A Call That Changed Her Entire Life

"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..."

word "however", suddenly, she had a bad feeling in her gut.

her bad feeling was confirmed the next minute as she heard the

burst into an uproar instantly, with

dumbstruck and appalled. Plagiarism?

It was a lady's voice, full of incredulity, but it was

out, so did Emily. It was Rose. She stared at the

with all my efforts, I swear that I did not copy from anyone!" In a show of protest, Rose cried angrily,

Emily saw Rose put on an act in front of everyone. She glared coldly at Rose with clenched fists.

did not know the truth naturally took Rose as the original

be

He looked distressed by the situation. "In this competition, " he announced, "as you can see on the screen, we found that

beauty and intricacy of the design, they would have certainly expelled it from the competition at the

filled the place. Who could be the plagiarist? Rose

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,

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

question at Rose, stressing each syllable, "Rose, aren't you ashamed

well that Rose had numerous plans to belittle her. She even copied Emily's design and pretended as if she had

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

when she heard Rose's

at Emily. They sized her up as if she were a

a straight face and was about to protest Rose's false claims. At that time, a man's voice

had some discussions with her about the design of the brooch. I can

speaking on behalf of Rose when they turned to the voice. It was

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

was under attack from all sides. Everybody looked at her with spite and disgust. A designer would never be