Chapter 9 - Rebecca’s Explanation Stopped Making Sense
Rebecca’s attorney changed strategies.
First, the designs were shared.
Then Madison had “substantially transformed” them.
Then Rebecca claimed Hannah had gifted several sketches to her cousins.
Every explanation created another contradiction.
The fellowship committee recovered application metadata.
Several images had been photographed, cropped, cleaned digitally, and uploaded from Rebecca’s laptop.
One retained a faint shadow from Hannah’s original spiral binding.
The cream gown was among them.
Then came something stranger.
Madison’s personal statement described the design as inspired by watching “my mother rebuild her life after abandonment.”
That was Hannah’s story.
Not Madison’s.
Rebecca had not only copied the image.
She had rewritten the emotion underneath it and handed that to her daughter too.
When Hannah read the statement, she cried harder than she had over the dress.
“She took Mom leaving me.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“She took that too.”
That night Chloe finally asked to meet Hannah directly.
Hannah agreed only with Dr. Warren present.
Chloe came carrying the final three missing pages.
She put them on the table.
“I’m sorry.”
Hannah stared at her.
“Why did you do it?”
Chloe started with excuses.
Madison was stronger.
Mom expected loyalty.
Everyone knew Hannah was talented but Hannah didn’t care about popularity.
Dr. Warren stopped her.
“Hannah asked why you did it.”
Chloe went quiet.
Then she answered.
“Because it felt good when you were below us.”
The room changed.
It was ugly.
And honest.
Hannah nodded slowly.
“That’s the first thing anyone has said that makes sense.”
Chloe cried.
She then told us something more.
Rebecca did not merely discover the plagiarism afterward.
She created the system.
She was the one who photographed the first designs.
She encouraged Madison to use them.
She wrote parts of the application essay.
And when the fellowship named Madison a finalist, Rebecca became terrified of exposure.
But there was still one detail we had wrong.
Rebecca had not ordered the dress destroyed only because Celia might recognize the designs at prom.
There was another reason.
May you like
One hidden in the timing of Hannah’s nomination.
And Part 10 finally exposed it.
Related Stories
