Bridget steadied me. "Do you want to call Warren?"
"I already tried last night from your phone. He never picked up."
She handed me my phone. The screen was flooded with unread messages. My stomach dropped. I tapped one open, scanned it quickly, then pulled up a browser.
The internet had exploded. Someone had leaked allegations that the gold-medal winner of this year's Starlight Cup jewelry design competition, Leonora Pruitt, had plagiarized another designer's work.
The post laid out detailed evidence: original drafts, a complete timeline, everything presented with surgical precision.
It went further. It claimed that during the judging period, I had been seen dining with one of the judges and escorting him back to his hotel late at night. The implication was unmistakable: that I had traded my body for the top prize.
Attached were photos of me helping the elderly judge back to his hotel after he'd fallen ill. I'd been supporting his arm. But the angle of the shots was deliberately chosen to make it look intimate.
The comments section was a wall of venom: "Get this trash out of our industry."
"Ordinary people like us, with no connections, never stand a chance."