?Chapter 818:


    The realization hit like a p. Sylvia’s mouth hung open as the pieces began to fall into ce. “No, that’s impossible!” she shrieked. “Helena’s a foreign author! There’s no way Helena and Lena are the same person!”


    Then, in a sh, a different idea wormed its way into her head. A spark flickered in her eyes. That had to be it—Elena must’ve started the rumor herself as a way to wipe away the stain of giarism. Helena had always been a mystery—never once had she revealed her face. Even if Elena posed as Helena, who would be able to tell the difference?


    Sylvia smirked. How could Elena be this clueless? First, Elena stole someone else’s work, and now she was trying to pass herself off as some foreign writer? The whole thing was beyond absurd.


    Sylvia’s brows pulled together as she said to her audience, “Everyone, are you seriously falling for this? There’s no way Elena is Helena. She must’ve started these lies herself to distract from the giarism mess. Don’t trust a word of it…”


    Nobody watching the livestream had expected Sylvia to keep dragging Elena’s name through the dirt. Irritated, the fed-up viewers bit back with brutal honesty.


    “People like her shouldn’t be allowed to stream, ever.”


    “Someone this dumb shouldn’t have made it past kindergarten.”


    “Serves me right for being nosy. I clicked out of curiosity, and now I’m infected with secondhand embarrassment. I’m done with this garbage.”


    While the insults piled up like a flood with no dam, something unexpected popped onto the screen—a virtual gift.


    For a second, that lifted Sylvia’s mood. Her voice softened as she said, “Thanks for the gift, dear.”


    One secondter, thement that followed sent her spiraling. “Don’t bother thanking me—put it toward getting your brain checked out.”


    Everything froze. The stream went still. Then, chaos erupted.


    Discover new releases gα?ησv???s


    “LOL! I’m wheezing!”


    “Gift of the day, right there!”


    “Dead serious—go get your head checked.”


    Whatever smile Sylvia had stitched onto her face cracked. The chat turned into a tidal wave ofughing emojis, roasts, and ruthless mockery.


    With a shaky breath, Sylvia mmed her finger on the “end stream” button.


    Not a secondter, she opened her browser—and her stomach dropped. Only a few minutes earlier, Helena had uploaded a new post. In it, she revealed that Lena and Helena weren’t two people at all—they were one and the same.


    Sylvia’s heart sank as she realized that Helena, the elusive foreign author who’d captured everyone’s attention, had been Elena all along! Sylvia couldn’t stop herself from thinking that Elena could’ve ended this whole mess right from the beginning. Why wait until now? Why stay silent for so long? As her thoughts retraced every word and action she’d thrown into the spotlight, she felt a heavy weight settle deep in her chest.


    A wave of dread settled over her—she had be the biggest joke of them all.


    Somewhere between regret and panic, Sylvia reyed everything she’d said on stream—and the damning supposed evidence that she had sent to a world-famous director overseas hit her like a freight train. Sylvia’s bitterness toward Elena surged. That tramp! Elena must have nned it all on purposeying the perfect trap to watch her fall t on her face.


    .


    .


    .