Anastasia fished a vial of something. “Sure thing. Hope you’re easily able to follow through on that?”
She pulled out her phone and checked her Twitter thread. Seeing it was already trending at #41, Anastasia raised an eyebrow. She immediately knew Cassian was behind this—there was no way her post would rocket to the top that fast without some serious promotion or hacking.
A knowing look crossed her face as she addressed the committee. “Why don’t you all take a look at what’s trending on Twitter right now? I think you’ll get your answers.”
The reporters looked surprised by how confident she sounded. If she was really guilty, she should be terrified. But Anastasia was standing there cool as a cucumber, not showing an ounce of fear.
Truth was, Anastasia’s Twitter thread had already blown up the internet, racking up hundreds of thousands of interactions within minutes. But since all the reporters had been laser-focused on grilling Anastasia, nobody had been scrolling their feeds. Otherwise, that reporter wouldn’t have just made such an ass of herself.
Now that Anastasia called them out, everyone scrambled for their phones and clicked on the viral thread. The video clearly showed Valeria sneaking into Anastasia’s office and copying design files onto a flash drive. Then the screen showed Anastasia’s original sketches, her entire creative process, and all the timeline holes in Valeria’s bogus “proof.” The evidence was absolutely damning—the narrative completely flipped in real time!
Holy shit, Valeria really had stolen Anastasia’s work. This was beyond disgusting. Valeria was basically a nobody in the design world with like three pieces in her portfolio, and apparently, she’d do anything for clout.
After watching the video, the whole press room exploded into chaos. The reporters who’d been coming for Anastasia’s throat were now looking around like deer in headlights, their faces red with embarrassment and shock. Nobody had seen this kind of plot twist coming. Valeria, this so-called “rising talent,” had used the dirtiest tricks in the book to try and destroy Anastasia. The video made it crystal clear who the real thief was. There was no denying it now.
And Twitter users had already dug up even more dirt—turns out Valeria was also a homewrecker who’d stolen Anastasia’s boyfriend, which explained their recent breakup. The drama just kept getting juicier. Everyone was completely shook.
Dumped Today, Married Tomorrow: My Overnight Wedding to a Tycoon. Chapter 44
With this evidence, Valeria had absolutely nowhere to hide. When Valeria saw Anastasia’s thread going viral, she nearly fainted from pure rage. She’d been so sure she had this whole thing wrapped up, but now it had completely blown up in her face. She’d been feeling so clever about copying those files without getting caught. Turns out Anastasia had been playing chess while she was playing checkers.
Valeria had been live-tweeting the press conference, expecting to watch Anastasia get completely destroyed. Instead, she was the one getting obliterated. Meanwhile, Valeria’s Twitter was getting absolutely demolished by angry users. Her mentions were a complete shitshow of dragging and call-outs.
“This is why the design industry is trash! Stealing work and then trying to gaslight everyone!”
“@Valeriak GET OUT OF THE DESIGN WORLD! You’re a fraud and a disgrace!”