Chapter 4

Scarlett's POV

Three days later, the storm hit right on schedule.

It was mid-morning, and I had just finished an agonizing session of occupational nerve therapy. Sweat was still beading on my forehead.

The moment I stepped back into the room, my phone on the nightstand went berserk with notifications.

Picking it up with my left hand, I opened X, and several trending tags with bold red "VIRAL" markers slammed into my view:

#Chloe Launches Debut Jewelry Line "Awakening"#

#Scarlett Accused of Stealing Rookie Designer Chloe's Work#

#Chloe The Genius Crossover Designer#

#Boycott Scarlett Out of the Industry#

Chloe had made her move. Fast, loud, and massive.

I clicked on the top trending post.

An hour ago, Chloe's verified account had posted a polished photo carousel.

Nine breathtaking jewelry design concepts were showcased—the exact "Awakening" collection I had spent six months slaving over.

Her caption read:

"From the screen to the drafting board, every new journey is a rebirth. This is 'Awakening,' a collection I poured my soul into for half a year, hoping to bring everyone the warmth of spring. On a side note, I heard a certain senior industry figure was working on a suspiciously similar concept recently. I truly hope it's just a coincidence. Original art isn't easy to create, after all. [Heart]"

The second that post went live, Lucas's agency PR network mobilized, driving the narrative at full throttle.

Several design commentary accounts boasting tens of millions of followers posted simultaneously, dropping "insider scoops." They hinted that my inspiration had completely dried up and that, crippled by my hand injury, I had secretly swiped Chloe's portfolio to stage a comeback—only for Chloe to beat me to the punch.

Online mobs never cared about facts; they just wanted someone to tear apart.

Between Chloe's calculated PR spin and Lucas's tacit backing, my comment sections were overrun by an absolute bloodbath of hate.

"Some 'genius designer.' Turns out she's just a pathetic thief! Disgusting!"

"If your hand is broken, just retire! Stealing from a rookie? Have some shame!"

"Boycott Scarlett! Kick her out of the design world!"

"Stealing from a newcomer is a new low. Cancel her permanently!"

Someone even leaked my hospital location, with trolls threatening to show up with buckets of red paint.

The hospital's administration called my room in a panic, asking if I needed an immediate transfer to dodge the paparazzi.

Looking at the vile abuse flooding the screen, I didn't feel an ounce of panic. If anything, I felt perfectly calm.

"No need to transfer," I told the PR manager over the phone, my tone frosty. "I just need access to the projector and whiteboard in the top-floor conference room. I'm going live in thirty minutes."

Hanging up, I ignored the rabid comments, logged into the secured server, and downloaded the true, uncorrupted master archive.

Thirty minutes later, inside the empty conference room on the top floor.

No makeup. No glamorous setup.

I sat in an oversized striped hospital gown, my right arm locked in a thick plaster cast and held up by a black sling. Completely barefaced, pale as a ghost, but projecting an untouchable aura of authority.

I propped my phone on a small tripod and hit the live broadcast button.

Because the scandal was raging, the second the stream went live, over a hundred thousand viewers flooded in. The live chat was an unreadable blur of pure toxicity.

[A plagiarist actually has the guts to go live?]

[Get on your knees and apologize to Chloe!]

[Look at her acting all pathetic in a hospital bed trying to play the victim! Don't fall for it!]

I didn't spare the chat a single glance. Using my left hand to navigate the trackpad, I fired up the projector behind me.

The massive wall lit up, casting my laptop screen across the room.

"My name is Scarlett. Regarding Chloe's debut of the 'Awakening' collection and her claims of plagiarism, I will only say this once."

My voice wasn't booming, and lingering physical exhaustion left it slightly raspy, but the sheer, unwavering composure in my tone miraculously forced the rapid-fire abuse in the comments to slow down.

"Chloe claims this collection was the result of six months of hard work. Coincidentally, I have an 'Awakening' collection of my own. Since everyone is so eager to find out who the real creator is, let's take a little public class on raw file metadata."

