Shattered Facets: The Designer's Revenge

At the jewelry design competition, my boyfriend stole my design drafts just to launch his precious underclassman into stardom. Staring at the completely wiped files on my laptop, I was forced to withdraw under the watchful eyes of the entire industry. Julian stood there looking smug, convinced he could step on my back to propel his little darling, Chloe, into the spotlight. What he didn’t know was that I was the only person alive who knew the cutting technique required for that piece. The exact second the ten-million-dollar "Heart of the Ocean" shattered onto the floor would be the very moment their lives crumbled into ruin. When Chloe’s design appeared on the massive projector screen, gasps of admiration swept through the exhibition hall. I froze in my seat. That sketch was undeniably, unmistakably mine. "A prodigy indeed! This concept is both breathtaking and utterly daring!" The moment Elsa, a titan in the luxury jewelry world, praised the piece, the hall erupted with flattery directed at Chloe. This was the first time throughout the entire gala that Elsa had offered such glowing praise. Chloe beamed with unearned pride. When her gaze drifted toward me, her eyes were dripping with mockery and venom. "Thank you so much. Sometimes, pressure turns out to be the greatest motivator," she purred, her voice dripping with hidden malice. Following her pointed glance, the crowd's attention naturally swung my way. "Wait, where is Sophia's submission?" someone in the audience called out. A few of my industry supporters quickly chimed in to back me up. "Sophia is an established designer with a phenomenal portfolio. Can we see what she brought to the table tonight?" I stared down at the empty folder on my screen and the wiped USB drive on the table. My fists clenched tight. Just as I moved to stand up and challenge the origin of Chloe’s blueprint, Julian, sitting right beside me, grabbed my wrist. "Sophia has had so much on her plate lately. She just got back from Bali and hasn't had time to breathe, let alone finish her drafts. We’re sitting this one out," Julian announced, knitting his brows in a sickening display of faux concern. Chloe chimed in with an airy shrug. "Right. VIPs are always busy. It makes sense Sophia wouldn't care about a little contest like this." Their coordinated tag-team completely ruined Elsa’s mood. When the billionaire collector turned her eyes on me, her expression was distinctly cold. I opened my mouth to speak, but Julian jerked my arm, hissing under his breath. "What the hell are you doing? Do you seriously have to humiliate Chloe in a room full of people?" A terrifying calm washed over me, like thunder cracking inside my skull. The pieces clicked. I turned my head and locked eyes with Julian, keeping my voice deadpan. "You gave her my files." It wasn't a question. It was a fact. The password to that encrypted archive was known only to him and me—it was the anniversary date of our seven-year relationship. Without his betrayal, Chloe could never have stolen my work without a trace, let alone wiped the local drives clean. Julian’s expression twitched for a split second before his features hardened into a sneer. "Yeah, I did. So what? You owe her this!" I nearly laughed out loud. What on earth did I owe Chloe? She graduated from a sketchy, unaccredited overseas college that no reputable firm took seriously. I was the one who pulled strings to get her an internship at my studio. When had I ever wronged her? Yet in this ballroom packed with elite press, I couldn't throw hands. I lowered my voice to a sharp chill. "I am telling Elsa everything. In this industry, plagiarism and theft are fatal." Julian’s face darkened instantly. "Do you have proof? Do you really want to drag everyone through the mud?" "Chloe finally got her big break! Why couldn't you just let her have it for once?" Her big break? Bought and paid for with the designs I bled over for months! Remembering my wiped backups, I took a slow breath. Before I could retort, Chloe strolled over, champagne flute in hand. "Sophia, thank you so much for mentoring me over the past two years. Honestly, if it weren't for you, I never would have produced such a masterpiece." She tilted her glass toward me with a sweet smile. Beneath the polite grin lay naked spite. *If it weren't for me, indeed.