joanne was still there.

After being locked up for two days, Joanne Donovan finally said impatiently, "Even if I wanted to go out, would that pack of reporters downstairs let me go? I’m not that stupid!"

Joanne Donovan slammed the phone down in frustration and went back to playing games on her phone from the sofa.

The scandal grew hotter and hotter until it reached a boiling point.

The bad press threatened to halt his project, and he had already poured all the company’s capital into it. It couldn’t be stopped.

At this point, there was only one way to suppress the news.

After Erin Irving conferred with Quincy Rhodes, Quincy immediately called her daughter.

If they wanted to kill the story, the best solution was for her to marry Erin Irving.

Joanne Donovan’s first reaction was to refuse. ’Is he crazy?!’

When she couldn’t be persuaded over the phone, Quincy Rhodes had to go say it in person. She rushed over to the house herself.

In the middle of her petulant refusal, Quincy Rhodes slapped her hard across the face. "You think I don’t know what you’re thinking? Let me tell you, he is going to spend the rest of his life in prison! Even if it wasn’t Erin Irving today, it would just be some other man!"

"Then I’d rather marry someone else! I won’t marry Erin Irving!" Joanne Donovan shouted, clutching her cheek.

"How did I give birth to such a stupid daughter!" Quincy Rhodes’s face was twisted in a furious snarl. "Do you have any idea what Erin Irving’s status is now? Do you think he’s someone you can just latch onto whenever you please? The fact that he’s willing to marry you at all means you should be counting your lucky stars!"

"Hmph! Since you say Erin Irving is so great, why don’t you marry him? It’s not like you have a husband anyway!"

The words had barely left her mouth when Quincy Rhodes slapped her again. The second strike landed on the same cheek, which was now twice as red and swollen.

Joanne Donovan’s eyes welled with tears of indignation as she glared at her mother. ’But it’s the truth!’

"How old do you think you are? Some girl in her early twenties? Look at yourself! You’re a woman in your thirties! If you don’t get married now, who do you think is going to want you?" Quincy Rhodes snarled, forcibly dragging Joanne Donovan in front of a mirror.

Joanne Donovan was indeed getting older. Most women her age were already married with children.

But she...

’If I didn’t spend a fortune on skincare, this face would be as haggard and wrinkled as any other woman my age.’

"I’m telling you, you are getting married. You don’t have a choice!"

Quincy Rhodes angrily slammed the door and left, leaving Joanne Donovan alone.

That evening, Quincy Rhodes brought Joanne Donovan to meet Erin Irving, and the three of them made a high-profile appearance at a public hotel.

Joanne Donovan had been slapped twice by her mother that day, but after a trip to the salon that afternoon, the marks were barely visible.

Despite her exquisite makeup, her face was a mask of resentment. Erin Irving, in contrast, maintained a gentlemanly smile.

Quincy Rhodes left first, letting the two of them spend some time alone.

The private room immediately fell silent. Joanne Donovan shot Erin Irving a nasty look and slammed her chopsticks onto her plate. "Give up. I’m not going to marry you!"

"At this point, you think you can just not marry me if you don’t want to?" Erin Irving raised an eyebrow.

It was true. She had no choice.

Her entire lifestyle was funded by Quincy Rhodes.

And Quincy Rhodes said that if she didn’t marry Erin Irving, she would cut off all her funds.

Without money, how could she live? How could she have any fun?

Joanne Donovan snorted coldly and turned her head away.

They sat in the private room for some time, each engrossed in their own world, neither saying a word.

Finally, Erin Irving stood up and extended a gentlemanly hand to Joanne Donovan. "Let’s go. It’s time for the show to begin."

Resentment gnawed at Joanne Donovan. She knew that the moment she took his hand, it would seal her fate: she would have to marry him.

Outside the restaurant, a crowd of reporters was already lying in wait.

When Erin Irving and Joanne Donovan emerged, looking intimate, the reporters swarmed them, cameras flashing nonstop.

Both of them wore sweet smiles. They faced the cameras with poise, showing no intention of shying away.

They were clearly prepared for the cameras, ready to face the scandal head-on.

"Sorry, everyone. I was just having dinner with my fiancée tonight. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the press conference tomorrow." Erin Irving acted the perfect gentleman, opening the car door for Joanne Donovan and shielding her head as she got in, putting on a ’Mr. Perfect’ act for the public.