I opened a project directory on the projected screen.

"This is the very first concept sketch for 'Awakening.'"

I pulled up a rough pencil-textured draft. "Creation timestamp: November 4th of last year, at exactly 2:14 AM. Chloe, did your lightning bolt of inspiration happen to strike at this exact same second?"

A few viewers started pushing back: [Anyone can change their system clock! That proves nothing!]

I scoffed. "Change the clock? Fair enough. Let's look at something you can't fake."

I opened the complex master file for the signature necklace and imported it into the design software.

"I reviewed the nine images Chloe posted today. They look great. Beautiful rendering, stunning lighting. Unfortunately, she only managed to steal the skin."

Using my left hand with steady, deliberate clicks, I began deconstructing the layers one by one. Under my commands, the gorgeous necklace was stripped down to line art, base flats, highlights, and shadow maps—spanning over a hundred distinct layers.

"Anyone who actually designs jewelry knows that a complex piece requires endless revisions. Look at this petal layer right here,"

I zoomed in on a microscopic detail. "There's an abandoned line correction trace here. On February 12th of this year, I hid this vector guide layer because I wasn't happy with the curve. In the high-res render Chloe posted, if you blow it up fifty times, you will still see a tiny cluster of pixel noise left behind when that hidden layer was flattened into the final image."

The tone of the live chat shifted instantly. Professional designers and neutral viewers began chiming in:

"Holy shit, the line trace is actually there! I just zoomed in on Chloe's post, there's literally a noise artifact right at that spot!"

"You can only get leftover guide noise like that from raw working project files!"

"Chloe only showed flattened JPEGs. Scarlett is breaking down the entire root directory live."

That was only the beginning. My gaze sharpened into steel.

"If that's still not enough proof, then I suggest Chloe and the legal team at Lucas's agency take a very close look at this next video."

I clicked play on a video file.

The footage clearly showed a desktop recording of an ongoing intrusion.

From breaching the firewall, to navigating straight into the directory named "Scarlett_Cloud," to downloading the bait archive for "Awakening"—every click, every keystroke was laid bare.

And the fatal blow: pinned in the bottom right corner of the screen, the tracking script displayed the intruder's physical IP and MAC address in crisp, undeniable detail!

"This is a screen recording from three days ago, documenting an illegal intrusion into my private server to steal my design files. Anyone with basic tech knowledge can look up this IP address—it routes directly to the internal network at the headquarters of Lucas's entertainment agency."

I turned away from the wall and stared straight into the phone camera lens. In that moment, my gaze pierced through the screen, aimed straight for Chloe's and Lucas's throats.

"Chloe, when you talked about your 'blood, sweat, and tears,' did you mean hiring a hacker to break into the computer of a crippled woman lying in a hospital bed, stealing a deliberately flawed bait file, slapping your name on it, and rushing to post it first?!"

"Who gave you the audacity?!"

Every word landed like a thunderclap, blowing the entire stream wide open.

After two seconds of stunned, breathless silence, the live chat exploded with sheer madness—and this time, the tides flipped entirely!

"HOLY CRAP! The ultimate reverse card!"

"This isn't copying, this is grand larceny! This is a straight-up felony!"

"I just pinged the IP, it really belongs to Lucas's agency! Wow!"

"Chloe pretending to be an innocent angel while being a literal thief? I'm gonna puke!"

"Scarlett is the real genius! What an absolute queen of a takedown!"

"Kick Chloe out of the industry! Throw her in jail!"

The trending topics inverted in real time:

"Scarlett Exposes Hacker Screen Recording"

"Chloe Steals Design Portfolio"

"Lucas's Agency Harboring a Criminal"

From being reviled by the entire internet to having the whole world in my corner, it took less than thirty minutes. My account's follower count skyrocketed at a terrifying pace, pulling in over five million new followers overnight!