Chapter 3

Cloudhaven Resort was my design.

From concept to development, I spent three months on it, drawing every single line myself.

Now, Vera's name was on it, and it won an award.

I gripped my phone so hard it creaked in my hand.

"Nina?" Fiona called out.

She was standing by my desk, noticing something was off.

"I'm fine," I said, flipping my phone face down on the desk.

Fiona pulled up a chair and sat down. "You look like a ghost. Seriously, what's going on? Come on, spill it."

I hesitated for a few seconds, then decided to tell her the truth.

I gave her a quick summary of what happened, the basics.

Fiona went quiet after I finished.

Then she said something that caught me off guard. "You have backups of your process files, right?"

"Yeah, I do."

"And timestamps?"

"Yeah, the cloud drive I use automatically logs the time of every upload and edit."

Fiona leaned back in her chair. "That award? She doesn't stand a chance of keeping it."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Fiona explained, "There's someone in the Jury Panel of the Emerging Commercial Space Design Award, who was Simon's college mentor."

My heart started pounding.

"So, what are you going to do?" Fiona asked, looking at me.

"I want to pull all the evidence together first, and then—" I said.

"And then what?"

"Then I'll go to the Jury Panel myself."

Fiona raised an eyebrow. "Not gonna ask Simon for help?"

"This is my fight," I said.

Fiona stood up. "Alright. If you need anything, let me know."

She took a couple of steps, then turned back. "Don't wait too long. The results are only up for thirty days."

That night, I went back to Sophie's place. Yeah, I was still crashing there. Sophie said I could stay as long as I wanted.

I fired up my laptop and logged into my cloud drive.

All my design drafts from the past three months were there, from the very first concept sketch to the final complete proposal. There were forty-seven versions in total, each with a timestamp accurate to the second.

The earliest one was two whole months before Vera submitted her version to the company.

The evidence was ironclad.

I spent the whole night organizing all the files into a PDF, lining them up by timeline, with detailed notes explaining every revision and my design thinking along the way.

At two in the morning, Sophie pushed open my door. "What are you still doing up?"

"Just getting something ready," I replied.

"What is it?"

I turned my laptop so she could take a look.

Sophie's eyes lit up when she saw it. "Nina, you're really about to make waves."

"I'm taking back what's mine," I replied.

The next day at work, I sent an appeal email to the Jury Panel during my lunch break.

I attached all the evidence, explained what happened, and kept my tone calm, measured, and clear.

After sending it, I closed my email and went back to tweaking my drafts.

For the next two days, there was no reply.

I kept telling myself to stay patient.

On the afternoon of the third day, my phone rang.

It was an unknown number.

"Is this Nina Lane?" the voice on the other end asked.

"Yes, that's me," I replied.

"I'm calling from the Emerging Commercial Space Design Award Jury Panel. About your appeal, the committee would like to invite you to come in next Monday and present your case in person," the caller said.

I gripped the phone tighter, steadying myself.

"Sure, please let me know the time and place," I said.

I hung up, slumped back in my chair, and shut my eyes for five seconds.

This was my only chance.

Next Monday, I was going to make sure everyone knew who really designed Cloudhaven Resort.

But what I didn't expect was that Vera had gotten wind of it, too.

On Friday afternoon, I got a text message.

It was from Vera.

Vera: [Nina, long time no see. I heard you're doing well at UrbanEdge Studio?]

I didn't reply.

Ten minutes later, another message popped up.

Vera: [I know about Monday. Nina, are you really going to go through with this? You should think carefully. Don't forget, you left the company on your own, and they have your signed resignation letter.]

I still didn't reply.

When the third message came, her tone changed.

Vera: [Nina, don't be stupid. You're a newbie here. What do you think you'll get by making a scene with the Jury Panel? Are you really going to embarrass Simon, too? Don't make this a lose-lose for both of us.]

I finally texted her back.

Nina: [See you Monday.]

And then I blocked her for good.

Spent the whole weekend triple-checking my presentation, making sure every detail was airtight.

I checked every timestamp, every file's origin, and every step in my design process.

It was airtight.

Monday morning, I slipped into a black blazer dress and pulled my hair up into a sleek high ponytail.

As I headed out, I bumped into Simon coming down the stairs.

He gave me a quick once-over. "Heading to the Jury Panel?"

I froze for a second, surprised. "You know about that?"

"Fiona told me," he replied.

There was a brief silence.

"Need me to do anything?" he asked, his tone so casual, as if he were asking about the weather.

"No, I'm good," I said.

He nodded. "Good, that's settled."

As we reached the garage door, he paused. "If you can't win, come to me."

Before I could say anything, he was already in his car.