His First Love Modeled My Winning Design

Chapter 3

On the day of the competition awards show, I went straight backstage as one of the participating designers to give my work a final check.

As I looked at the exquisite finished garment, my eyes stung with tears.

I had pulled more all-nighters for this competition than I could count.

I thought of the table buried under discarded sketches, my fingertips blistered and bloodied by needles, and the countless patterns I'd scrapped and started over at 3 a.m., again and again...

For all of it, Evander had given me just one comment.

"You just love making things hard for yourself."

Yet people who actually understood the work had seen its value, and that recognition had brought me here to receive this award.

Just as I was checking the garment, the door opened.

It was Chloe's team.

She had gone all out promoting her first runway show since coming home, and reporters crowded in with her.

The moment Chloe saw me standing there, she let out a shriek.

"You still won't leave me alone?"

Then she crumpled to the floor and started sobbing.

"I never forced Evander to love me. Why are you taking revenge on me like this? Was humiliating me not enough? Do you have to ruin my first show and make a fool of me too...?"

The reporters collectively gasped at the explosive revelation.

Cameras and microphones swung toward me at once, flashes firing so brightly I could barely keep my eyes open.

"Ms. Reed, please ask the media to leave. I'm the designer for your outfit in today's show..."

"Designer?"

Chloe's voice turned cold.

"Do you even know I'm wearing a Gold Award-winning designer's work? A single embellishment on this outfit is worth more than your entire studio! What kind of designer are you? You run some little knockoff sexy-lingerie shop."

The reporters latched onto the phrase and broke into lewd snickers.

Their filthy gazes crawled over my body.

Chloe's agent stepped forward.

"Where are the bodyguards? Get this troublemaker out of here!"

"I'm the Gold Award-winning designer for this competition!" My voice trembled with panic, tears stinging my eyes. "You can't take me away!"

I'd poured everything I had into this outfit. If I couldn't see it displayed at its best on the model, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

Everyone scoffed when they heard that.

"She'll make up anything to frame Ms. Reed. Gold Award-winning designer? Please..."

"Look how suspicious she is. She obviously found some way to sneak in..."

"How could she ever compare to Ms. Reed? And she's still harassing Ms. Reed's boyfriend! I bet the only reason she got close to Mr. Parker in the first place was by using some dirty trick to get into his bed."

Amid their mocking laughter, the bodyguards restrained me and pinned me to the floor.

"You say you're the Gold Award-winning designer and we're just supposed to believe you? Where's your proof?"

Chloe got to her feet and looked down at me.

"If you can produce an invitation or something, then we'll believe you."

I froze. Designers didn't need invitations.

Seeing me fall silent, Chloe and the others looked even more triumphant.

"No invitation? Then you must have sneaked in, right?"

"Who would believe you're the Gold Award-winning designer without one?"

Chloe's agent ordered the bodyguards to take me away while Chloe folded her arms and watched me smugly.

"You almost pulled it off. Good thing I was prepared. Just wait for my legal notice. We'll sue you until you're bankrupt."

The bodyguards dragged me out like a piece of trash and dumped me into a janitor's closet.

They threw me inside, and I knocked over a bucket. Filthy water splashed all over me, leaving me soaked and humiliated.

Outside, the runway show had already begun.

I later learned that Evander had been sitting in the VIP section. On the runway, Chloe wore the Gold Award-winning designer's creation and looked almost otherworldly beneath the lights.

From the way he watched her, it was obvious he felt vindicated, as though only a woman like Chloe was worthy of him.

When the runway show ended, the host stepped onto the stage.

"Next, please welcome Elowen Collins, winner of the Gold Award in the design competition, to the stage to give her acceptance speech!"

Evander's face went white in an instant.