The moment Emily Blair stepped off the stage, she locked eyes with Isabella Austin -her face pale, her gaze filled with panic and dread.

Emily paid her no mind.

She knew Isabella's plagiarism would be judged soon enough.

Emily walked over to the vanity, slowly removing her earrings and necklace. She caught her own reflection in the mirror, the corners of her lips curling into a smile.

In the glass, she could see the scene unfolding behind her with perfect clarity: Andrew Lane stood with Isabella Austin clinging to him, arms wrapped desperately around his waist, her whole back trembling with sobs. Tears shimmered in her eyes as she buried her face against Andrew's chest, looking every bit the picture of heartbreak.

Andrew's brows drew together in a frown. He placed a comforting hand on Isabella's back and murmured a few quiet words, trying to soothe her.

Isabella only cried harder.

Emily listened to the sounds of Isabella's weeping, feeling an unexpected sense of relief, as if a weight had finally lifted from her shoulders.

But then, in the next moment, she met Andrew's gaze in the mirror—a cold, warning glare, his dark eyes stormy and furious, threatening to drown her.

Emily set her earrings down with casual indifference and met Andrew's eyes, a slow, mocking smile spreading across her lips. She mouthed the words, "It was me."

Then she closed her mouth and looked at him with a taunting, almost cruel glint in her eyes.

As she expected, Andrew's frown deepened, his gaze growing even darker. For a man usually so composed, his anger was unmistakably visible.

Emily finished taking off her jewelry, then stood and walked to the dressing room to change out of her clothes. She didn't bother returning backstage. Instead, she left the venue altogether.

Outside, the air was crisp and refreshing, the kind of clean scent she hadn't breathed in for ages. For the first time since her new beginning, she felt utterly at ease.

She pulled out her phone, and just as she predicted-found the internet ablaze with a video of Isabella Austin's piano performance, alongside an audio comparison of Isabella's "Love's Embrace" and Vivian Martin's "Desire."

The melodies were nearly identical. Isabella's plagiarism was all but undeniable.

Hundreds of comments flooded the related threads. Most people couldn't believe Isabella could stoop to such a thing.

At first, the incident was mostly followed by Isabella's fans. Their comments dominated the discussion, all insisting this was some elaborate setup. Since Emily Blair was the emcee for the event, they claimed she had orchestrated the whole thing and that Isabella would never plagiarize.

The phrase "Isabella Austin is pure and innocent" was plastered across the comment section.

Still, a handful of thoughtful users voiced their doubts, but Isabella's fans quickly drowned them out with insults and ridicule.

A few minutes later, Emily refreshed her screen. Every post about Isabella's plagiarism-every thread, every video-had vanished.

She didn't need to guess who was behind it. It could only be Andrew Lane. Suddenly, her smile faded.

Andrew hadn't just taken down the news about Isabella's plagiarism. He'd wiped out every post that accused or criticized Isabella, no matter how convincing the evidence was.

He had the power to scrub the internet clean-yet he had never once used that power for her.

Even now, the web was still overflowing with posts calling Emily a homewrecker, a gold-digger, a shameless slut-vile insults left to fester and spread, completely untouched.