A Call That Changed Her Entire Life

Chapter 13 Go Home Emily

"The designer of this brooch is clearly the well-deserved champion of this competition!"

The four judges, after coming to an agreement, all looked at Victor with eager eyes, expecting to hear an answer from the talent who had not said anything to conclude their discussion.

"First prize for this designer?" they asked cautiously. Victor, however, remained undisturbed as he moved on to the next paper with his long and elegant fingers. When the paper slowly showed itself, everyone was caught in astonishment.

The design drawn on the next paper was exactly the same as the one they had just highly commended!

A shroud of silence descended upon all the judges.

Meanwhile, the contestants did not know what was going on with the judges. They waited for the judges' verdict with nervous anticipation, Emily included.

At last the winners of the competition were announced. The third prize was awarded to Chou and the second prize, to Kary. No one was surprised by the result since the two designers were highly appreciated by the judges. However, who was going to be awarded with the first prize? Everyone waited anxiously for the result.

Finally, when the last drawing was slowly unveiled on the screen, everyone in the audience reacted with "oohs" and "ahhs".

The moment Emily saw the drawing on the screen, her heart skipped a beat. She felt like her heart was about to leap out of her throat!

Obviously! It was her drawing!

Emily sneaked a peek at Victor who was sitting among the other judges of the competition. It wasn't until this moment that Emily had the full courage to look directly at Victor.

Victor had noticed that Emily was staring at him. Much to Emily's surprise, he glanced back at Emily with calm eyes. Emily saw something oddly inexplicable in his eyes; something she could not understand.

Out of politeness, Emily quickly took her eyes off of Victor. She was overwhelmed with happiness and excitement, despite the fact that she did not understand what the oddity in Victor's eyes was about.

After a long and anticipated wait, not only did she get the chance to stand before her respected artist, she even found herself in his eyes! This was one of the most memorable moments of her life. How proud she was of herself!

After a much delay, the final hour had finally arrived. "It is, indeed, a very creative and imaginative piece of work. The ingenuity of its designer is quite evidently visible. However, we are sorry to say that..."

When Emily heard the word "however", suddenly, she had a bad feeling in her gut.

And her bad feeling was confirmed the next minute as she heard the next words—"This work, is suspected of plagiarism".

Before the announcement had even faded away, the crowd burst into an uproar instantly, with contempt and anger.

Emily was dumbstruck and appalled. Plagiarism? Her design? 'That is impossible!'

"How can this be?" a voice suddenly yelled out. It was a lady's voice, full of incredulity, but it was not Emily's.

Everyone shifted their sights at the person who yelled out, so did Emily. It was Rose. She stared at the screen, round-eyed, with an expression of disbelief.

"I... I made that design with all my efforts, I swear that I did not copy from anyone!" In a show of protest, Rose cried angrily, claiming her innocence.

Everything started to make sense when Emily saw Rose put on an act in front of everyone. She glared coldly at Rose with clenched fists.

However, those who did not know the truth naturally took Rose as the original designer of the work shown in the screen.

But how could she be involved in plagiarism?

To appease the unrest, one of the judges couldn't help but stand up. He looked distressed by the situation. "In this competition, " he announced, "as you can see on the screen, we found that the designs of Rose Xu and Emily Bai are exactly identical! Do you have anything to say, Rose, and Emily?"

The judges did not tolerate plagiarism. If it weren't for the beauty and intricacy of the design, they would have certainly expelled it from the competition at the very beginning.

Again the sound of the audience mumbling in a heated discussion filled the place. Who could be the plagiarist? Rose or Emily? Surely, if this plagiarist was discovered, her career would be ruined.

It was a dangerous move by Rose, but she never really did anything without calculating the odds. She was the first to present her defense. "Honorable Judge, Emily and I, we are friends, and we have had some discussions about our designs in the past... but I never thought that things would turn out this way."

Everyone could see disappointment in her eyes as she turned to Emily and looked at her. "I've worked hard to come up with the design for this brooch. Its irregular shape was my very own idea, and the baby on the central disc represents new life, hope and a feeling of returning to nature..."

Emily bit her lip and finally threw a question at Rose, stressing each syllable, "Rose, aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

Emily knew very well that Rose had numerous plans to belittle her. She even copied Emily's design and pretended as if she had done nothing wrong!

"Emily, what are you talking about?" a spark of guilty conscience flashed in Rose's eyes, but she continued, "Come on. Everyone makes mistakes. I know that you did not do it on purpose. I am not blaming you..."

Emily trembled with rage when she heard Rose's words. What a shameless lady Rose was!

Everyone in the room shifted their piercing gazes at Emily. They sized her up as if she were a prisoner.

Emily kept a straight face and was about to protest Rose's false claims. At that time, a man's voice suddenly caught everyone's attention, they turned around to find out who was speaking.

"Ms. Rose is my friend. I believe that she is an upright lady. In fact, prior to the competition, I've had some discussions with her about the design of the brooch. I can guarantee that she is innocent! I hope that the judges here would be severe to penalize the plagiarist!"

The audience quickly found out who was speaking on behalf of Rose when they turned to the voice. It was Anderson, a renowned master of jewelry design; a man whose voice was influential in the jewelry circle.

Rose was fully prepared for this—Anderson was invited by Jack. With the master standing behind Rose, Emily looked rather suspicious as she did not have anyone to speak for her.

Within seconds Emily was under attack from all sides. Everybody looked at her with spite and disgust. A designer would never be forgiven for plagiarism in the jewelry design circle.

"How dare she! She copied the work of another designer!"

"Plagiarist! A thief! She should be ashamed to be here!"

"Go home Emily! Shame! You don't belong in this community!"

Emily did not say a word.

"Go home Emily! Shame! You don't belong here!" several people yelled. In fact, they were actually hired by Rose to mislead the others. She got the result she had wanted from them.

Jacob, who was sitting amongst the other distinguished guests, looked at what was happened before him with no expression in his face. However, his displeasure could be felt by anyone sitting beside him.

Sam, who stood beside Jacob, asked in a low voice, "Mr. Jacob, should we help Ms. Emily?"

'Mr. Jacob seems to think highly of Ms. Emily. He won't be happy to see her being mistreated like that, ' Sam thought. ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

"Do you care that much about her?", Jacob glanced at Sam with his dark eyes and asked.

"I work for you, Mr. Jacob. So I care about everyone that you care about, " Sam answered, with beads of sweat pouring out of his forehead.

Jacob didn't respond to Sam's words. He drew back his eyes and then squinted again at Emily.

"Calm down. She won't give up the fight, just wait and see."

Jacob believed in Emily. If she cannot even protect her own work, she might not be suited for this jewelry circle.

Sam nodded but knew that his boss had a plan.

Although Jacob had told Sam to calm down, Sam knew clearly that Jacob had asked Mr. Victor to look after Emily earlier. 'Mr. Jacob really cares about Ms. Emily. Why couldn't he just admit it?, ' Sam said to himself.

"Mr. Jacob...Mr. Jack is here too."

"I know, " Jacob answered indifferently. He did not have much interest in his nephew's presence there.