* I'd seen thieves before, but never one so utterly shameless. My gaze went frosty. Instantly, Chloe shifted into victim mode, pouting dramatically. "Are you really refusing to toast with me, Sophia? I'm sorry... I shouldn't have outshone you tonight." The moment she dropped that tearful act, murmurs broke out among the onlookers. The looks directed at me quickly turned critical. I smiled, picked up a glass of champagne from the tray beside me, and raised it high. "Of course not. Watching an intern learn so much and produce results is wonderful." "I hope this momentum carries you far. Tonight's win will definitely mark a turning point in your life." Chloe’s smile flickered. She was thrown off. She probably expected me to blow a fuse, scream, and make a scene right then and there. Without immediate proof on hand, my outburst would have let her play the innocent victim while painting me as a bitter, jealous veteran. Too bad for her, I wasn't that stupid. Did she honestly think I had no cards left to play? I told her tonight was a turning point. Whether she was turning toward glory or tumbling off a cliff was entirely up to fate.Elsa walked over. As a globally renowned jewelry collector, her word dictated trends and launched careers across the market. This time, her eyes swept past me and locked onto Chloe. "Chloe, I want you to take charge of designing the setting for the Heart of the Ocean." Gasps rippled through the surrounding designers. The Heart of the Ocean! A legendary, flawless natural sapphire valued at over ten million dollars! Whispers had circulated that tonight's competition was secretly meant to select the artisan for that very stone, but almost no one had dared believe it. The gem was simply too rare and too costly. Out of the corner of my eye, several high-profile veteran designers looked like they wanted to swallow their own tongues in regret. Had they known the prize was the Heart of the Ocean, they would have thrown everything they had into tonight's drafts. Whoever brought that stone to life would immediately cement their place among the global elite. And yet, that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was just handed to an obscure novice. Chloe looked ecstatic, her cheeks flushed with greedy triumph. She clearly hadn't anticipated such an insane windfall. While the room digested the shock, Julian couldn't wait to jump in and seal the deal. "Chloe has always been an exceptionally diligent worker with incredible raw instinct. Being recognized by you is the greatest blessing of her life." Hearing him, I barely kept my face straight. Diligent? If staying out clubbing all night and missing every single studio deadline meant diligent, sure. Raw instinct? Since when was my design her instinct? Relying on the fact that I lacked hard evidence, Chloe offered a smug little smirk and casually swept her hair behind her ear. As her arm moved, her designer sleeve slid back, revealing a bespoke gold bracelet around her slender wrist. The tight smile on my face vanished. That bracelet looked painfully familiar. A month ago, I caught a glimpse of Julian’s phone receipts. He had secretly placed a custom order with a high-end French jeweler for a matching set of lovers' bracelets—that exact design. Back then, my heart had fluttered. I naively thought he was prepping a surprise for our upcoming anniversary. Turns out, the girl he bought it for had been standing right under my nose the whole time. I dropped my gaze, suffocating the surge of betrayal and fury rising in my throat. Inhaling deeply, I kept my voice perfectly measured. "Yes, Chloe is certainly persistent. I used to worry her foundations weren't mature enough, but seeing this, I feel relieved." Catching my calm reaction, Chloe looked at me with uneasy suspicion. Ignoring her, I offered Elsa a graceful nod. "I truly apologize for not submitting tonight. But Chloe has clearly found her footing. Handing the Heart of the Ocean over to her sounds like a splendid idea." Elsa looked mildly surprised. She had clearly expected me to hold a bitter grudge. After all, competition in high jewelry was cutthroat. Her tone softened toward me. "Of course, Sophia. I still look forward to your upcoming personal collection." I smiled politely, raised my crystal glass, and downed the champagne in one smooth swallow. Chloe wanted to see me seething with envy, humiliated and cast aside by my peers. She wasn't going to get that satisfaction. Looking at the high-stakes project she just accepted, I felt like laughing out loud. Did she really think she had the spine to carry that weight? That blueprint required my family's proprietary gem-cutting and tension-setting formulas. Without those exact calculations, nobody could ever assemble the finished piece shown on that screen. I couldn't wait to see how Julian and Chloe planned to deliver the final product. And more importantly, I wondered if Chloe