Chapter 4

Leon picked up his phone and opened his WhatsApp chat with Chloe.

Their last messages were from three days ago, right before she left. She had texted him: [I left some honey water in the kitchen, in case you have a work dinner tonight.]

He'd been out buying Vivian a handbag at the mall at the time and replied with nothing but a single word, "Okay."

Now, Leon stared at that message, feeling his irritation spike. He tapped his thumb on the screen for a long while. Finally, he typed nothing and tossed the phone onto his desk. He still believed Chloe wouldn't last long.

A week later, the preliminary results of the National Landmark Design Competition were officially released.

The competition website, the official social channels, and every major design platform updated simultaneously with the list of finalists and the scores of all submitted works.

The results dropped like a bomb on the entire design world.

And the reason? The name sitting at the very top of the leaderboard, a newcomer named Claire Summers, had pulled off an unprecedented score of 98, leaving a huge gap behind.

The judges for this competition were all legends of the design world, notoriously harsh in their grading. Second place scored an 82. A full 16 points behind.

And Vivian, the heavily favored contestant backed by the Carter Group, managed only a 75, barely scraping past the cutoff line.

The outcome stunned everyone.

Designers and fans following the competition flooded the official website to see Claire's preliminary submission.

The piece was titled Rebirth in the Alley.

The design had no trendy cold glass facades and no flashy attention-seeking shapes. Instead, it used the grey bricks and clay tiles unique to Riverdale's old town, paired with modern steel framework.

The narrow lanes, the old soda fountain, the ancient oak, all of it was woven into the landmark.

The entire design carried the warmth and soul of old Riverdale while delivering the function of a modern building. Every detail radiated respect for the city's memory and a deep understanding of what it meant to be reborn.

The comments section went nuts.

[Whoa, this design is unreal. I don't know a thing about design, but I'm literally in tears. This is the old Riverdale I remember.]

[A 98 is honestly low. She deserved a perfect score. This piece has so much soul.]

[Who even is this Claire Summers? Never heard the name before and she just drops a bomb like this?]

[Does anyone else think this style looks exactly like that genius Claire Summers who vanished three years ago? Even the brushwork is the same.]

[No way. Is it really her? She's back?]

[Whoever she is, I'm a fan just from this piece alone.]

Within two hours, three trending topics, [Claire Runaway Lead], [Rebirth in the Alley], and [National Design Competition Preliminary Results], shot straight to the top of the trending charts.

Claire Summers' name swept through the entire design world overnight.

Meanwhile, Claire herself was still in her studio, sitting at her computer and revising her semifinal drafts.

It wasn't until James called her that she realized she'd taken first place in the prelims and was trending online.

"Claire, have you seen it? A 98. A runaway win!" James' voice shook with excitement on the other end. "I knew it. The moment you step back in, no one can touch you.

"The whole design world is talking about your piece right now, trying to guess who you really are."

Claire looked at her name sitting at the top of the leaderboard on her screen, and a warmth spread through her chest.

Not because she was famous, and not because she scored high, but because her design had been seen and people recognized its worth. It felt so good to earn respect through her own talent.

"Thank you, Mr. Franklin," Claire said with a smile. "If you hadn't encouraged me, I would never have picked up the pen again."

"Thank me for what? You have the talent." James laughed. "But Claire, don't get carried away. The semifinals will be much tougher, and I've heard Vivian made it through too. She has Leon backing her up. She might try to pull something."

At the mention of Leon and Vivian, the smile on Claire's face faded, but her voice stayed steady. "Don't worry, Mr. Franklin. In the design world, the work speaks for itself.

"She can try all the tricks she wants, but without real skill, none of it will matter."

She hung up and refreshed the competition website. Vivian's name sat at the bottom of the finalist list with a 75.

She raised an eyebrow and didn't bother to care.

Claire knew better than anyone what Vivian was made of.

Over the past three years, Vivian had built a reputation as a rising star designer using drafts Claire had drawn anonymously. In reality, she couldn't grasp basic ergonomics and could barely navigate CAD.

Scraping through the prelims obviously meant Leon had made a few calls.

But Claire couldn't care less.

She didn't come back to fight over a man or get revenge on Leon.

She came back to reclaim everything that belonged to her and stand at the top again.

As for those Leon and Vivian, they were nothing more than a minor nuisance on her path. She'd brush them off and move on.

Meanwhile, in the most exclusive private club in Riverdale, Vivian stared at the preliminary results on her phone, trembling with rage. She hurled the phone onto the couch, her eyes reddening in an instant.

"Leon, look at this. They rigged the whole thing." She threw herself into Leon's arms, sobbing. "I worked so hard on those drafts and they gave me a lousy 75.

"Some nobody named Claire Summers comes out of nowhere and walks off with a 98. This is fixed. They're out to get me."

Leon caught her and glanced at the leaderboard on his phone.

Claire Summers, 98 points, first place.

That name again.

Leon frowned, an odd feeling flickering somewhere inside him, but it vanished as pity for Vivian took over.

He patted her back, his voice gentle. "Alright, stop crying. It's just a prelim score. I've already spoken with the committee. They'll take good care of you in the semifinals."

"But that Claire," Vivian said, lifting her head, eyes swimming with tears, "she's all over the internet now. Everyone's praising her. What if I can't beat her in the semifinals?"

"She's just a newbie. What's there to be afraid of?" Leon let out a scoff, dripping with contempt. "She got lucky and played some cute angle with her draft.

"When the real competition starts, she won't even be a factor. Don't worry. I've got you. The title is yours."

He said that, but somewhere in the back of his mind, a quiet curiosity about that name, Claire Summers, had already taken root.