Chapter 57

“Impossible
The whiplash was too much for Yolanda. Her face turned ashen as she shook her head in disbelief. Juniper spent all her time running wild in the mountains. When would she have had time to learn to dance? For the past fifteen years, Yolanda had never once seen her dance. This had to be a trick!
As the reporter, Jaxon, wondered how to salvage the situation, his assistant leaned in. “Jaxon, The One tweeted again. It turns out someone was wearing a fake dress, but it wasn’t Queenie from Aurora High
“Then who was it?” Jaxon was starting to get PTSD from the words “fake dress.” This whole situation was giving him a massive headache.
“It was The assistant licked his lips, his expression complicated as he glanced at Yolanda.
“What are you trying to say?” Yolanda’s temper flared at his look. “Mine is authentic!”
Her father had spent fifty thousand dollars and pulled countless strings to get it.
“See for yourself,” the assistant said, holding out his phone.
Sure enough, three minutes ago, The One had posted a tweet. It directly accused her of wearing a counterfeit.
What? How could her dress be a fake?
At that moment, the online narrative had completely flipped, and everyone was attacking her.
“So Yolanda was the one wearing the fake?”
“Her live stream was apparently spotted by someone from The One. I heard their head of design reported it personally.”
“This is hilarious. A minute ago, she was telling everyone to be magnanimous and give Juniper a chance. Turns out she was the fraud all along.”
“I bet she was the one who started the rumors about Queenie’s dress being fake in the first place.”
“She’s so shameless, all this just to get on the news!”
“How dare she go live wearing a knockoff? Is she not afraid of getting sued by The One?”
Reading that last comment, a shiver went down Jaxon’s spine. He quickly ordered his assistant to shut down the live stream.
“Miss Sherwin, perhaps you should handle this issue with the fake dress first.”
“I’m not wearing a fake! This is slander, a vicious attack! Aurora High will really stoop to any lie to steal back first place, won’t they?”
“You should probably check Twitter again Jaxon had no patience left for her. He had felt bad about canceling her interview on such short notice, but it turned out she was the one crying wolf all along. Now, at least, they had a legitimate reason to cancel.
“How could this be Yolanda gripped her phone, her fingers scrolling frantically.
In total, The One had posted three times today. The first was to acknowledge Juniper as Master Lunar and apologize to her, Queenie, and Aurora High. The second was to state they had received a report of someone wearing a counterfeit. The third had been posted just thirty seconds ago. The One had posted a photo of the actual dress she was supposedly wearing, explaining that it had never been sold and was still in their warehouse.
So, the dress she was wearing was, without a doubt, a fake.
What on earth was going on?
After the reporters left, Yolanda furiously dialed her father, Malcolm. “Dad, send me the purchase record for the dress. Now.”
She was going to shove it in the faces of The One and all those online trolls.
“Yolanda, listen to me Malcolm’s voice was hesitant over the phone. “About the dress
“What about it?” Hearing his evasive tone, a sense of dread washed over Yolanda. “Tell me! Where did you buy the dress?” she demanded, her voice rising hysterically.
“I did have someone look for the real one, but it was on very short notice, and the process with The One is slow. I was afraid you needed it urgently, and since it was just a simple school festival, I figured no one would notice. So
“So you bought me a fake?”