Chapter 6: The plagiarism

I was relaxing and analyzing a few designs from the design magazine when Cordelia barged into my room "Ana did you reject Liam? Why would you do that? Didn't you love him and wanted to be with him?" She was shaking with anger but I could see that she was trying to keep her emotions in check. I rolled my eyes " yes Cori, I rejected him so what? And no I didn't love him it was just a meaningless crush." She looked like she would punch me any minute now. I just gave her a bored look and continued reading. She snatched the magazine from my hand and kept it aside. She was trying to act like a sweet and caring sister "Ana is everything okay? I know you are in a denial. I know you still love him, why don't you give him a chance and I know he loves you too, or he wouldn't have asked you out." She was looking at me expecting me to give in to her sugar-coated lies " you sure know him well, don't you Cordelia? How do you know he loves me, and he's good for me? How do you know he wouldn't break my heart? How do you know he wants to be with me for love and not for my money?” Her face had paled after hearing me. "Ahh...I ... I just want what's best for you sis, you know that right?” I had enough of her farce "And the best thing for me is to stay away from Liam. I'm over the stupid crush I had on him so now if you'll excuse me I have to prepare for the competition...... and close the door when you walk out".

Third person's POV -

Cordelia walked out perplexed and livid “Even if you don't love him dear sister I'm gonna make sure you end up marrying him by hook or by crook. No one can stop me from achieving my goals, all this will belong to me” she gritted her teeth. She called Liam "Time to take the next step sweetheart, make sure you keep everything ready. As soon as we get the opportunity we'll make the most of it” she couldn't wait to carry on her evil plans and ruin Anastasia. 'Now I have to make sure she doesn't win this stupid competition' she thought. 

The next day Anastasia was waiting for her results, they had already announced 45 names, and she started getting anxious. When it was time to announce the 50th name she thought she didn't make it. However, suddenly two names were announced “Anastasia Kimberly and Eva Matthew please come to the principal's office”

She was unable to comprehend the situation. In her last life, she had easily made it to the finals but this was something she didn't expect. She made it to the office and when she entered she saw three other people in the room with the principal. 'Hades! What was he doing here again?' she was in a daze and suddenly another girl entered the room. “Anastasia and Eva, do you know why you both have been called here?” She was clueless, she just wanted to know the results and now here she was in the principal's office doing god knows what. She shook her head and looked around her gaze locking with Hades who was sitting calmly and exuding an aura that represented a king on his throne. “Both of you have submitted the same designs in the first round. Now we don't know which one of you has plagiarized here, but we do know that one of you is innocent. If it were up to me I would have disqualified both of you and not waste time, however, Mr. Shaw who is one of the sponsors and judge disagrees and wants to make sure the innocent one does not suffer. Also, this is one of the best designs we have in the competition so it'll only be fair to give a chance to such a talent” Anastasia was dumbfounded, she knew she wasn't the one to plagiarize and looked at Eva. She hadn't met this girl before so how did she manage to get her work. It suddenly clicked her, it was Cordelia. She had the access to her room and must have managed to give her work to Eva to get her disqualified from the competition. She clenched her fist and was finding it hard to focus on the conversation anymore. Hades was observing her every action and emotion on her face. He knew she was innocent, he had investigated about her enough to know that she was talented and didn't need to plagiarize someone else's work. He wanted to help her, so he suggested a solution to the principal. “Both of you have a week to give us new designs, and we'll be the judge from there, however, we'll also be investigating this situation further and the culprit will be expelled immediately,” Hades noticed how Eva became restless after hearing this and smirked. He looked at Anastasia who was already looking at him, he smiled and winked at her. She blushed and looked away. She thanked everyone and left the room. Hades followed her out and called her “Anastasia!” She turned to look at him without responding. He cupped his right ear leaning forward “I still can't hear a thank you" Anastasia just rolled her eyes “why are you doing this? You don't even know me. All we do is fight when we meet. I can't even stand you. And nobody helps another person without wanting something in return” she said exasperatedly. Hades couldn't help but smirk “I know you enough love! And to answer the rest of your questions I like you and I want to pursue you, just trying to get into your good books. And you are right I want something in return,” he said and winked. She scoffed not believing any word he said “Look Mr. I'll save the damsel in distress, I don't need a knight in shining armor so you can go help someone else. You'll get nothing in return from me even if you help and as for you liking me I'm flattered but I'm not interested so leave me be” saying this she left him standing frozen. Hades was amused at her actions. No one had ever spoken to him the way she did, they feared him too much or tried to win favors by fawning on him but the girl didn't even care. He already knew it wouldn't be easy to pursue her and had to be patient but this conversation made him even more determined to have her in his life "you'll be mine Love, no matter how much you deny it, I'll make you fall in love with me!”

Anastasia on the other hand was flustered and didn't know what to make out of the confession. She had a lot of admirers in the last life but her eyes were only on Liam, but now when someone confessed to her she didn't know how to feel, but she knew she didn't want to repeat the same mistakes, she couldn't trust easily, she didn't have any space for love again in this life.