Chapter 210
Chapter 210:
Paola’s skin turned pale, and she swayed where she stood. The girls who had once praised her now looked around in confusion.
“How did Rylie even get into the finals?” one of them muttered. “She wasn’t supposed to be here. Did she pay someone off?”
None of them seemed to realize that Rylie had been invited as a special judge. Instead, they whispered about her connections to the Owen family, convinced she had manipulated the competition’s rules.
Isabella leaned toward another girl. “You don’t think she bribed the judges, do you? That must be why she partnered with Novalee. She wants the spotlight. She dismissed the rules!”
“Seriously, what happens to Paola now? She’s been preparing for months, and this is how it ends?”
From the contestants’ section, Paola gave a dry, bitter laugh. “This is pointless. I’m done trying to beat her.”
She stepped into view of the cameras, ready to make an exit. But her foot caught the edge of a stair, and she let out a shriek as her body tumbled down.
The sound of her fall echoed through the hall. The crowd gasped, and the cameras quickly swung away from the stage, zooming in on the unfolding scene.
“Look! The second-place contestant just fainted!”
“Paola! Paola!”
Isabella and her friends gasped simultaneously, rushing forward to assist. As Paola was gently lifted, her tearful eyes met the camera at just the right angle, reddened enough to appear heartbreakingly genuine.
“I’m sorry. I’m okay. I just twisted my ankle,” she murmured softly.
Even the host hurried over, microphone in hand, voice filled with concern. “Are you alright?”
Paola bit her lip, nodding shakily. She seemed ready to leave the stage but, after a brief hesitation, shrugged off Isabella’s support and limped dramatically toward Rylie. With trembling resolve, she spoke. “Rylie, isn’t there something you’d like to say to me?”
Rylie’s eyebrows arched slightly in mild surprise. “What exactly should I say now? Perhaps advise you to get that ankle checked at a hospital?”
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“Congratulations on winning first place,” Paola continued, her voice quivering with bitterness. “But didn’t you yourself say you hadn’t even competed in the preliminaries? I didn’t see you in the second round either. So how exactly did you secure a place in the finals?”
Novalee immediately stepped forward to defend Rylie. “What exactly are you implying? Are you suggesting Rylie stole your spotlight? It’s obvious she—”
Rylie placed a calming hand on Novalee’s wrist, observing Paola’s theatrics with detached amusement, as though watching a mildly entertaining play unfold. Isabella quickly stepped in, passionately supporting Paola. “Rylie, you shamelessly plagiarized Paola’s original piano piece! You pushed her to the brink of suicide just to clear her own name. And now, you’ve completely disregarded the rules of the Wesdown International Piano Competition. This isn’t some vanity event you can manipulate for fame!”
The host broke out in a cold sweat at hearing that. Wasn’t this essentially a public accusation of cheating—right in the middle of such a prestigious piano competition?