?Chapter 1173:


    “Katie.” Brendon shot her a cold look. “Watch what you say.”


    “I’m not saying King messed up or anything,” Katie replied quickly. “I’m just wondering if maybe someone pretended to be King, gave us fake medicine or something.”


    Brendon’s expression stayed hard, brows drawn.


    “Nobody would dare impersonate King. And if they did, they’d have been exposed by now. The medicine was legit.”


    “Then why’d she rpse?” Katie snapped, eyes shing.


    It couldn’t have happened at a worse time—right in the middle of the chance to prove Christina’s giarism. The timing waspletely ruined.


    If Ynda had stayed fine, she probably would’ve outshone Christina, and they wouldn’t have been getting dragged all over the inte.


    “King never promised to cure her,” Brendon exined. “The only promise was that the medicine would ease her symptoms and help her hang on longer. Rpses were always a possibility.” And to be fair, this time wasn’t nearly as bad as the ones before. That meant the medicine was working, more or less.


    Still, Brendon couldn’t help feeling uneasy.


    The medicine was King’s patent, and it only targeted the symptoms instead of the cause. It was just a temporary solution for Ynda.


    He needed to track King down and beg for her full cure.


    But finding King was another beast entirely. The guy was like a ghost. Even the person who delivered the medicine left no trail—no name, no number, nothing.


    “You’re right,” Katie sighed, still fuming. “I’m just so mad. Christina’s fans are all over us online, saying Ynda’s faking it. Like, seriously?”


    She’d even jumped into thement sections with a burner ount, fighting back for hours—but it was a losing battle. The trolls she hired to help? Useless. Couldn’t even win a Twitter fight. What a joke.


    “Let them talk,” Brendon said tly. “Just don’t post anything reckless right now. The tension’s already high—we don’t need more drama.”


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    “I know,” Katie muttered, though clearly she wasn’t done stewing.


    Brendon turned back to Ynda, his voice quieter now. “Right now, we just need to wait for her to wake up. If she still wants topete, we’ll have to go all in, get the perfect model to show off her designs.”


    His mind was already spinning with ideas.


    “Okay,” Katie said with a nod, jaw clenched. “As soon as she wakes up, I’ll back her with everything I’ve got.”


    Deep down, they both knew—if they were going to take Christina down, it all came down to Ynda.


    Half a monthter, the finals of the fashionpetition finally began.


    After weeks of hard work, the fifteen contestants arrived, each bringing along their creations and chosen models.


    The live chat room exploded with chatter, and most of the conversation circled around Christina and Ynda.


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