A Call That Changed Her Entire Life

Chapter 14 Scum

Jack was sat on the other side of the contestants. His arms were folded and the corners of his mouth were tilted upwards, as if he were enjoying the mess unfolding right in front of his eyes.

'Emily, you are nothing without me. You won't be able to tackle this situation all by yourself.'

The audience were quickly asked to make way by security guards in an orderly manner. One of the judges asked Rose and Emily to come to the central stage; he was biased against Emily since the scales in his mind had already tipped towards Rose.

"Ms. Emily, do you have anything to say?" asked the judge.

"Yes!"

Before she proceeded to talk, Emily took a glance at Victor and saw him sitting there with a blank look on his face. She then searched the seats for the honorary guests and found Jacob with the same emotionless look on his face as well. 'Am I a plagiarist in their eyes?' she wondered.

The eyes of the public were all fixated on Emily. She could not wait any longer to prove her innocence. Emily was willing to fight for her innocence! She wasn't going to bend her knee to the false accusations and defamation!

Emily took a deep breath to calm herself and then turned to Rose. In a cold voice she asked, "Ms. Rose, are you sure you are the designer of this brooch?"

Pleased by the success of her plans, Rose restrained her emotions and answered confidently, "Of course. I could tell everyone here about the details of my design and how I finally came up with this idea. Mr. Anderson can vouch for me. Admit it, Emily. Do not take the hard way..."

She even gave Emily a "sincere" advice, "not to take the hard way"!

'How kind-hearted and merciful Rose is!' the audience thought, 'and that Emily...impenitent...what a shame!'

Emily stared at the smug look on Rose's face and thought that Rose was being ridiculous, "I can also tell you about the details of the design and the intricate ideas within it. Can you really prove how you've come up with this design?

A guarantee from Mr. Anderson? Is that all?"

"Mr. Anderson is one of the most renowned artists in the world, are you suggesting that he is lying?"

"A talented man is not always with good character."

"How dare you!" offended by Emily's words, Anderson rounded his eyes, "What an insolent plagiarist! What a shame to our jewelry circle!"

But Emily did not shy away from his words, "As a heavyweight in jewelry circle, you will disgrace yourself if you make a false statement on behalf of a plagiarist."

Emily hit the spot, dead on. Anderson was overwhelmed by his anger. He turned to other judges and cried, "I urge you to strike this scum off the jewelry circle! We want justice!"

"I am not done talking yet. Why are you so anxious to dismiss my innocence so quickly? What are you afraid of?" Emily asked.

"You scum!" Anderson twitched his mouth. Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

Emily, with no fear at all, turned to the audience and continued, "Just now Ms. Rose insisted that she is the designer of that brooch. So I would like to ask her, what is the metaphor of that irregular-shaped ruby in the brooch?"

Rose felt a twinge in her head. She was jealous of Emily for designing such a stunning piece of work. After she got the design, she analyzed it thoroughly; she had enough confidence to give a satisfying answer from the perspective of a jewelry designer.

"It is my own idea. I used this ruby not only to set off the baby on the central disc, but also to form a striking contrast in color."

"You are wrong, Ms. Rose."

"It's my work. Are you trying to say that I don't know my own work?"

"The ruby. Its shape means something special, " Emily raised her voice, pointing to the brooch on the screen, "That is a red birthmark."

Astonished by Emily's words, the people present started to mumble amongst themselves again, especially the professionals from the jewelry circle.

The special shape of that ruby was actually a birthmark! It suited perfectly to the baby in the center of the brooch. What an ingenious idea!

The expressions on the judges' faces had changed. Even Victor's eyes were somewhat dazzling with amazement. He began to see Emily, the young lady who he needed to "pay more attention to" as Jacob had asked, in a new light.

He wondered how she was going to clear the suspicions against her, and prove her innocence.

A flash of uneasiness appeared in Rose's mind. She suddenly had a bad feeling in her gut, "I respect your words but..."

"Birthmark, daisy, newborn baby..." Emily was more than familiar with the details, and the crowd slowly fell into silence as she continued, "Birthmark, is what one gets when he or she comes to this world.

Everyone was created differently. However, one would always naturally long for love and peace after birth. Thus a baby's mind is the purest mind in the world and it is a metaphor for the purest spirits of mankind."

The audience listened carefully to Emily and were swayed by her explanation. Compared with what Rose had said, Emily's words were far more detailed and comprehensive.

When Rose realized that she was about to lose her upper hand, she gnashed her teeth, "Every jewelry designer has their own understanding to a certain piece of jewelry. They can, of course, form their opinions based on the designs of others. What you have just said does not mean anything."

"Well, " Emily sneered. Ironically, it was Rose who had tried to take possession of Emily's design by explaining its origin with her untenable opinion.

Emily, suddenly lifted her shirt undauntedly, in front of the audience. Much to everyone's surprise, there was a mid-sized red birthmark on her waist, and its shape was exactly the same as the shape of the ruby in the brooch!

"Isn't this convincing enough?" Emily asked, "I was inspired by my birthmark when I was designing that ruby brooch. How creative of Ms. Rose to create the same thing by being inspired by a part of me? Is that a coincidence?"

A commotion broke out.

"Brilliant! What a fantastic idea to use a birthmark as a reference for design! So she did not steal any one's idea?"

"Obviously! Rose is the one who had stolen her idea! What a cunning plagiarist!"

"But Mr. Anderson vouched for her and promised that she was innocent..."

"Who knows. Anything is possible."

Rose went silent, utterly stunned.

Her face was starting to look pale. Her pride in herself had completely disappeared, "It's...it's impossible!"

She did not expect that Emily would use her birthmark as a reference for the design. She was at a complete loss.

Anderson was also dumbfounded by Emily's words. If he admitted that Emily was innocent now, he would come off as a liar.

"Rose and Emily are friends. She must have seen her birthmark once. It is not at all surprising for Rose to be inspired by Emily's birthmark."

However, the people present there were not to be fooled so easily. Rose already claimed that the design of the brooch was her own idea. Anderson suggested that she had seen the birthmark on Emily before and was inspired by it at this point. Wasn't that a contradiction? Everyone found it hard to be persuaded!

"Mr. Anderson?" suddenly Anderson was interrupted by Victor who was sitting in his seat quietly this whole time. Everyone present, including the other judges, held their breath when they realized that Victor was about to say something.

Emily got nervous too when she heard Victor's voice. She looked at Victor; his eye-brows raised and his eyes were glinting in a sneer behind his glasses. With his thin lips curved upwards, he said, "I remember that you got struck off from the jewelry association in your country a few days ago for a very simple reason—they found you guilty of hiring ghostwriters to take part in various competitions in your name for the past ten years. I think you should not be here at this stage today!"

Everyone was astonished by the ground-breaking news they had just heard from Victor!