Pl agi arism?

**Audrey's POV*

I stood in the shower with my eyes closed. Hot water beat against my scalp,washing away egg residue that still smelled like something had died weeks ago. Three rounds of shampoo hadn't killed the stench.

This morning should have felt like victory. I'd finally confronted the Sinclairs and exposed their lies with solid proof. Instead, I just felt empty.

I grabbed the shampoo again and poured too much into my palm. My nails dug into my scalp as I scrubbed, though the egg was long gone.

The Sinclairs had never been real family, so their betrayal was expected.But Rachel? She'd been my first actual friend. I'd always told myself she abandoned our friendship because I was already "dead" - just moving on with her life. Made sense. I wouldn't hold that against anyone.

But today showed the truth. Rachel hadn't cared about me for a long time.She stole my design drafts and accused my "twin" of plagiarism. She sent those girls to ambush me with rotten eggs.

My phone rang through the bathroom door. I shut off the water,wrapped myself in a towel, and padded across the carpet leaving wet footprints.

"Hello?"

"Come downstairs." Adrian's voice sounded different. "Everyone who should be here has arrived."

I heard crying in the background. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing much. Just making an example. These girls need to be punished in front of whoever sent them. So whoever sent them knows my wife isn't someone to mess with."

The crying got louder.

"Don't do anything stupid," I said. "I'm coming down now."

I quickly dried off and threw on whatever clothes were closest. My hair was still dripping as I rushed to the elevator.

The hotel plaza had been cleared of guests. Security guards stood far back.deliberately looking anywhere but at what was happening. I stoppedshort at what I saw.

The heavy girl and her friends were kneeling in a row with their faces covered in egg. But that wasn't what made me sick. They each had cuts on their hands with thin streams of blood dripping.

Rachel stood nearby, white as a sheet. Adrian stood in front of the girls looking completely calm.

The only sounds were the wind and the girls' quiet moaning.

"Please stop," Rachel begged, reaching for Adrian's hands. "They're just kids..."

Adrian laughed. "If I spare them, will you spare my wife?"

Rachel's mouth opened, but nothing came out. She spotted me approaching and looked relieved.

After a moment, she straightened up."I don't know what you mean."

"Really?" I walked up to them.′′Isit that you don't know, or you don't

want to admit it?"

Rachel spun around, startled by my voice.

"You knew exactly what happened as soon as Adrian called," I said coldly.

"Now you're pretending you don't know what these girls did to me?"

**Rachel's POV**

I turned toward her voice instinctively.

There she was - fresh from the shower with wet hair dripping down her shoulders,walking with a confidence that the old Audrey never had.

Memories crashed over me. When I first met Audrey, she was this shy,insecure thing at the care facility. Head always down, barely speaking, just doing her job and reading books.

Back then, I was angry all the time. My mother had remarried,and I was constantly bullied by my stepfather and Laurel. I took it out on Audrey because she never fought back - just smiled and took it.

Eventually, I felt bad for her. I started taking her racing, camping, to bars.I taught her to dance, to drink, to live a little. Watched her slowly become more confident.

I thought I was being nice. Until five years ago, when she saved Blake.

By then, she wasn't that quiet girl anymore. She would talk with Blake about books they'd both read, music they both liked. For the first time, I regretted helping her come out of her shell.

Because I recognized Blake Parker immediately - the heir to Parker Group.And Audrey wasn't worthy of him. But I was.

If only Blake could remember who saved him, marrying him and securing the Rose family's future would be inevitable.

But I'd already taught Audrey too well. She was talking to him, connecting with him.

So I recorded everything they discussed in my phone notes,planning to impersonate her later. I convinced her not to tell Blake who she really was,saying it was for her own good.

Later, when Blake was taken back by his family; I convinced Audrey to forget him.

I never thought Laurel would find out, that she'd steal my phone.When I saw Blake again, he was with her.

I watched my half-sister take everything, with no way to expose her without exposing myself.

That's why I arranged to meet Laurel on that rooftop four years ago. I just wanted to talk.

But she was more ruthless than I expected. She pushed me off...

"Miss Hayes."

Her voice yanked me back to the present. I blinked, focusing on the woman with Audrey's face.

"Mrs. Knox, I..." I stumbled over my words.

"I know what you did," she said, her eyes cold. "On Long Island, you and Mr. Parker told me twins always have a spiritual connection - that my designs and my sister's would naturally be similar. Remember that?"

I couldn't meet her eyes.

"And now, just a month later, you take my sister's designs from her cloud drive and accuse me of plagiarism?"

I instinctively glanced at Blake, who sat watching us, perfectly calm.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said with a forced frown,then switched to the sweet, accommodating smile I'd seen Audrey use so many times."When did I accuse you of plagiarism? There must be some misunderstanding."

She smiled back coldly. "No misunderstanding. My sister gave all her account passwords to Astrid Wilson before she died."

She pulled out her phone, and I felt my pulse spike.

"That cloud account you thought only you and Audrey could access?Astrid has the login too."

I struggled to keep my face neutral.

"She checked the account history and found the IP address of the last login." She turned her screen toward me and read: "The Parker mansion."

She tilted her head. "So tell me, did you just come from there?"

The blood drained from my face.

Yes, I had just come from the Parker mansion.

Rebecca went ballistic about this afternoon's disaster. Full-on meltdown mode.

Thalía - too chickenshit to face her mother alone - had begged me to come

over and help.

I'd wasted an hour at the mansion doing damage control with Rebecca.

Just when I finally got her calmed down, Adrian called about "trouble"...

"Your silence says everything," Adrian said, cutting into my thoughts."You were at the Parker mansion."

When I didn't respond, his mouth twisted into a smirk. "Thought you were being clever, didn't you?"

"Trash my wife's career while making her look like she stole from her dead sister. Two birds, one stone."

He stepped beside Audrey, running his eyes over the kneeling girls before looking back at me. "Too bad your hired help folded like cheap suits."

"You figured we wouldn't touch these girls because their daddies matter in New York, and we're just visitors from Australia."

"Big mistake."

His smile never reached his eyes. "These amateurs broke the first rule of getting paid to do dirty work - they ratted you out immediately."

"And second..."

He moved behind the heavy girl and kicked her hard.

She hit the ground with a scream.

Through her wailing. Adrian locked eyes with me. "I don't give a damn who's who in New York. I can handle anyone in this city."