could afford to pay for a ten-million-dollar sapphire when it inevitably broke into pieces. Once the formal speeches concluded, Elsa pulled Chloe along to mingle with high-profile patrons. It was obvious to everyone that Elsa intended to groom her as her new protégé. A few petty colleagues who had long resented my success seized the chance to drop snide remarks. "Wow, we all assumed you'd take first place tonight, Sophia. Guess your junior outclassed you." "Younger talent just has that spark, you know? Unlike veterans who eventually run out of juice." "Honestly, your boyfriend is so sweet! Look at how supportive he is of young talent—he's practically glued to Chloe's side." I stood still, letting their petty words slide off like water off a duck's back. Watching Julian trail Chloe across the room, his eyes brimming with tender, devoted adoration, my stomach churned with pure revulsion. I should have opened my eyes a long time ago.Ever since our college days, Chloe had clung to Julian like a bad rash. Whenever Julian and I went on dates, she somehow managed to invite herself along. My friends had called her out multiple times with heavy sarcasm. Yet in front of us, she played the wide-eyed innocent, only to run back and sob to Julian in private. She turned our entire circle upside down. Back then, after she was caught cheating on an exam and quietly expelled, her wealthy parents shipped her off to an overseas diploma mill, finally bringing some peace into my life. But she eventually came back. At Julian’s relentless begging, she was shoehorned into my private design studio despite her worthless degree. Yet inside the office, rumors circulated that Chloe had gotten in through my personal favoritism. Every time she botched a design file or missed an order, I was the one who quietly took the blame and cleaned up the mess. Whenever I tried to lay down ground rules for her sloppy work, Julian immediately jumped down my throat. "Can you stop being so insecure? What’s wrong with giving an underclassman a helping hand?" "She's still young, Sophia! Guide her instead of constantly attacking her!" "Stop assuming there's something between us. If we were going to happen, we would have happened years ago!" Looking back, it was my repeated compromises and soft-hearted tolerance that emboldened him to pull this stunt. He knew better than anyone how much blood and sweat I poured into this competition! For weeks on end, the lamp in my home studio burned straight through until dawn. To verify whether the experimental structural setting was feasible, I dragged myself to an old master jeweler's workshop while running a hundred-and-two-degree fever. And Julian handed all of that to Chloe on a silver platter. My life's work was reduced to a stepping stone for his little darling. Tired of watching the sickening display of their faux-sibling devotion, I slipped out of the venue and hailed an Uber home. Inside our shared apartment, looking at the familiar furniture, I closed my eyes. Seven years together. Every corner was saturated with memories of our shared life. We really had loved each other once. Back in college when we had no money, he worked three separate part-time jobs during break just to save up for a decent birthday gift for me. *“Whatever other girls have, my Sophia deserves too!”* Watching him lie in an urgent care bed with acute gastritis from pure exhaustion, my heart had ached with deep affection. I thought I had found real love. Turns out, our bond could survive poverty, but it couldn't survive prosperity. It was time to cut the cord. I picked up my phone and dialed an old craftsman I had known for over a decade. "Master Vance, remember the technical draft I reviewed with you earlier? I need your help with something." Since they loved stealing so much, I was more than happy to feed their little fantasy. Let's see if their ride-or-die romance holds up when the bills come due. Julian realized the catch faster than I expected. The minute he stepped through the front door, he demanded the core data. "Drop the act, Sophia. Hand over the structural formulas for the blueprint. I know you have them." The precision math determined the exact angle, facet cut, and tension pressure of the mount. Without those parameters, even if they had the sapphire in hand, it was impossible to replicate the render shown on the projector. When Julian copied the visual layers, he couldn't find the numbers. Because those numbers were kept entirely in my head. My family had run an artisanal jewelry lineage for generations; we had our own trade secrets for facet math. When I drew the concept, the calculations