Chapter 185

A woman seated next to Octavia leaned forward. ‘Miss Vance makes a solid point. If the result’s disputed, let the people decide. I’d have given her a ten myself. It’s stunning work.’ She looked right at me. I held her gaze and nodded once. The chat went wild again. [Who is that woman? She’s making sense.] [Is she a judge too?] [Someone drop her name, she’s hot] [That’s Rowan Hale! My idol! Did she just come back from overseas?] Dr Dubois was sweating through her blouse. Literal sweat. It soaked the edge of her collar and glistened above her lip. She got up from her seat, approached me, then spoke in a low whisper. ‘If you stop this now, I’ll rescore your submission. A better score. Just… don’t escalate it.’ ‘No. I’m not the one who started this. You did.’ I raised the mic. ‘And we still haven’t talked about what you pulled backstage. You tried to smear me, so let’s hear it. Go on. Tell them what happened behind that curtain.’ Someone shouted from the audience, ‘Backstage drama? Tell us