Left Them Loved Myself (Stella Spencer) novel Chapter 92

In less than half a day, the design world’s rising star, Sylvia, vanished without a trace, her stardom fading as quickly as a shooting star.

Stella’s name swept through Seabrook’s design world, leaving an indelible mark on every designer’s mind. Even if people didn’t know her personally, mentioning the Auroral Tiara immediately brought up her name.

While Stella’s success was making waves, Noreen’s situation was falling apart completely.

“Ms. Lloyd, can you explain why your design just fell apart?” one of the judges asked.

Noreen was losing her mind. She seriously had no clue why that damn tiara just fell apart out of nowhere.

Everything checked out–the structure, the technique, the materials. But right when she was about to show it off to the judges, boom–it broke into pieces. Honestly, this was just absurd.

“Ms. Lloyd?” Seeing she didn’t respond, the judge tried again to get her attention.

Under the gaze of the judges, other designers, and all the major brands in attendance, Noreen was completely mortified. She had no idea how to react and deep down, she hated Stella with every fiber of her being.

If she couldn’t pinpoint the flaw, then clearly Stella was to blame. After all, Stella drew the design.

Noreen just wanted to pin all the blame for her awkward situation on Stella, and to her surprise, it really was Stella’s fault.

“Looks like Ms. Lloyd’s run into some trouble. Step aside, please. Let’s bring out the next designer,” the judge said, not about to wait around for her.

Noreen gritted her teeth and walked off with her head down. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her, the whispers echoing in her ears.

“Rising star? Oh please—the Lloyd family probably just bought her a spot,” someone scoffed.

“She doesn’t even know what’s wrong with her own work. Shows you just how clueless she is,” another voice sniped.

“Hey, do you think her past works were really hers?” someone muttered.

“Money talks. The Lloyds can just hire a couple of designers, slap her name on it, and call it her own. Easy,” someone else chimed in.

It was obvious that once this competition was over, Noreen’s reputation would be in the gutter.

Even if people kept quiet in front of the Lloyd family, behind closed doors, everyone would be talking trash

about her.

‘Shut up! Shut up! Everyone, just shut up!‘ Noreen was screaming on the inside, her head practically ready to explode. She wanted to just yell at them all, but she wasn’t dumb enough to totally lose it in front of everyone.

17:25 Fri, Oct 17

Chapter 92

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50

55 vouchers

What she needed now was damage control. She couldn’t let years of work go up in flames.

“Noreen, why are you out here so soon? Isn’t the competition still going on?” Jessica called out, the question cutting Noreen off before she could escape.

Noreen turned around to see Jessica walking toward her with a bottle of water. “You bitch. Neither you nor Stella will get away with this.”

If Stella was the mastermind behind the disaster, then Jessica was the one who helped bring the knife down. Both of them deserved to pay the price.

‘Wait, I just went to get you some water, and called my brother to pick you up–now you’re going to blame me? Are you for real?‘ Jessica thought, baffled by how unreasonable Noreen was being.

But then again, reasoning with Noreen had always been pointless.

Jessica sighed, ready to ask what was going on, but Noreen had already stormed off, her back stiff with anger.

“What is going on?” Jessica muttered to herself. She didn’t chase after Noreen but decided to find out what had happened.

When she got the full story about what went down at the competition, she felt like she had just been punched in the gut.

Spotting Jessica, he hurried over. “Did I miss anything? Is Noreen still inside competing?”

17:25 Fri, Oct 17

“Don’t worry. I’ve handled stuff like this before. Everything will be taken care of, no one will ever know,” Patrick reassured her.

“God, I’m a mess,” Stella groaned, roasting herself in the mirror.

She woke up to see her makeup smudged and streaked all over her face from crying–she looked so bad she couldn’t even bear to look at herself. “Beverley probably got a shock just seeing me like this.”

“Not at all,” Jeremy laughed, shaking his head. “She just snapped a bunch of photos of you looking a mess before she left. Honestly, she smiled more today than she has the last few years put together.”

Stella shot him a deadpan look, seeing the look of gleeful satisfaction on Jeremy’s face.

Seeing her sulking, he decided to get serious. “Ms. Preston wanted me to tell you–she’s never.held it against you. Not once.”

“Really?” Stella asked, her voice filled with disbelief.

“Absolutely,” Jeremy nodded with a reassuring smile. “She never blamed you.”

Stella, caught up in the relief of knowing Beverley had forgiven her, didn’t notice the pity in Jeremy’s eyes.

‘Poor kid, Jeremy thought, ‘I’ll let you soak up the good vibes for a bit–before I have to break the news Beverley left for you.‘

Stella tilted her head. “That’s it? She didn’t leave me any other messages?”

Jeremy hesitated for a moment. “Actually, she did say something else.”

He paused before speaking carefully. “Ms. Preston told me that if you can’t get your work into this year’s international exhibition and make it onto the jewelry leaderboard, she’ll drop you from her list of disciples.”

As much as Beverley sympathized with Stella’s situation, her professional standards for the design work remained non–negotiable.

As the student of an acclaimed international designer, Stella didn’t need to be flawless, but she absolutely couldn’t let her mentor’s name get dragged through the mud or turn Beverley into a joke among her peers.

17:25 Fri, Oct 17