Everyone’s eyes went wide as they stared at the stage.Was that Reina’s design? Good heavens!A stunning white dress was wheeled onstage. The length, cutting, and decorations were all perfect.One of the participants muttered, “I’ve never seen such an exceptional design…”“I didn’t know the gap between my skill level and hers was that large…”“Reina’s already become Jordan Corporation’s lead designer, so she must be really good. She’s sure to win this year’s competition.”The judges too were praising Reina. “We have our champion.”“Isn’t North still waiting to be judged?”“How could she compare to Reina?”“What do you think, Mr. Leon?”Everyone turned to look at him.The entire hall went silent and held their breath.Leon Sullivan, the most famous designer in the world and the pride of Clarion’s citizens, had a monopoly over the design industry. He also held the competition’s only veto vote.He always wore a mask, so no one knew what he looked like.Reina also looked up s
“The design competition is all about fairness. Is this what you call fairness? You’re deciding on the winner before you’ve even looked at every participant’s design? Since when did the competition get so ridiculous?”Reagan’s expression soured.What did Leon mean by that?! The only participant left was North, so did they even need to look at her design? There was no amount of hard work that would allow her to surpass Reina, anyway!Still, Leon was the competition’s biggest stakeholder, so he could only suck it up and deal with it.“Mr. Soberano, esteemed judges, you don’t have to do this. Let’s follow standard procedure,” Reina said in an understanding tone. “North worked so hard to make it to the finals. You can’t just eliminate her because of me.“North’s my sister. Please give her a chance.”Below the stage, Aunt Christie grumbled irritably, “Reina’s so kind. I don’t know why she’s defending North. How could someone like her compare to Reina?”North laughed mockingly.Onstag
It was exactly the same in every way except the color!North’s dress was black, but it was just like Reina’s in terms of detailing and cutting, among other things.“Why are there two identical dresses?”“S-Someone must have plagiarized the other! But which of them did it?”“Isn’t it obvious? North was the one who plagiarized, of course. Seriously, plagiarizing so brazenly during a competition? Does she think no one will hold her accountable?”The judges and audience glared at her. “How dare you plagiarize her?!”“Do you think we’re blind? What gave you the audacity to do this?!”“I suggest we immediately disqualify North and publicize this on the official website and social media to make an example of her!”“What do you think, Mr. Leon?”Aunt Christie screeched while pointing right at North, “I can’t believe Reina was defending you and getting you another chance! Is this how you repay her? Huh?!”Bryan froze before sending North a disappointed look.Gabriel opened his mouth
“I’ve designed the edges of this dress to look like butterfly wings, making the black lace look different depending on the lighting conditions.”Everyone instinctively looked over.Under the hall’s lighting, the changes in the black butterfly wings were not that obvious. But when North turned on her phone’s flashlight, the audience quickly realized that wherever the light shone, the wings seemed to come to life and shimmer beautifully.Reina instantly understood and paled. “North—”North did not give Reina the chance to speak and continued, “My dress has this effect because I sewed tiny diamonds into the lace.”These diamonds were tiny, but they would produce brilliant colors under bright lighting.“Since the design theme was light, I decided to let light be the revealer of the dress’s beauty. With light, it can show all its beauty but in darkness, it’s just a regular black dress.”After North’s explanation, the audience did not say much but some of the designers thought that it
Reina suddenly breathed a sigh of relief in response.Thank goodness… she thought North would have some trick up her sleeve. Turns out she just wanted to see the footage.Sadly, there were no cameras in the design studios. At least, not in hers.So, she wanted to prove her innocence with the footage? North had miscalculated!Reina deliberately said, “North, if there were cameras, of course I’d help you prove your innocence. But you know there aren’t any in the design studios. If you keep making a scene…”Reina was trying to hint to everyone that North was kicking up a fuss for nothing and trying to stall for time.If there were no cameras, and yet she was insisting on using them to prove her innocence, then why would she say that? Clearly, she was just delaying them and trying to make things difficult.However, before Reina was done, North smiled mysteriously.“Reina… Who said there weren’t any cameras in the studios?”Who said there weren’t any cameras in the studios?Reina
North wanted to prove her innocence, but Reina was doing everything in her power to stop her. Anyone with common sense could tell something was wrong.At that moment, since Leon had asked Reagan specifically, he did not have the guts to disagree. “Yes, yes. Don’t worry, Reina. Once we prove North’s plagiarized you, I’ll make sure justice will be served!”Bryan frowned slightly. He could not bear to see Reina cry so hard.But when he heard what Reagan said, he changed his mind. Reagan was right. Why would Reina plagiarize? Surely, the plagiarist was someone else. Even if it was not North, it was probably someone close to her.Once they played the footage, Reina’s innocence would be proven, and North would be defenseless.With that, Bryan let out a sigh of relief and said nothing.However, Reina was about to faint. She could not let them play the footage! She thought the studio did not have cameras, so she did not bother trying to avoid them. If they played the footage, her reputat
