Although her mother knew what she liked to eat, she rarely made it for her. Such a poor thing, right?”
Natasha rolled her eyes at Bethan upon Alice’s words. “
She must’ve brought it upon herself. Perhaps her parents weren’t wrong, too. A b*tch like her deserved it ! “
Bethan secretly clenched her fists.
Alice mocked her by saying–right at Joseph’s and Natasha’s faces–that her parents barely cared about her, but the couple kept agreeing with her, saying that Bethan deserved her parents not liking her.
The scene felt awfully comical and ironic to her.
She took a deep breath, walked past them, and headed straight to her office.
The moment her hand touched the doorknob, Alice laughed a little from behind. “Ms. Bethan, are you not joining us? My mom made a lot of good food, and they used to be my favorite. I can’t even finish them! “
Her words were like a sharp knife that stabbed Bethan’s heart violently.
Back when she was still Bethan Peterson, Natasha and Joseph played favoritism. No matter what, they would always let Cynthal pick first.
Even meals.
Other than when she was sick, Natasha would rarely make the food she liked when she wanted them.
It was only when Cynthal could not return from overseas did this husband-and -wife pair realized that they still had another daughter.
Alas, they showered their love and attention to a person who assumed her identity.
Bethan took a deep breath and scoffed with her back facing Alice, “Since your parents so thoughtfully prepared the food for you, you should just enjoy it. Don’t let them down.”
She finally turned the doorknob and entered her office.
Alice slightly squinted her eyes as she gazed at Bethan’s back and smiled rather smugly. Although Bethan might seem calm and collected, her stiffened back sold her out when she spoke.
As she took a bite of her food, Alice turned to grin at Natasha. “Mom, can you bring food to the office more often?”
Natasha was surprised and delighted to hear her request. “Of course! I’m genuinely sorry that I used to only care about Cynthal and neglected your feelings… I’m really happy that you’re willing to eat the food I make! “
Natasha then walked to Alice and held her in a tight embrace, though it was met with a vague indistinct detest in Alice’s eyes.
After a while, Alice lifted her head and looked at Natasha. “Mom, don’t be too happy just yet. We’ll spend a lot of time together…”
She then glanced at Bethan’s office door. “There are more things for you to be happy about.”
Work started to get busy.
For the next half of the month, Bethan was as busy as a bee. The first thing she did the moment she opened her eyes was work. When she closed her eyes to rest for the night, all she thought of was the design sketches.
Brettley ordered her to complete the designing of an entire series of jewelry within a month and spend another three months realizing the designs to fruition while working with the factory.
He wanted to debut the series of jewelry in Banyan City in four months’ time…
Time was short, and she had a lot to do.
In just half a month, her design sketches started to take shape. In the next half of the month, she needed to fine-tune the details.
However, Bethan did not expect that someone would voice out while she was sharing her hard work for the past half a month with her staff.
“Director Bethan.”
It was Courtney Johnson, Brettley’s previous secretary. Because of how much she looked like Bethan Peterson, she was assigned to be Brettley’s personal secretary.
Later on, when Alice returned, she felt that she was no match for Alice, so she asked to be transferred to the design department, working as an assistant for her senior, Shannon.
At that moment, Courtney took her phone out and showed a design sketch on her phone.
“This went viral last night. It’s a rough draft of a genius jewelry designer by the name of Mo Sam, and he’s only seventeen. He came up with quite a few great jewelry designs.
“He posted the rough draft last night using his private account. He wanted to use this to entice others. He said that he’ll be finishing the rough draft into a full-fledged design sketch, hoping that investors would be interested in him.”
Then, she furrowed her brows and looked at Bethan, who was sitting at the main seat in the meeting.
“The rough draft that Mo posted online is the exact same as yours, Director Bethan.”
The entire conference room was instantly quiet.
Courtney then scorned, “I’ve been in the design department for quite some time already, and for the past half a month, you’ve been coming in early and working overtime. I could see how hard you worked, but after half a month, you showed us someone else’s rough draft? It only takes about half a day to copy the entire thing, right?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Shannon glared at her and snatched Courtney’s phone.
She looked at Bethan’s first draft projected on the huge screen before studying Mo Sam’s draft.
She went silent.
It was too…similar. Almost exactly the same.
At the same time, the others in the conference room started searching on their phones for Mo Sam, the talented genius.
The moment they saw it, everyone was silent.
Bethan accepted the phone from her assistant, Arianna next to her. She furrowed her brows tightly.
The draft was the exact same as her design sketch. Even the details were the same.
She had been a designer for so many years. The number of times she encountered plagiarism was quite a number, too.
Nonetheless, this was the first time that the plagiarized draft was published one day before her, and in such a public manner to boot.
She squinted her eyes. Mo Sam’s intentions were clear. He wanted to steal the copyright to her designs right from the beginning at the draft stage.
“Director Bethan, what is happening?”
Just when everyone was discussing among themselves in hush tones, Alice, from a distance, blinked her huge eyes and asked innocently, “You’ve been working so hard, and we’re all witnesses to that. Why would your draft be the same as a seventeen-year-old genius?”
Bethan slightly furrowed her brows. Her instinct told her that this matter was related to Alice.
She thought it was strange at first, too. Alice would not be happy unless she upset Bethan every day. Other than getting Natasha and Joseph to bring her food, how could Alice not have done anything for the past half month?
It turned out she was waiting for Bethan all along.
Plagiarism.
It was indeed where it hurt the most for the designer.
Bethan squinted, scrutinizing Alice as she did. “Mrs. Morrison, why do you think that is?”
Alice paused for a while before a smile broke out on her face. “I don’t think there could be such a coincidence in this world, right? Between you and the talented genius, one of you must have copied the other.”
She looked at Bethan and blinked. “Director Bethan, do you think what I said is right?”
Bethan narrowed her eyes a little, saying nothing. “However…”
Courtney, by the side, furrowed her brows. “Mo Sam has been living in Europa since young, and he’s still in Europa. He doesn’t even have any relatives here in
Banyan City. How could he have copied Director Bethan’s design? On the contrary, he posted his drafts online, so copying them would be easy…”
Upon hearing Courtney’s words, the entire conference room was in silence.
Everyone looked at Bethan cautiously.
Amid the dead silence, Bethan smiled and put the phone down. She stood up graciously.
“I know what you all mean. With all the proof right in front of your eyes, you think that I copied this prodigy’s work, yes?”
No one said anything, but that meant they agreed tacitly.
Bethan smiled. “Since everyone thinks that way, I could only get Mr. Morrison to help bring justice.”
Bethan’s voice was tranquil as she spoke, “The designer posted the drafts last night, so I’d have to check all those that entered my office and had touched my designs previously starting from last night.
“Perhaps none of you know this, but to prevent anybody else from tinkering with my designs, I’ve added a few small surveillance cameras near where I work.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.