Chapter 43
Anastasia, thirteen and sprawled on the couch, scrolled through the victim's tweets about her, looking completely chill, as if they were dragging some mean girl. Valeria had also seen the viral drama, and her heart was pounding. She hadn’t expected that bitch Anastasia to actually enter the competition. She’d figured Anastasia had hacked it at the last second. But whatever—so what if Anastasia mered? Valeria had submitted first, and Valeria quickly pulled herself together. She had all the “prent” she needed. She’d been planning for this exact scenario, even creating fake design sketches with backdated timestamps to “prove” she was the original creator. She smirked and muttered, “Anastasia, this time I’m going to completely ruin you.”
Valeria immediately opened her laptop and logged into Twitter, posting her fake evidence along with a carefully crafted thread: “I’m absolutely devastated about this design controversy. 7” As a designer, I’ve always stood for original creativity and will NEVER tolerate plagiarism. I’m considering legal action against those engaging in this malicious behavior.” “I hope everyone can see through this and continue supporting authentic, original design. #StopPlagiarism”
Her tweets sounded perfectly righteous and convincing. The thread immediately blew up, getting thousands of retweets and replies within minutes. Valeria’s followers came out swinging, calling Anastasia a “plagiarizing fraud” and demanding she be canceled from the design world. “YES QUEEN! We stan an original artist!?” “Plagiarizers are trash and don’t deserve to call themselves designers! @Anastasiak needs to get out of the industry!”
Valeria watched the overwhelmingly supportive responses flooding her notifications and grinned smugly. Twitter mob mentality was incredibly powerful. As long as she controlled the narrative, Anastasia would never recover. The story kept exploding across all platforms, reaching absolute chaos levels. Cassian definitely knew about it by now; he called Anastasia immediately.
After she explained everything, Cassian’s tension finally eased. “Handle this however you want. I’ve got your back no matter what.” Those words made Anastasia’s chest warm with confidence. With Cassian in her corner, she wasn’t afraid of anything.
Right as the controversy hit peak insanity, a detailed Twitter thread with photos and video evidence quietly went live.
Rhodes Corporation, CED’s Office
Philips reported respectfully, “Mr. Rhodos, Ms. Kingsley just posted her response thread.” Cassian nodded grimly. “Buy promoted trending for her posts. Make sure they hit number one on Twitter.”
Anastasia was also ready to face the media directly. She reached out to the competition committee to explain the real situation. The committee took this super seriously and scheduled an emergency press conference to address the scandal. This was massive news in the fashion world, so reporters from everywhere showed up. At exactly 10 AM, Anastasia stepped up to the podium in a sharp white dress, facing a sea of cameras and microphones.
A reporter in the front row immediately went for the throat. “Ms. Kingsley, what do you have to say about plagiarizing Valeria Kingsley’s designs?”
Anastasia stared the reporter down coolly. “What proof do you have that I plagiarized her work?”
The reporter looked flustered, then got pissy and defensive. “I mean, isn’t it obvious? You haven’t shown any real evidence of your innocence, and honestly, you don’t really have any notable work under your belt, do you?”
Anastasia let out a harsh laugh. “Is this how journalism works now? Making assumptions without facts? What if she’s the one who stole from me?”
That completely triggered the reporter. “Fine! If it turns out Valeria Kingsley actually plagiarized you, I publicly apologize on my knees.” She’d been bought and paid for by Valeria, so she was going all-in to defend her.