were already locked in my memory. Out of professional instinct, I never wrote them down digitally. I hadn't expected that casual habit to turn into the ultimate trap. Looking at his stormy expression, I offered a light, mocking smile. "You want my measurements? Keep dreaming." "What makes you think I would ever lift a finger to help a thief?" Julian sneered, his lip curling in contempt. "Aren't you a thief yourself?" "If you hadn't framed her for academic fraud back in college, she never would have been forced to drop out!" "You stole her future, Sophia! You owe her this!" I stared at him, stunned. "Framed her? What garbage are you spewing? She was caught red-handed!" Julian cast a look of utter disgust over me and whipped out his phone. "You really won't admit it until the evidence hits you in the face, will you?" He hit play on an audio clip. *"Yes... yes, Sophia paid me to report Chloe to the dean. She was the one who told me to slip the stolen design into Chloe's folder."* The voice was instantly recognizable—it belonged to Chloe’s former dorm roommate. I frowned, my tone turning dangerously calm. "Why should I confess to a crime I never committed? Let's bring her here right now and settle this to her face!" Julian shoved me away with impatient fury. "Stop the theatricals! I'm warning you: even without your precious data, we'll get the piece made. Don't flatter yourself into thinking the world stops spinning without your little tricks!" His push sent me stumbling back hard against the sharp edge of the coffee table. The wood sliced open my forearm, and warm blood trickled down my skin. Julian merely scowled at the blood with annoyed disgust. "Still playing the victim? Finding out the truth made every single day living with you feel completely sickening!" He slammed the door behind him and vanished. I pulled myself up using the edge of the table. Calmly, I pulled out the first-aid kit and bandaged the cut on my arm. My illusions about this relationship were utterly dead. When the hammer came down, I wouldn't spare them an ounce of mercy. As for that audio recording Julian played—it was laughable. Only an idiot like Julian would fall for such an amateur setup. Since Chloe and her old roommate loved performing so much, I'd gladly drag them out into the blazing sun under the crime of criminal defamation. During the days I spent recovering, the industry was buzzing with news. Elsa had taken a massive liking to Chloe, visibly pouring resources into promoting her as the hot new prodigy. Through mutual contacts, I saw Elsa repeatedly liking and commenting on Chloe's flashy social media posts. Chloe's fame was skyrocketing like a bonfire soaked in gasoline, but I wasn't in a hurry. In fact, I wanted that fire to burn higher, hotter, and louder. Without genuine skill to back it up, could Chloe actually handle the heat? The day of the luxury gala finally arrived, and my VIP invitation arrived on schedule. The moment I stepped into the grand hall, whispers and sizing-up glances locked onto me. "Did you hear? Right after Julian broke things off with Sophia, he and Chloe went down to City Hall and got married!" "Seven years as a girlfriend versus getting a wedding ring in less than a month... says a lot about true love, doesn't it?" "Her character must be terrible. Chloe mentioned her former boss spent years sabotaging her out of sheer jealousy..." Over the past month, Julian hadn't bothered hiding his relationship with Chloe at all. Naturally, gossip spread like wildfire. Some petty acquaintances even made veiled comments about how I had lost both my man and my career in one fell swoop. I maintained my silent, elegant poise, patiently waiting for the curtain to rise on the main event. Under the glare of flashing cameras and dazzling lights, Chloe stood proudly beside Elsa, personally carrying the custom velvet display case containing the necklace. A wave of polite gasps rippled through the audience. Then, a seasoned jeweler leaned in and whispered, "Wait... does the setting look slightly off from the original rendering?" Panic flickered across Chloe’s face, but she snapped defensively. "How could it be off?" "It's just the lighting and the angle!" To prove her point, she reached down, picked up the mounted necklace, and held the Heart of the Ocean up toward the chandelier. A split second later, a crisp, sharp *snap* echoed across the hall. The ten-million-dollar sapphire slipped clean out of its tension prongs and crashed violently onto the marble floor.The entire hall fell dead silent for a heartbeat, followed by a wave of sharp screams. Elsa’s face drained of color, and her