?<strong>Chapter 452:</strong>


    Kristopher’s jaw tightened. “Carrie, don’t be like this—”


    Carrie stood up abruptly. After a pause, she finally relented. “Fine. I’ll let this go. She tried to kick me while I was down, but I turned her little stunt into an opportunity to gain attention. But mark my words—if she pulls anything else, I won’t let it slide. Instead of asking me to pardon her, maybe you should focus on keeping her in check.”


    Carrie stepped closer, her eyes locking with his. “If you’ve chosen to stay married to me, then act like it. Stop trying to have it both ways. We live in a civilized society, Kristopher. A society that frowns at polygamy… and side chicks too.”


    With that, she turned and headed upstairs, her voice trailing back as she said, “I want to sleep alone tonight.”


    Once inside the master bedroom, Carrie locked the door behind her and dragged a cab over to wedge it. She wasn’t naive about Kristopher’s persistence—his stubbornness was one of the reasons they had reached this impasse.


    Sitting on the edge of the bed, Carrie stared nkly at the floor. The drowsiness that had been pulling at her earlier was long gone, reced by the buzz of their argument. She pulled her phone from the nightstand and logged into Katrina’s Twitter ount, intending to review thetest mentions andments about Lise’s so-called defense.


    A notification caught her eye. In her private messages, a familiar name sat at the top of her inbox.


    Lise sent a private message to Katrina’s ount: “Hello, Katrina. I’m sure you’ve seen the uproar online about the controversy surrounding Carrie giarizing your blog content. Whether as your fans or as professionals in the field, we strongly oppose such dishonest giarism. We have all her submission records and chat logs from her creative process. If you’re considering legal action for infringement, we are fully ready to support you.”


    Furious, Carrie let out a bitterugh. Lise was clearly desperate to destroy her, scheming at every opportunity, trying to find ways to undermine her. Carrie responded shortly with just two words: “No need.” Lise, clearly glued to her phone and expecting a reply, shot back almost immediately. “Katrina, you must have solid evidence then. I’m eager to hear about your victory. Justice always prevails. I trust that our country’s legal system will hold all giarists ountable.”


    Carrie paused, a sly smile dancing in her eyes. Her fingers moved quickly across the screen as she typed, “I am Carrie.”


    Lise sat on her brand-new leather sofa, staring nkly at Carrie’s message. After a long silence, she passed the phone to Elva. “What’s going on with Katrina’s message? Is she messing with us?”


    But Elva didn’t respond to the question. Instead, her eyes stayed locked on the screen as she said, “Check out what Katrina just tweeted.”


    Lise furrowed her brows, closed the private message, and navigated to Katrina’s Twitter page. The moment she saw the pinned post, any confusion she had vanished, reced by sheer disbelief.


    “Hey everyone, I’m Katrina, the screenwriter. I’m also Carrie, the actress. Writing scripts was just a personal hobby. We all have different sides, and I wanted to write the stories I love under a pen name. Thanks to the love and support of readers and viewers, those stories gained recognition. Recently, due to personal reasons, I took on amercial script. In bncing my creative work with real-life responsibilities, I used a new pseudonym. Along the way, I carelessly included some of my old blog posts in the script. This was just a misunderstanding, one that could’ve been quietly settled. But after the scriptpany demandedpensation and didn’t receive it, they cut ties with me. Now, I’m left with no choice but to address this openly. Thank you to everyone who defended me against giarism. Your support is why creators like us can maintain our belief in originality.”


    The forced reveal, a consequence of all the chaos, ended up having a far greater impact than if she had chosen to reveal her identity on her own. Twitter’s servers were overwhelmed almost instantly. Ten minutester, a new trending topic surged to the top: “Carrie Revealed As The Famous Screenwriter Katrina.” The twist was so unbelievable it seemed like fiction: a struggling soap-opera actress revealed to be one of the most famous screenwriters in the industry. Fans started digging into Carrie’s past, even discovering why Asher had always been so protective of her. Turns out, Katrina was Asher’s idol, someone he had publicly praised countless times. Carrie was instantly elevated to icon status. The chaos that followed far exceeded anything Soren and his team had ever imagined.


    Lise was thrust back into the harsh re of public scrutiny, with some keen-eyedizens catching the hidden sarcasm in her Twitter posts. For those who didn’t understand the full history between Carrie and Lise, opinions remained split. Some argued that Lise had meant well but had just gone about it the wrong way. Lise could never have foreseen such a ridiculous and shocking turn of events.


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