Fifteen minutes passed by in the blink of an eye, but there was no sign of Alice. Soon, it was time to address the press. Hence, Eddie was led half-heartedly to the stage. Before she left, she texted Daniel, "Bro, where is Alice? She didn't show up."
Eddie climbed up the stage with Riley behind her. She was wearing a blue knee-length dress with an overcoat. On the other hand, Riley was wearing his usual white pantsuit, pulling on a long face. Eddie slowly walked up to the nearest podium while Rily stood behind the other one. After a brief eye contact and nod, Riley began, "Good morning, my friends of media. We all know why we have gathered here. Yeah, we took a long time before we showed up. But as our work ethic says, we don't embarrass ourselves without evidence. So, before Miss Eddie gives us the showdown, shall we go for a warm-up?"
The crowd erupted with chatters and raised hands. Seeing this, Riley smiled briefly, "Well, I know that you all have questions to ask and answers to fill up your empty notepads. But, questions can wait till the warm-up. I will take up a few minutes, and then the question session will begin."
The crowd reacted and a hush fell over the hall. Riley turned his attention to the huge screen behind him. The screen lit up with a photo and he began speaking, "As you see, these are the snaps from the previous fashion week Elixir Fashion participated. And by God's grace, won. But luck played its cards and our chief designer, Miss Eddie was accused of stealing these very designs from the old man Jeremy Ferbs."
Riley turned his head to access the crowd's reaction and as expected they were whispering. He turned back and another photo popped up on the screen. It had a line drawing of a skeletal sketch, "So, this is the draft sketch of the dress that the show-stopper wore that day at the fashion week. If you look carefully, right here", Riley moved his laser pen over a few areas and spoke again, "I guess you know what I mean."
A few whispers could be heard from downstage which made Eddie gulp. She was a bit nervous and her palms had started to sweat. Soon, a logo in green appeared right beside the previous image.
"Are you people thinking the same thing?" Riley spoke again, "Well, then. Yeah, to be precise, our chief designer always used her company's logo as the base structure and she did the same for the dress. To be honest, she designed the logo herself. So, who would say that these designs belong to Eddie?"
A hush fell over the hall.
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Amnesty Entertainment
Amy was watching the live stream on her phone. She had seen Alice entering, but what surprised Amy was her absence onstage. Neither did Alice call nor did she answer her call. Amy felt worried and had a bad feeling in her guts.
They say Women have stronger instincts.
Maybe, it was true. At least, Amy felt, for now, it was. She hurriedly stood up, grabbed her clutch wallet and dashed out of her room.