The tables turned immediately.“What do you have to say for yourself, Reina?! You’re the plagiarist, and you lied to us all!”Reina’s face turned red and she almost could not breathe. Her face turned white, then red again. She was humiliated.Why? Why her? She had schemed for so many years. Why should North get to win again?She could not let North beat her. She could not!“There must be… some kind of misunderstanding…” Reina said tearfully, crying right then and there with such sadness and pain that everyone exchanged confused looks.“I’ve survived so much hardship… I know that plagiarism scandals are devastating for a designer’s reputation. Why would I plagiarize just to win a competition?”Everyone fell silent.She was right. Everyone saw how much Reina had achieved within the past few years. She did not need to destroy everything she had just to win.It just was not worth it to risk plagiarism.Bryan finally could not take it anymore and teared up. “There must be some sor
“Star’s student, my foot! Star must be terribly unlucky to have a student like her!”“Get out of the design industry, Reina! Out!”Reina gasped in shock.What should she do? What should she do?The situation had been completely in her control, but it was all ruined by a few seconds of security footage. How?!That b*tch, North had just destroyed her future!What should she do? What could she do?That was it! Star… She was not here, and Reagan was her student… So… With that Reina suddenly jerked her head up. “Wait! Listen to me, everyone!”Everyone looked at her. North raised an eyebrow, curious to see what other tricks Reina had up her sleeve.Reina took a deep breath and shook her head tearfully. “I’m sorry, everyone. I admit I did not complete those two dresses on my own and I do not deserve to be called a winner, but North didn’t design those two dresses either!“Because the blueprints for both dresses were actually a gift to me from Star! I was blinded by selfishness and v
He moved his wrists and frowned.Did North sleep for the entire day? Was she disoriented?North sat by the bed with nothing to do. She watched as time passed. Strange, why wasn’t she awake yet? Was she that sleepy? Could it be that the advanced exam questions were too difficult and she did not want to wake up?North could not help but think about the questions. Hmm… they did not seem very difficult. She had thought of a solution!Indeed, people had endless potential when they were dreaming. They could even come up with answers to such difficult questions!North was afraid that she would forget and wanted to wake up quickly, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not wake up. She closed her eyes and opened them again, but she was still in the room.North frowned and muttered to herself, “What’s going on…?”Gerald looked at her silently.He also wanted to ask what was going on.“North, do you need my help?”North hesitated. Even though it was a dream, she was still a littl
North exclaimed in surprise.It turned out that Gerald could be sarcastic too!Gerald did not give Patricia any time to react. He was just short of chasing the entire Bracken family out.While the Bracken family was leaving, Gerald heard Mike grumble, “Mom… If you knew this was going to happen, why didn’t you adjust your act earlier!”Patricia was furious. “I did all of this for you. How could you fall for Gerald’s tricks?!”“But Gerald was right. They suspect that I’m not Paige’s son because of you!”…Giselle’s smile became more and more sarcastic. When the Bracken family disappeared, he said, “Accompany me pay respects to Paige. Also, get someone to clean Glass Manor inside and out.”He wanted to get rid of the bad vibes the Bracken family had brought in.…A few days later, when they returned to Royal Sights Residences, the Bracken family actually stopped causing trouble.North was about to graduate, and she had one final exam. She saw the class group chat exchanging adva
“Why? Do you think that I’ve forgotten how Paige died?”Giselle never expected that this shameless family would have the audacity to make an issue out of Paige’s death.“You make it sound so simple. Even if Patricia dies today, you would never disregard her last wishes. Is everything you do for the good of the Bracken family?“Still, the only person the Bracken family has ever had to sacrifice was Paige!”Virgil snapped, “Nonsense! I’m Paige’s biological father, how could I…”Giselle sneered. “Stop putting on an act. You didn’t look for your daughter when she was missing. You didn’t feel sorry for your daughter when she returned. You kept asking her to tolerate the adopted daughter. When she was sick, you even stopped her treatment so that she would die and let your adopted daughter marry her husband.“Virgil, I’m sick. I’m not dead yet, and I haven’t lost my memory. If this happens again, I’ll destroy the entire Bracken family!”Giselle looked at the bodyguards she had brought
