Arnold brought her to a quiet café. Josie refused to go in, but he did not force her.
She knew she had no chance of escape. Thus, she remained in the car and took a nap. However, various thoughts would bother her ast soon as she closed her eyes. Furthermore, Dexter’s face appeared clearly among the fragmented memories. It caused her to be unable to sleep.
Since sleep was futile, Josie took out a sketchbook from her bag. She glanced around, trying to decide what she should draw. Then, she noticed Arnold was seated at a seat by the window. His hair was slightly messy, but his face looked handsome from any angle. He had a relatively high nose bridge and looked a little foreboding as he pursed his lips.
She could not resist picking up her pencil and drawing an outline of his appearance. The pencil lead produced soothing noises as it glided on the paper.
After half an hour, Josie patted the paper and propped it up. Her drawing of Arnold appeared. life-like. Moreover, she was satisfied with how she sketched the shadow beneath his lashes.
However, she was still bored, so she touched up and edited the hastily sketched drawing. She was so engrossed in it that she did not notice someone appearing beside her.
“What are you drawing?” A familiar voice sounded. Josie was surprised by the voice and loosened her grip, allowing the sketch to fly from her hands and land by Arnold’s feet.
Arnold looked down to see what it was. Josie was so embarrassed that she desperately wished the ground would swallow her whole.
He picked up the drawing and looked at it earnestly. He seemed satisfied with it. ‘You draw well.”
Josie was not sure how she should respond. “Are you praising my artistic skills or bragging about your good looks?”
Then, she felt she needed to clarify the matter. “I didn’t set out to draw you. I was just… bored.”
Arnold leaned against the car door. He seemed a little smug as he waved the drawing. “Can you give this to me?”
Josie was left with no choice. “Sure, as long as you don’t use it to sue me.”
“I’m not that petty.”
It was early evening. Josie was pondering something when she received a call from Alice.
“It’s bad. Interior Design Awards announced that someone discovered that your drawing had many similarities with Claire’s!”
Josie frowned and thought to check the announcement with her phone, but it was inconvenient with an ongoing phone call. Arnold offered his phone and said, “Use mine.”
News of plagiarism was already all over Twitter. Alice asked, “This is slander, right? Are you looking for evidence?”
“Not yet. I suspect someone in the company is behind this.”
“Let’s not worry about that for now. You need to go online immediately and check Twitter!” Alice’s tone grew more urgent.
“I don’t know who posted Claire and your designs on Twitter, but the comment section is exploding with criticism.”
The post was posted from a burner account. It had no words and contained only photos. One was a photo of Josie’s design with her. signature glaringly visible below. The post compared it with Claire’s drawing and caused. an uproar.
‘Isn’t Josie the one who made a public announcement?”
She won Interior Design Awards with at plagiarized drawing. It makes me skeptical about Russell Group’s standard.” ‘There are many plagiarism cases these days, but I’ve never seen one as obvious as this. What the heck?”
The number of comments grew to thirty thousand within a short period. At the same time, netizens fervently trended #RussellGroupJosiePlagiarism. The matter had gotten out of control.
It seemed someone deliberately dragged Russell Group into this matter. Thus, Josie knew she was not the only one being targeted.
She glanced at Arnold, but he raised his eyebrows, indicating that he had nothing to do with this.
The comments were filled with harsh and vicious words. Josie did not know any of these people, but that did not stop them from making malicious speculations against her.
