Chapter 281: Chapter 281: She Had Long Since Considered Him Her Own Family
Claire Sinclair felt a sense of loss, and a faint unease.
Photos from the local news channels showed the flood was unusually severe. Large swathes of the city were waterlogged, downstream river regions were inundated, and multiple mudslides had occurred in the mountains, submerging crops and homes alike.
In the hardest-hit area, an entire town was submerged, forcing the local residents to climb a nearby mountain for refuge.
However, the torrential rain continued to fall. The people on the mountain had no shelter, and there was no way for the outside world to deliver relief supplies. Cut off from water, food, and power, they were almost completely isolated.
The name of this town was Garlan Town, Adrian Quincy’s first destination.
She remembered her sister mentioning in a letter one year—she couldn’t recall where the flood had been—that Adrian Quincy had taken her unit to a disaster zone. They were passing through the mountains when a landslide hit, killing one of his comrades. Her sister had cried for a long time over it.
’Where there’s disaster, there’s danger...’
At that moment, Claire Sinclair finally understood her own heart.
’Not seeing him, not hearing from him, not even missing him... it wasn’t that she didn’t care. It was just that she had grown accustomed to him being in the same city, both of them working hard at their own jobs. No matter how mundane life was, it never felt meaningless.’
But now he was about to travel far to a disaster zone to battle the forces of nature, and she hadn’t even gotten to see him one last time.
Her sister’s death had been sudden, without any warning.
’What if he goes to that place and something happens to him, too? What would she do?’
’She had already lost her sister; she didn’t want to lose the only family she had left.’
’That’s right. She had long since come to see him as family.’
’No matter how insecure she felt or how much she wanted to run away, he already held a deep-rooted place in her heart. That place was her love for him. It was her whole life.’
’If he were gone, her life would become meaningless.’
’The more she thought about it, the more unsettled she became.’
Claire Sinclair was too distracted to work. Her mind was filled with thoughts of him.
Just then, Henry Hartwell suddenly strode out of his office and announced loudly, "Noval has been hit hard. The public needs to know what’s happening. Who’s willing to go with me to cover the story?"
The moment he finished speaking, the office fell into a dead silence.
Everyone was afraid of trouble, afraid of natural disasters, and even more afraid of death. No one was willing to go somewhere so dangerous.
Claire Sinclair was just about to raise her hand, but Henry Hartwell spoke first. "Claire, you’re not strong enough to go to a place like that. I’ll go with the main team myself. For now, you can take over my duties."
The people who had managed to last at Astoria Daily were either seasoned veteran reporters or influential figures with connections, like Phoebe Lockwood. Henry Hartwell wasn’t about to force any of them.
Besides, Henry Hartwell knew that even if he did force them to go to the disaster zone, they wouldn’t necessarily be of any help.
As for Claire Sinclair, she was the future first lady. He would never take her to a place like that.
With his instructions given, Henry Hartwell slung a camera and a laptop over his shoulder and set off, taking nothing else with him.
Claire Sinclair didn’t even get a chance to object, and found herself on the receiving end of envious and jealous stares from the others.
At Astoria Daily, aside from the president, Old Master Hartwell, who had never shown his face, the highest authority was Editor-in-Chief Summers. But Editor-in-Chief Summers was still away on a business trip. In his absence, Henry Hartwell had been managing the paper.
Claire Sinclair was just a rookie who had been with the paper for less than six months. Yet, before leaving, Henry Hartwell had handed all his authority over to her. How could the senior staff possibly accept that?
