The Indifferent Ex-Husband Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate

Chapter 419

"What was it I told you back in the day?" Martin coolly pointed at her, "Marian, if you wanted a name to flaunt, I could've shelled out the cash for that, but I didn't want the Frost family or the project to get tagged with a rap for copying and nicking someone else's work. And I definitely didn't want Yolanda to get smeared with that kind of dirt."

He recited their original conversation to her, word for word.

"And how did I grill you over and over again?" Martin's voice grew even icier, "I kept asking you where that design came from, and you swore up and down that it was all your own work, even dug out the original sketches to show me. And what now? You've got the nerve to cry and say it wasn't on purpose? If it wasn't on purpose, would you have gone and copied the electronic version too? Looks like you've been planning this for a long time."

Marian was a bit dazed by the slap, her face stinging, and hearing Martin's accusations, she couldn't help but instinctively shake her head and stammer out a defense. "No, I just wanted to try and replicate it to understand its use of lines, I just thought the whole design was so clever and I wanted to take it apart to see how it works. I never thought about passing it off as my own work."

"You're still making excuses? Which designer picks up someone else's work and decides to knock off a copy?" Martin glared at her, his anger far from cooled, "As a designer, you did something as low as plagiarism, and you have the gall to go do interviews with journalists? Who gave you such guts? You think everyone's a fool?"

Martin's anger surged even higher at the thought.

Today's tender was supposed to be just that - a tender, with no journalists invited, no arrangements for their presence, all news releases were to be sent to the media by the brand department after the tender. But Louis, paving the way for Marian, had invited a whole bunch of reporters over.

He couldn't believe Marian would dare to face the press, knowing full well she'd plagiarized.

This was far beyond ignorance.

Marian shook her head even more vigorously. "It wasn't me who wanted the interview; the reporters were invited by Grandpa today, he said I just had to cooperate with a photo op. I didn't know why there were extra slides in your slides."

design diagrams in Martin's slides when she realized what she

why there

shouldn't waste the chance for some PR. I wanted to hype you up like Brandon did for Sophia, but look what happened." Martin's mouth curled into a cold smile, his eyes coldly fixed on Marian, "The bigger the stage I give you,

deeply resenting the accusation, "I'm not plagiarizing, you all assumed it was my work without letting me speak, you didn't give me a chance to explain, and you submitted the

else's fault, never yours, you're being forced by

cut her off, "Marian, you're still not owning up to it. You're crying not because you realize you were wrong, but because you regret not double-checking the PPT, for letting yourself get

just sobbing out

didn't soften at her show

has already proposed three choices for you. One, clarify that you're not Yolanda; two, publicly apologize to Sophia in Marian's name; three, we'll decide whether to proceed with the project. If

demands

her in private, pay

talk to him, whatever they

you," Martin said, unswayed, "Brandon has given you a day to prepare your

to protect me, and now you're abandoning me. Grandpa will die if he finds out

"Marian, I've always thought you were bright and lively, kind-hearted. Having you stand in

friends. It could have been sorted out in private. The tender hadn't even officially started today. We could have just explained to the guests and the reporters, retracted

help, Brandon wants to handle it this way. We're the ones who messed up, so the

Marian sobbed as she asked him, "He likes me so much, he basically treats me like I'm Yolanda, dumping all his guilt about

indeed what he was worried