Love’s Change of Heart novel Chapter 354

Zoe walked over to Leanna and turned to see what Leanna was looking at, but she only saw a busy street.

She waved her hand before Leanna's eyes. "What are you thinking about?"

Leanna blinked and snapped back to reality. "Nothing," she eventually replied.

"Who was that?" Zoe asked. "Why have I never seen her before? What did she want?"

"That was…" Leanna hesitated before continuing, "Zayn's older sister. She came to…"

Leanna trailed off because she did not know how to explain Carly's visit.

Thankfully, Zoe was focused on who Carly was. "Zayn's sister?" she curiously asked. "Should she not be some rich kid? Why does she look so fatigued? She did not even have a bodyguard or servant with her."

Leanna never paid attention to the Barnetts after Zayn left, but now that she thought about it, they must be going through bad times.

If their company abroad was not doing well, the entire family might not be able to survive in Highside.

"Oh, right. You were leaving, right?" said Zoe. "Go now. If you delay any further, it will be dark soon."

To her surprise, Leanna shook her head. "It's fine. I am not going."

Everything had been going so smoothly lately that she had forgotten everything that had happened before.

For various reasons, a lot of people did not want her child to be born; be they Carly, Anna, Sienna, and even…

No one wanted that baby to be born.

In that case, how could she let her baby live in such a place?

She let out a sigh and returned to her office to sit in silence.

Outside her window, the world slowly darkened.

She did not know how much time had passed before her phone began buzzing, snapping her out of her thoughts.

When she saw the number displayed, the irritation she had felt surged once more.

She ended the call without hesitation and blocked the b*stard as well.

Meanwhile, Aidan, who was in Warkin, found his call ended with the message that the other party was busy. When he called Leanna once more, he could not even get the call to start ringing.

He was confused.

He turned to Jonathan and blankly asked, "This is the solution you thought of?"

Jonathan drily chuckled. "M-Mr Pearson, to get something, you must give something away. It is normal for her to be angry at you when old matters are brought up again. She will calm down by the time you head back. You just need to be more loving then."

Aidan stared at Jonathan, speechless.

He pursed his lips as impatience flashed across his cold face.

Subconsciously, Jonathan gulped and took a step back to keep a safe distance from Aidan.

"Leave." Aidan flung his phone onto the couch.

"Yes, sir."

Jonathan dashed out of the room faster than a rabbit running for its life.

Aidan stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows and pinched the bridge of his nose as his temple began to pound in panic.

…

Leanna kept Aidan blocked for the next few days, including on her social media accounts. Finally, he was out of sight and out of her mind.

On the day she was meant to draw lots for the competition, she had just arrived at the entrance when she bumped into Robert and Queenie. She politely nodded to Robert but said nothing.

Robert watched her walk away with a sneer on his lips. "She is lucky to have passed the preliminaries. Now, it is time to test her actual talents. There is no way she can pass."

"Mr. Debauche, did Lewis really leak the question to President Pearson?" Queenie asked.

"How would I know? There is nothing that money cannot buy. Do you think he would explicitly tell me if he had actually been bribed? Use that brain of yours."

The harsh response made her stop asking any more questions.

Once all ten designers arrived, the competition staff began to announce the rules.

They were numbered according to how highly they scored in the preliminaries.

Inside the box were ten lots, numbered one to ten. If a contestant drew the lot numbered one, that contestant would have to answer the current round's question with the first contestant's preferred style.

If the contestant drew their own number, they would select a different number once everyone else had gone.

Their results from the preliminaries would then be announced once everyone had finalized what topics they would like to tackle.

Currently, the designers went up on the stage again to draw lots.

The number Leanna drew was nine, which meant her work for this round was to be done in the ninth contestant's style.

Every lot drawn was to be recorded by a staff member.

Once everyone had drawn a lot, one of the staff walked forward with their notebook. "That is all for now. However, we have also encountered the expected outcome of one of the contestants drawing their own number. To the contestant who drew lot number two, please step forward and announce which number you would like instead."

Everyone watched as Queenie stepped forward. She did not turn to look at anyone before calmly declaring, "I choose nine. It is my lucky number, after all."

"Would the contestant who drew the lot numbered nine please exchange your slip of paper with hers? That is all for now."

Everyone began to look around, exchanging whispers and asking about who took the lot numbered nine.

A few moments later, Leanna stepped forward. "It is with me."

Queenie did not look shocked upon seeing Leanna, making Leanna wonder whether she asked for that specific number on purpose or if it was a coincidence.

After exchanging numbers, Leanna returned to her original spot.

"We will now announce the results of the preliminaries," stated the staff member. "Let me make it clear; contestants were scored based on a comprehensive rubric. The scoring takes into account both the work submitted and the designer's adaptability, along with a few minor qualities."

"Tenth place with 93 points, Geoffrey Hunt."

"Ninth place with 93.5 points, Elliot Watts."

"Eighth place with 94 points, Sofia Evans."

Soon, they began to announce the top three contestants.

Queenie's face turned uglier as more names were called out.

"Second place with 96.5 points, Queenie Wojzicki."

"First place with 98 points, Leanna McKinney."

She had the highest score among all contestants.

As soon as the announcement was made, someone spoke up. "What kind of minor qualities are you scoring? That is a lot of points. Are we scored based on how powerful our backers are?"

Immediately, people began to murmur their agreement with that statement.

It was evident they were not satisfied with their given scores.

Everyone here was a famous designer who had participated in fashion weeks abroad, yet none of them scored higher than some young woman no one had even heard of.

The staff member raised their hand in a demand for silence. "Everyone, please rest assured that we have been absolutely fair and just when it came to the scoring. Our judges are experts in the field. As for the additional scores given, those were determined by your behavior. The competition started the moment everyone attended the opening ceremony. We even took into account our request for certain works to be sent to certain locations at specific times."