Chapter 6

There was a wave of controversy on the internet about a certain artist plagiarizing from another fellow artist.

The artists in question were none other than Cecil and Amelia, who were holding an exhibition on the same day.

Cecil looked at the illustrations made by the netizens on her phone.

It was a side-by-side comparison of two similar paintings, along with a reference that indicated how similar the composition and color chart were.

It did not take long before the topic “Cecil Miller is an imposter” became viral and went to the top of the trending topic list.

Her friends crowded around her, all of them as anxious as the other.

“How could they accuse you of plagiarism? The shirt you are wearing in this picture is from our high school! Are they stupid?”

“That's right! This is Cecil herself! We can vouch for you!“

“Amelia is the one who is plagiarizing your art. How shameless!”

Cecil stayed calm and rational the entire time.

The first thing she did was rush back home to collect her draft so she could prove her innocence.

She felt her head spinning the entire time.

She recalled a specific episode from when she was just starting as an artist.

At the time, she was only eighteen years old.

It was shortly after Cleo stopped picking her up after school.

She was rushing back home with her exam report that showed she had managed to come in first place in her grade.

She wanted to show it to Cleo to impress him.

When she got home, the room was very quiet.

She found Cleo slumped against his table and asleep. She gently tiptoed to his side.

The auburn glow of the setting sun beat against his profile.

It made him seem more mesmerizing than ever, as if he had come straight out of a fairy tale.

She decided that she must be the one destined for him in this fairy tale.

She covered his face with the exam report and planted a gentle kiss.

Cleo was awakened by the rustling movement and ended up telling her off again.

However, she did not take his lecture to heart and ended up setting the scene to her canvas.

She kept the painting for many years after that.

Now that she had finally moved on from him and needed quick cash, she put that painting into the exhibition as well.

Little did she know, it was to her ruin.

When she got home, she searched everywhere in the house but could not find the initial draft, no matter how hard she looked.

She began to panic and tried to jog her memory to figure out where she had put it.

Around this point, she received a text on her phone.

It was a friend who sent her a link and urgently beckoned her to open it.

She tapped the link and immediately saw Amelia’s face show up on the screen.

Her heart dropped when she saw the panel behind Amelia with the words “Press Conference” printed on it.

It was a live broadcast, and Amelia seemed especially stoic.

She was in the middle of giving a statement addressing the plagiarism accusations, then she began to describe the process of her drawing.

Shortly after that, she revealed the first draft she brought with her and showed it to the reporters and cameras.

“I am very close with Cecil, the up-and-coming artist who has been named in the plagiarism controversy.

“She is a young, innocent girl, and I believe she did not do it to be malicious; it was just a mistake, and I don’t blame her for what happened.”

With the press conference, the collective opinion of the public immediately shifted toward Amelia’s side.

A whole wave of people flocked toward Cecil’s account and began to hurl insults and criticism at her, the comments numbered up to a hundred thousand.

Meanwhile, yet another topic went trending:

[The Daughter of the Wrights Just Kissed the President of Emerson Corporation! A Love Story is Budding Before Our Eyes!]

There was a video that followed the article.

In the video, Cleo was seen arriving at the press conference in a sports car. As soon as he showed up, Amelia ran up to him and threw herself into his arms with a beaming smile the entire time.

The couple shared an intimate embrace before burrowing into the car.

Moments before the privacy screen came up, the camera managed to catch a glimpse of them sharing a passionate kiss.

Their relationship had become public even when they had just started dating and drew in a large following over time.

A lot of the fanbase poured in with a string of comments.

[So sweet! Oh my God, I can’t!]

[No! Don’t put up the privacy screen! I want to see all of it!]

[I heard Cleo is Cecil's uncle. If you consider Cecil and Amelia’s recent plagiarism scandal and the fact that Cleo vouched for Amelia right away, doesn’t that basically prove that Cecil is guilty as charged?]

Cecil swiped out of the comment section with a numb expression.

Then, she watched as countless notifications poured in, all of them from people criticizing her.

They accused her of malpractice, lacking basic decency, and for being a poor artist in general.

Some of them dialed it up further and began to insult her family as well.

They began to make comments about her lack of manners and that she was poor.

At one point, her finger hovered stiffly over the display, and she began to tremble from head to toe.

A single tear fell on the screen of her phone.

The text on the display was blurred, but that was not enough to censor the pain inside her.

She called Cleo.