knees buckled so violently her assistant had to lunge forward to keep her from hitting the floor. Security and staff scrambled, dropping to their knees to retrieve the Heart of the Ocean from the hard marble. Every collector and critic craned their necks, desperate to see if the priceless gem had survived the drop. Meanwhile, Chloe, who had been basking in the spotlight on stage just seconds ago, was completely forgotten. With trembling hands, Elsa held the stone under the spotlights, examining it over and over until tears welled in her eyes. "There's a fracture." Those four words sent a collective shudder through the entire room. In high-end jewelry, an internal fracture was a death sentence. For a flawless, historical sapphire of this caliber, the financial and historical loss was impossible to quantify! Once the initial shock faded, Elsa’s fury erupted. The glare she leveled at Chloe was murderous. "Give me an explanation. Now!" Any real designer knew that structural integrity was the absolute baseline of jewelry craftsmanship. Aesthetics and concept meant nothing if the stone wasn't secure. And Chloe was nothing more than an amateur who couldn't even manage the basics. All the smug color had vanished from Chloe’s face. She stammered frantically, waving her hands. "No... that's not right! I don't know what happened!" "I followed the design draft down to the millimeter! I have no idea why the prongs gave out!" Her excuses sounded laughably hollow against the hard reality on the floor. Even Julian, who had spent the last month vouching for her brilliance, couldn't find a single word to bail her out. Chloe kept shooting frantic glances my way, the venom and desperation in her eyes barely concealed. I calmly took a slow sip of the red wine in my glass. What was she going to do? Stand up in front of the press and confess that she stole my blueprint? That would be immediate professional suicide. On top of that, the competition carried a substantial cash prize and a binding commercial contract. Admitting theft would give Elsa every legal ground to press felony fraud charges. She didn't dare. She had no choice but to choke down this poison herself. I stepped forward, cutting through Julian’s useless, frantic attempts to soothe Elsa. "Elsa, would you mind letting me take a look?" Surrounded by absolute chaos, Elsa glanced up at me, her eyes heavy with bitter regret. "Go ahead." I took the Heart of the Ocean, inspecting the internal stress points against the light. Exactly as I expected. "The internal stress fracture is quite severe," I murmured evenly. "It runs deep." Hearing that, Elsa’s fury flared even hotter. "I should have never trusted her! I want full, total restitution for this disaster!" A multi-million-dollar loss. Chloe couldn't pay it off even if she sold every organ in her body. Then again, she had Julian now. Julian had quite a bit saved up in his investment portfolios. Hopefully, the newlyweds were ready to share the burden. Elsa took a ragged breath, reigned in her rage, and signaled her legal team to initiate litigation right there in the VIP lounge. Chloe panicked completely, dropping to her knees and grabbing Elsa’s skirt. "I didn't mean for this to happen! Please, just give me another chance!" "It's just a few million dollars—that's pocket change to someone like you! Can't you just let it go for the sake of an aspiring artist?" The room stared in sheer disbelief. Someone in the crowd couldn't hold back a scoff. "Is she out of her mind?" "How did nobody notice how utterly shameless she is?" "Remember when she kept hinting that Sophia was bullying her out of jealousy? Looks like she was a backstabbing leech all along." During her month of fame, Chloe had burned plenty of bridges with her arrogance. Now that her mask had shattered, nobody held back their scorn. Elsa looked down at her with pure disgust, as if she were staring at a cockroach. With a flick of her hand, security hauled the sobbing Chloe off her feet and dragged her away. Turning back to me, Elsa’s tone shifted into desperate pleading. "Sophia... is there any way to salvage this? Anything at all?" In our line of work, a flawed gem wasn't automatically trash. A master craftsman with sufficient vision could incorporate the natural fracture lines into an entirely new, revolutionary concept. But that demanded god-tier technical skill. It required impeccable aesthetic genius combined with elite, proprietary cutting execution to ensure the stone didn't shatter along the fault lines during reshaping. Meeting Elsa’s desperate gaze, I paused thoughtfully before offering a calm nod. "I'll see what I can do."