The attacker stood his ground. "No one ordered me. I acted out of personal disdain for her. Ah! Fuck! My hand!"

Lilah glanced at the time, realizing they were pressed for time.

“Effie, we're running late. I'll brief the authorities about this incident. Let's go."

"Miss Harris, please, go ahead. I'll handle things here," Walter's man offered.

"Thank you immensely," Effie expressed gratefully.

"Don't mention it. You should hurry."

With that, Effie hastened to the audition site with Lilah in tow.

Meanwhile, in the hallway of the audition site, Tess lounged comfortably on a bench, her smirk growing with each passing minute as Effie failed to appear.

Many people caught wind of the news and were eager to find out who would win the final audition, so they came to the audition site to see for themselves. They discussed fervently among themselves.

“Who do you think will win the final audition?"

“I bet it'll be Tess. Effie doesn't impress me much."

“But Effie's work is pretty good too. She could actually win.”

Tess ignored the gossip. The audition was about to start, and Effie hadn't shown up, which made Tess certain she would land the role.

Right then, a tall guy with short hair strolled out of the room in a plain suit.

Cheers erupted, "Hey, it's Mr. Campbell! We finally get to meet him in person."

Saul glanced at Tess and then scanned the hall, noticing Effie was missing. He frowned and asked, "Hasn't Effie arrived yet?"

Tess stood up and feigned ignorance, saying, "I don't know."

Saul sighed and looked at Tess. “Come in with me."

Not hearing the answer she hoped for, Tess felt slightly let down and ventured, "Since Effie hasn't shown up, she obviously doesn't care about this. Maybe we don't need to wait for her to continue the audition."

Hearing this, a few of Effie's fans were utterly disgusted with her for giving up without even putting up a fight, calling her a loser.

Whispers started circulating. "Does Effie quit so easily?" I really thought she could win! She's letting us down."

"Even if she had shown up and lost, it would have been better than not showing up at all. It's really disheartening for us fans."

"I'm not going to be her fan anymore."

Tess couldn't help but smile as she noticed Effie's fans turning away from her, everything seemingly swinging in her favor.