After He Fled the Wedding Ninth Time, I Left

Chapter 5

And yet, Genevieve had taken first place in the design competition with the stolen Ascendance gown.

Overnight, she became the undisputed star, the most sought-after name in the fashion world, with haute couture appointments booked six months in advance and admirers flocking around her wherever she went.

And I deliberately chose the moment of her greatest triumph to press send.

A yellowed but painfully clear original sketch of the Ascendance gown appeared online, complete with my personal design notes, layers of revision marks, and even the coffee stain I had accidentally left on it back then.

I tagged Genevieve's account directly.

Aurora: How does it feel to steal someone else's lifeblood and win an award with it? You have taken on all those haute couture orders using my design. Can you even deliver them? Do you possess a single shred of real talent?

The moment the post went live, the internet exploded.

Within hours, the topic was trending everywhere, and the comments section flooded instantly.

Netizen A: Wait, what? Genevieve's award-winning piece was plagiarized?

Netizen B: The original draft is right there. The notations and the design logic? Clearly not her style at all.

Netizen C: I knew it. She was painfully average before, and then suddenly she pulls a masterwork like Ascendance out of nowhere? That was stolen.

Netizen D: Are you serious? A plagiarist won first place? Were the organizers blind?

Genevieve's account was instantly besieged. The millions of followers she had just gained began hemorrhaging by the second.

She panicked and rushed out a few vague, evasive statements, but she could not produce a single convincing argument. She could not even explain the design concept properly.

Sitting in front of my computer screen, I smiled as I watched her get torn apart by the public. A deep, long-trapped satisfaction finally began to rise in my chest.

I was just about to release the full evidence and destroy Genevieve's reputation once and for all when the door to my rented apartment was shoved open with brutal force.

Sebastian strode in.

His eyes dropped to my screen, and his face darkened into something thunderous.

"Aurora. So it was you behind this. How can you be this vicious? Must you see Genevieve completely destroyed before you are satisfied? Do you have any idea what she has been through these past days? Crying until she makes herself sick, attempting suicide more than once. Do you understand how much she is suffering?"

I did not bother to hide the hatred in my eyes and nodded without hesitation.

"Yes. I want her reputation destroyed. I want her branded as a plagiarist for the rest of her life."

"Her suffering is exactly what she deserves. It is the price of stealing someone else's work. It is the punishment for being a thief."

He stared at me, disappointment written across every feature.

"I never knew you could be so vicious before. You have truly disappointed me. This is your last chance. Retract everything right now, or I swear you will regret it."

I laughed.

I was the one who should have been disappointed.

The man I had loved for ten years, the man who had abandoned me at the altar nine times for another woman, now stood before me, relentless and eager to shove me into the abyss.

My voice came out ice-cold.

"Why should I retract anything? She stole my work. She entered that competition with it. Genevieve deserves every bit of what is happening to her."

The moment I finished speaking, Sebastian let out a cold laugh and muttered a low string of "fine, fine."

Then he pulled out his phone and made a call.

"Cut the ventilator in Ward 512. Remove the imported brainwave monitor as well. Pull the entire medical team from that room. No further treatment is authorized without my direct order."

At his words, the smile froze on my face, and my heart turned to ice in my chest.

Ward 512 was my grandmother's room. She had been kept alive by those machines ever since she fell down the stairs a year ago. If they were turned off, I could not bear to imagine what would follow.

She was the only family I had left in this world. She was the one person I would fight with everything I had to protect.

Sebastian stood over me, his gaze cold and completely devoid of warmth.

He knew exactly where all my weaknesses lay. He knew precisely how to break me.

"Sebastian, you cannot do this. She is my grandmother. She is innocent."

He raised an eyebrow, his tone casually cruel.

"If you do not retract it, then your grandmother pays the price for your stubbornness. I will count to three. One."

My fists clenched so hard my nails bit deep into my palms.

My pride in my work and the truth I had fought to defend meant nothing when weighed against my grandmother's life.

"Two."

"I will retract it."

Sebastian's lips curled into a victor's smirk. He pocketed his phone and looked down at my broken state.

"There we are. If only you had been this obedient from the start."

I stood frozen in place, trembling from head to foot. From the very beginning, I had never stood a real chance, because Sebastian had never once been on my side.

Aurora: I apologize. The accusations I made previously were false. I fabricated them out of jealousy toward Ms. Genevieve Knight. I was the one who plagiarized, not her. I accept full responsibility for my actions and offer my sincere apology to Ms. Genevieve Knight."

The moment I hit send, it felt as if every bit of strength had been drained from my body. I swayed where I stood.

Within minutes, the internet erupted all over again, and the abuse poured in from every direction.

Netizen E: I knew she was rotten. How could a legitimate competition have a plagiarism scandal this absurd?

Netizen F: Jealous to the point of insanity. How dare she sling that kind of mud? People will do absolutely anything for attention these days.

Netizen G: How can someone like this even show her face in public? Absolute trash. Just go crawl away and die.

Every single word cut like a blade driven straight into my chest.

I was the victim, and yet now I had become the thief the whole world hated.

Not long after, my phone rang. It was the competition's organizing committee.

A cold voice on the other end delivered the verdict. "Ms. Sterling, for malicious slander and spreading falsehoods online, your fourth-place ranking is hereby revoked, and you are permanently banned from all future competitions."

The tears I had been fighting finally spilled over. I could not hold them back any longer.

My ragged sobs echoed through the silent room.

Sebastian stood a short distance away. A flicker of something that almost looked like guilt and pity crossed his face. He walked over, placed his hands on my shoulders, and spoke in a low, soothing tone.

"Aurora, do not cry. It is all right. I know this was unfair to you. Once you have recovered, I will personally host a competition just for you. You will be my first-place winner."