The surroundings suddenly fell silent.Virgil found it hard to breathe. “Let go! Are you crazy?!”“I’m asking you a question. Where is Paige buried? Tell me!”Virgil’s brain was deprived of oxygen. Without thinking, he roared, “How would I know? Let go, you crazy woman!”Patricia screamed, “Madam Giselle, what are you doing? Let go of him. Do you want Dad to die?”Gerald’s second uncle also shouted, “Madam Giselle, why are you doing this to us? Don’t treat your husband like this!”“You don’t know? You don’t know at all, do you?” Giselle ignored everyone. She looked unremorseful. She scoffed.“You claim to be severely depressed about your daughter’s death,” Giselle retorted. “Despite that, you actually don’t know where your daughter’s grave is!”As soon as she finished speaking, the entire place fell silent.When Virgil realized what he had just said, his face turned pale and he stopped screaming. He trembled as he spoke to Giselle hatefully. “You did this on purpose…”That wa
Mike said weakly, “North, we paid our respects to my mother before we went out today. We didn’t say anything because we were afraid that Grandpa wouldn’t be able to accept it.”As expected, Virgil clutched his chest and looked like he was about to faint.Patricia cried out, “Gerald, are you satisfied now that your grandfather is trembling in anger? We’ve kept it a secret for so many years. Despite that…”Everyone sighed. So, that was how it was.It was indeed Ms. Paige’s death anniversary today. However, the old man had fallen into a state of depression from the intense guilt. He then mistakenly thought that his daughter had passed away in May.As his family, Patricia and Mike could not bear to make the old man feel more guilty. Thus, they maintained the facade.In fact, they would pay their respects to Paige every year.This made sense. After all, Virgil was old and could not stand such harsh emotions.The people from the Bracken family jumped on this chance to scold Gerald. “
Everyone was dumbfounded. North was really bold!North blinked. “What’s wrong, Mr. Virgil? Why are you so angry? Did I say something wrong?”“What nonsense! Paige is my daughter! How could I intentionally let her die?!”North widened her eyes. “I didn’t say that you intentionally let her die! It’s just that the Bracken family didn’t like her and looked down on her. The medical staff didn’t care about her either. In the end, they didn’t even treat her and let her die.“I know. It’s not your fault. After all, you were so busy. How could you have the time to take care of a daughter you don’t love?”Virgil clutched his chest. “What nonsense…! Shut up!”“North!” Patricia screamed. “Gerald, are you just going to watch her anger your grandfather? Your grandfather’s health isn’t good…”“What did I say wrong?”North sighed. “Look at what Mr. Virgil said. Ms. Paige passed away at the end of May, so why didn’t he treat her for two whole months from the end of March to the end of May?“Th
Mike knew that he had fallen into North’s trap and was speechless!He was so anxious that his expression changed. His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and huge beads of sweat dripped down. “Um… I…”“Mike!” Patricia saw that the situation was not good, so she hurriedly interrupted Mike and pulled him behind her.Then, she took a deep breath and pretended to be helpless and upset.“Gerald, what nonsense are you talking about?! We’re family. If you have anything you’re upset about, just tell me. There’s no need to cause trouble at the banquet and make an issue out of Paige’s death anniversary!“We’re all Paige’s family, and Dad is also Paige’s biological father. How can we not know when her death anniversary is?“Paige’s death anniversary is at the end of May. It’s not today at all. You… You’re too much!”Virgil looked aggrieved. He nodded and said, “That’s right. Paige’s death anniversary is in May. Gerald, I know you don’t want to give up her inheritance. Moreover, I didn’t fo
Everyone’s eyes fell on Gerald.Gerald looked up slowly and said calmly, “Ms. Patricia, why did you choose today to hold a banquet for Mike?”“It doesn’t matter what day I chose!” Patricia roared.“So, you did choose the date.”Gerald looked down at Patricia from above. His cold gaze made Patricia suddenly feel suffocated.Her “son” had a murderous look in his eyes. “Any other day would have been fine, but not today.”Patricia hated the look in Gerald’s eyes the most. Why was he so arrogant? Why was he looking down on her? Why was he like that b*tch?She screamed, “Gerald, I’m your mother! Mike is your brother! It’s fine if you don’t love me, but you keep finding fault with me. What right do you have—”“Today is the anniversary of Paige’s death.”Gerald interrupted her.Patricia’s face turned pale, and the words that she wanted to say were stuck in her throat. The scene instantly fell silent.What did Gerald say? What day was it today?Today was the anniversary of Paige’s d
Patricia felt a lump in her throat. “You…”“Connor, come out.” North interrupted her.Then, a group of people dressed in black walked out of nowhere and played mournful music. Connor walked in the middle and placed a memorial tablet on the table.Everyone looked at the memorial tablet curiously, wanting to know whose memorial tablet it was. When everyone saw the name “Paige”, they instantly fell silent.North and Gerald paid their respects. Then, they placed the bouquets beside the memorial tablet.Their actions stunned everyone.Had they come to pay respects to Paige?Patricia was trembling. She stared fixedly at Paige’s name on the memorial tablet. She clenched her fists.Paige!Gerald had paid his respects to Paige at a banquet for Mike. Was he crazy?! She was so unlucky! Paige was already dead, but she was still the center of attention at Mike’s banquet!After paying her respects, North turned around. “What are you waiting for? Aren’t you going to pay your respects?”