Chapter 6 Mutual Suspicion

Adeline looked up sharply.

"Fish is my mother's maiden name," Leon said. "Cutting gems is just a personal hobby. I like to work in quiet. I like full focus. When I'm away from the company, I don't want anyone knowing who I really am."

Adeline held the business card. She stayed quiet for a long moment. Then she spoke.

"Why me?"

"I see your talent. And we have a connection."

Leon stepped back. He slipped one hand into his pocket.

"Take your time thinking it over. Call the number on the card when you've made up your mind."

"No need to think it over." Adeline stopped him. "I'm in."

She was surrounded on all sides right now. Having the backing of Stellar Industries Group was a deal she couldn't lose on.

"Good. We can work out the details as we go." Leon gave a small nod. Then he asked, "Do you need me to handle the backlash online?"

"No." Adeline smiled lightly. "I've already got that covered."

After Leon left, Adeline turned back to what was happening online.

It was playing out exactly as she'd expected. It was getting worse by the minute. Within a few hours, the related topics shot into the top three trending searches. Her personal social media account was completely overrun. Hateful comments flooded in.

Adeline closed the page without expression. She opened an encrypted folder called "Balcony." She typed in the password.

There was a reason she'd named it that.

During the year she'd lived at the Stuart family's villa, the balcony was the only space that had truly been hers. She'd been put in the most out-of-the-way guest room on the third floor. It was a small room. It had just one floor-to-ceiling window. That window opened onto a tiny balcony. It was barely three square feet.

Helen had said the room got the best light. But the real reason was different. The room sat at the far end of the hallway. It was away from everyone's main bedrooms. Out of sight. Out of mind.

The little balcony had just enough room for a small table and a chair.

For a whole year, she spent nearly every day out there drawing. From early spring through the dead of winter. No heating. The cold wind cut through her. She'd wrap herself in a blanket. Her fingers turned red. Still she kept drawing. Stroke by stroke.

So when she needed a name for the folder, the first word that came to mind was "balcony."

It was the one thing the Stuarts had never taken from her. And it was the one place where she kept every record of the truth.

Adeline pulled out a few key screenshots from the folder. She posted them directly to her social media account. Then she powered off her phone. She leaned back on the couch. She closed her eyes.

These weren't ordinary screenshots. She'd used her hacking skills to pull the real chat logs straight from Vivian's phone.

Nobody knew she could hack. Not even Lancelot.

Growing up in the orphanage, she always felt unsafe. So she'd quietly taught herself all kinds of skills. Skills to protect herself.

But in her past life, she'd never once used any of them against anyone in the Stuart family. She'd always believed that family shouldn't play these kinds of games. If she just worked hard enough, if she behaved well enough, if she put up with enough—she'd eventually be truly accepted.

Looking back now, that had been her most foolish illusion.

Even though she'd long since made peace with it, seeing those chat logs again sent a chill through her.

Vivian: [Louis, what am I supposed to do? If I don't get this spot in the competition, everything I've worked for is gone.]

Louis: [Don't worry, Vivian. I won't let her take your chance. I'll find a way to turn all the attention onto Adeline. Shift the focus from the competition eligibility to her being jealous of you. Then she'll have no standing to compete with you at all.]

Vivian: [Do you really think that'll work? What if something goes wrong?]

Louis: [Relax. I'll take care of everything. Once she's completely finished, I'll hand all her design drafts over to you. Our Vivian was born to be the one who shines brightest.]

Vivian: [Thank you. But won't Adeline be really hurt?]

Louis: [Her feelings don't matter at all. She's only been back for a year. How could that compare to you growing up by our side all this time?]

From beginning to end, she had never been a sister to Louis. Just a tool. Useful when she played along. Disposable when she didn't.

Adeline sat still for a long while. Then she slowly opened her eyes. All that was left in them was calm.

It didn't matter anymore. It hadn't been worth it for a long time.

Now she just had to sit back. Let the story spread.

Just as she'd expected, the comment sections exploded. Public opinion flipped at lightning speed.

[Her own brother deliberately planned to destroy his sister's reputation? What kind of person does something like that?]

[Not just dragging her name through the mud—he was going to steal her design drafts and hand them to Vivian? This looks like someone who's done this before.]

[I jumped on the bandwagon and said awful things about Adeline. I genuinely want to slap myself right now. Being set up by her whole family, forced to cut ties with them, and then getting attacked by the entire internet on top of it—I can't even imagine how suffocating this past year must have been for her.]

At two in the morning, the lights blazed in the Stuart family villa's living room. The atmosphere was crushing. The room was suffocatingly quiet. No one dared to speak.

After a long, tense silence, Vivian was the first to break it. Her voice was thick with tears.

"Louis… how did these chat logs get out?"

Louis's face had gone dark with fury.

"How would I know?! I told you to delete everything completely. You must not have done it properly."

"How is this my fault?" Vivian's voice shot up. Hurt. Angry. "Why would I leak something that hurts me too? I'm a victim here. And it was your idea to go after Adeline. I never forced you to do any of it."

"Vivian!" Helen cut her off sharply.

Louis slowly turned to look at her. His eyes were cold.

"So what you're saying is this is entirely on me. You had nothing to do with any of it. You're completely innocent."

"That's not what I—" Vivian immediately shrank back. She cried harder. She said quietly, "I just meant those were your words…"

"Enough!" Robert slammed his hand down on the coffee table. His anger boiled over. "What's the point of blaming each other now? The evidence is already all over the internet. Everyone has seen it."

Silence fell again.

After a long pause, Matthew pushed up his glasses. He spoke first. His voice was calm.

"We need to fix this. Not figure out who's at fault. Louis, do you have a plan?"

"What plan could I possibly have?!" Louis raked a hand through his hair in frustration.

He couldn't figure out how the logs had leaked. The method—pulling data without leaving a trace—pointed to hacking. But he knew Adeline had nothing. She had no connections. There was no way she could afford to hire a hacker.

If it wasn't a hacker, then someone had leaked it on purpose. He turned and stared hard at Vivian. Suspicion rose in him. His best guess was that she'd forwarded the chat logs to show off to a friend.

Vivian was looking back at him with the same suspicion.

Louis turned away in irritation. He grabbed his phone. He walked out to the balcony. He started making calls to do damage control.

By six in the morning, after a whole night of frantic discussion, the Stuart Group's official account reluctantly put out a PR statement.

The statement was full of holes. The PR team had no way to counter hard evidence. So they were forced to claim that all the chat logs had been faked through photo editing. They said it was malicious fabrication.

Even knowing how weak and embarrassing the excuse was, they had no other option.

Adeline woke up in the morning light. She picked up her phone. She saw that public opinion had split cleanly into two camps.

One group was mocking the PR statement. They called it lazy. They said it insulted everyone's intelligence.

The larger group had already seen through everything. They were convinced the chat logs were completely real and unaltered.

Without question, no one online believed a single word of the Stuart Group's statement.

At the same time, a seed had been planted in everyone's mind. From now on, any design Vivian released that looked anything like Adeline's style would be called out as plagiarism.

A satisfied smile crossed Adeline's lips.

That was exactly the outcome she'd wanted.

Just then, her phone started ringing urgently.