Chapter 333
Aubree was stunned.
Aubree let out a sardonic chuckle, crossing her arms. She thought, “So much for this so-called master of traditional painting. He can’t even tell right from wrong.”
“Seriously?” Aubree retorted. “I wasn’t the one who exposed Carmen for hiring a ghost painter, cheating, and plagiarizing. Are you honestly trying to blame me for all that undeniable proof? Did I force her to hire me as her ghost painter, or did I hold a gun to her head and make her submit my works in the competitions as her own?”
Carmen stepped in to mediate. “Mr. Xaver, let’s not dwell on the past. I admit I was at fault before, but that’s all behind us now. After all, isn’t today supposed to be a celebration of my solo exhibition? Mr. Xaver, why don’t you take a look at my paintings and tell me what you think?”
Carmen put on an act of not wanting to cause trouble, but the more she did so, the sorrier Percival felt for her.
“Carmen, you’re just too kind-hearted. You’d rather suffer in silence than see others get hurt. Some people just think you’re an easy target,” Daxton said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
The crowd thought, “What exactly does that mean?”
The crowd exchanged glances. Carmen’s past scandals were ancient history, and she’d proven her talent now. After all, who hadn’t made mistakes? Out of respect for the Wilson family and Percival, everyone tacitly agreed to let bygones be bygones and cut her some slack. However, they wondered if there was another plot twist, and they had misjudged Carmen from the start.
Alice sighed deeply. “Aubree, Carmen…” Her voice trailed off.
Aubree thought, “Silence really does speak volumes. They barely said a word, yet suddenly, everything is my fault!”
Percival glared at Aubree. “Carmen did use your paintings, and you ghost-painted for her in those competitions, but wasn’t it all for your sake in the first place?”
Aubree couldn’t help but laugh. She thought, “All for my sake? I can’t believe Carmen actually dares to say that. When was it ever not the Wilson family forcing me to do that? Every time something went wrong, it was pinned on me, but whenever something good happened, Carmen was the prodigy. I’m just a convenient scapegoat.”
Aubree just watched, wondering what other kind of bullshit Percival would say next.
“Carmen, I know you don’t want to hurt the bond between sisters, but as your mentor, I can’t just stand by and watch you get slandered like this,” Percival declared firmly.
The onlookers were left utterly bewildered. They wondered if Carmen really had been hiding something.
“Everyone, look at this exhibition. All the paintings here are traditional watercolor works,” Percival said. “Yet every problematic piece linked to my student, Carmen, whether from past competitions or those exposed on social media, was entirely in the oil painting style. Who in their right mind would enter competitions or assessments using a style they’re not even proficient in?”
The crowd felt that it actually made some sense.
Percival continued, “As far as I know, Aubree, isn’t oil painting your specialty?”
Aubree watched the whole charade unfold with a mocking smirk. “Yeah, I’m good at oil painting. So what? Doesn’t that prove all of Carmen’s past paintings were done by me?”
“You!” Percival never expected that even now, Aubree would remain so brazenly defiant.
He thought, “Does she really think her schemes would go unnoticed?”
He was determined to reveal Aubree’s true colors.
Percival glared. “You were unfavored in the Wilson family and craved attention. That’s why you begged Carmen to let you compete. You didn’t care about rankings; you just wanted the Wilson family to notice you. You fed Carmen these lies, and kind-hearted as she is, she went along with it. But you never expected that your parents and brothers didn’t care about your paintings at all. Instead, they blamed you for ruining Carmen’s reputation. Since Carmen isn’t good at oil painting, she had no choice but to let you keep painting for her, and that became leverage you could hold over her."