After Divorce I Married a Tycoon-Chapter 204: A Racing Heart

The trending scandal about Scarlett Jewel couldn’t be taken down.

Waves of comments flooded in from netizens, all mocking the Sinclair family for their terrible judgment.

People rushed to compare Claire Mercer with Scarlett Jewel.

But was there really any comparison between the two?

"I wonder how the Sinclair family feels, seeing that the new daughter-in-law they married is such a piece of work?"

"The former daughter-in-law is shining bright on stage, the current one is rotting and stinking in the gutter. The Sinclair family really hit the jackpot."

"If you ask me, the Sinclair family is completely blind. Claire Mercer is such a wonderful person, yet they deceived her, bullied her, and treated her with contempt."

"And here I thought that after Gavin Sinclair made a clean break with her, he would marry some heiress from a prestigious family."

"And what happened? Forget her social standing—what kind of degenerate is this Scarlett Jewel?"

"Never mind that she plagiarized Claire Mercer, she then had the gall to order someone else to falsely accuse Claire of plagiarism. And now a scandal like this breaks. She’s utterly depraved, just a horrible person."

"To the poster above, this is Scarlett Jewel’s scandal. Can you please not drag our girl into this? We, The Ceruleans, find this so distasteful."

"Does a homewrecking, plagiarizing hack with such a messy private life even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as our girl?"

"Keep a certain someone away from our girl. We want nothing to do with her!"

"Keep our girl out of Scarlett Jewel’s mess. The past is in the past, and she’s doing great with our brother-in-law now."

"By the way, does anyone have our brother-in-law’s social media handle? I want to see them being lovey-dovey together. I’m single, I love seeing all the PDA, I love the ’torture’."

"What kind of shameless, bizarre request is that?"

"After some deep digging, we found him! Our brother-in-law has a social media account on TikTok where he posts short videos. He makes all sorts of amazing food for our girl every day. It’s making me drool!"

"I gotta say, our brother-in-law’s hands are just... to die for."

"Our girl and our brother-in-law are a match made in heaven—the perfect couple. All you other ghouls and goblins, stay away."

"Claire’s fans absolutely despise Scarlett Jewel. Hahahaha..."

"Who wouldn’t despise her?"

"@ the poster above, the Sinclairs don’t despise her, lol. They’re doting on her like she’s some precious treasure."

"But the Sinclair matriarch had the foresight, didn’t she? She faked a marriage certificate to trick Claire Mercer, all so they could welcome this ’treasure,’ Scarlett Jewel. Mrs. Sinclair is the family’s greatest benefactor, for sure."

"Pfft, I’m dying! Hahahaha (*´▽`*)."

Reading these passive-aggressive, mocking comments,

The four members of the Sinclair family felt as if their faces had been slapped swollen, the sting a burning humiliation.

The fake marriage certificate incident with Rose Gable was dragged up again, and netizens relentlessly mocked and humiliated her for it.

She gritted her teeth, seething.

"Why are these netizens so vicious?"

"This is all your fault! Why did you have to get a fake marriage certificate...?"

Even now, Gavin Sinclair still held a grudge against Rose Gable over the fake marriage certificate.

’If she hadn’t gotten that fake certificate, he and Claire Mercer wouldn’t have split up so quickly.’

’As long as he refused to divorce, Claire Mercer would have been stuck with him for life.’

’But his mother just had to be clever, didn’t she? Getting a fake marriage certificate...’

Hearing her own son blame her, Rose Gable refused to accept it and started blaming him right back.

"I got a fake marriage certificate to trick her! Wasn’t it all for you?"

"It would be one thing if you didn’t understand, but you dare to blame me."

"If I hadn’t gotten a fake marriage certificate back then, she would have taken half of your marital assets in the divorce."

"If you hadn’t gotten into that mess with Scarlett Jewel in the first place, would Claire Mercer have ever divorced you?"

"If you hadn’t divorced, no one would have ever found out about the fake certificate! It wouldn’t have become this huge public scandal!"

Rose Gable seethed whenever she remembered the vicious insults netizens had hurled at her.

’She had clearly done it for her son’s sake, yet he still didn’t understand.’

’Not only did he not understand, but now he was blaming her. It felt so incredibly unfair.’

"Enough," Felix Sinclair snapped.

"What are you two shouting about? Is it so strange for a man to have a few women on the side?"

"Besides, our Gavin is the young master of the Sinclair family. The fact that he isn’t constantly fooling around with women like other rich brats already makes him a cut above the rest."

"You hire male models and fitness instructors on the side, so what’s wrong with our son having a mistress?"

"Check yourself before you complain about our son."

The memory of Rose Gable cuckolding him—and it becoming public knowledge—made a wave of vicious anger wash over Felix Sinclair.

’If he didn’t have to be wary of the Gable family, would he have ever tolerated being cuckolded?’

’And for it to become public knowledge, making him lose face so completely...’

Felix Sinclair’s words were like an ice-cold dagger.

They ruthlessly tore away the fig leaf Rose Gable was desperately using to cover her shame.

The defiance on her face froze instantly. Her lips trembled,

but she couldn’t manage to utter a single word of rebuttal.

The cool air in the room suddenly grew heavy, so stifling it felt like it might congeal.

They had gathered to plan how to deal with Scarlett Jewel.

They never expected to end up fighting amongst themselves.

The discussion ended with the family of four parting in discord.

·

「Meanwhile.」

While the Sinclairs were stewing over the mess Scarlett Jewel had created, Claire Mercer, Adrian Sutton, and their friends were happily enjoying a late-night snack and some beer.

"This barbecue joint’s pork belly is to die for. The perfect amount of fat, it’s crispy, crunchy, and so fragrant. Every bite is pure bliss."

"And when you wash it down with a sip of cold beer... words can’t even describe how amazing it is."

Hearing this, Roxanne Peyton couldn’t help but laugh.

"I can see you’ve been craving this for a while, Claire."

Claire Mercer laughed. "During the competition, Stella was on a strict diet to maintain her weight and figure."

"I couldn’t very well feast on whatever I wanted right in front of her, could I?"

Stella Thorne pouted and called her out.

"But I haven’t seen you lose any weight. If anything, you’ve filled out a bit."

Hearing that she’d "filled out a bit," Claire Mercer touched her cheeks. "For real?"

She didn’t have any body image issues, but she was at her ideal weight right now—not too thin, not too heavy.

"You have filled out a little," Roxanne Peyton said. "Looks like a certain someone has been keeping you well-fed with delicious food and drinks every day."

As she spoke, all eyes turned in unison to Adrian Sutton.

"I have to film short videos of making food every day..."

Adrian Sutton hadn’t finished speaking when he was interrupted by a laughing Roxanne Peyton.

"Oh, come on. We all know you’re just using the short videos as an excuse. You just want to cook delicious meals for our Claire, don’t you?"

"You might be able to hide your little intentions from Claire, but you can’t fool us! Hahahaha..."

The group burst into laughter, and Adrian Sutton didn’t deny it.

Meanwhile, a blush quietly crept onto Claire Mercer’s face.

The tips of her ears and her cheeks grew hot.

To hide her blush, she ducked her head in embarrassment and took a gulp of beer.

But the refreshing chill of the beer did nothing to dispel the heat flaming on her earlobes and cheeks.

Then, she glanced up, her eyes unintentionally meeting his smiling gaze.

His gaze was filled with a delicate tenderness, like shattered starlight, and it made her heart skip a beat.

Flustered and shy, she quickly ducked her head again and took another large gulp of beer, trying to hide her embarrassment and the frantic pounding of her heart.