Chapter 90

Explain? What was Sabrina even supposed to say? It was the hard truth—she hadn’t painted that picture in the first place. She’d grabbed it from Amelia’s room last year. At the time, she'd thought maybe she could use it to get into Veritas, and well, it worked. Since it passed the initial selection, she thought it was fine to use in the contest. But she hadn’t expected some nobody like Emily Carter to blow the whole thing up. Emily stared her down, voice cold. "Sabrina Johnson, you're still denying it?" "You can't accuse me based on a couple of photos," Sabrina tried to sound calm, keeping her face composed. "True," Emily said into the mic, addressing the crowd, "That’s why, for transparency, the top three contestants will all redraw their original entries. Don’t need to be exact—just capture your style." Second and third place took their time, about thirty minutes, and their re-drawn pieces were nearly identical to the originals—ninety-five percent match. Then came Sabrina’s turn. Her