Rising From Betrayal Reborn As The Family Outcast (Alicia Delaney) novel Chapter 44

Chapter 44

The live chat exploded with comments.

[I’ve got chills. Her vocals are incredible.]

[She’s so good I want to drop to my knees and call her daddy.]

[Who the hell started the rumor that Alicia was weak?]

[So you’re telling me someone with THIS much talent and skill was holding LUMIA back?]

[That’s the biggest joke I’ve heard all year.]

[Ms. Sterling looked so confident earlier, acting like Alicia was beneath her. I actually thought she was better, but now, iykyk.]

[Honestly, when you compare the two, that “professional” with her double major suddenly looks like trash.]

[I finally get why Alicia went off on X after she left the group.]

[So who really got screwed over in LUMIA?]

[It’s pretty obvious who the real victim was.]

[God, thinking about what Alicia went through makes me feel awful for her.]

[She got dragged through the mud by LUMIA’s fans and the other members’ stans for being useless and dragging the group down.]

[I really want those people to watch this and see who’s actually useless.]

[No wonder they used her. All I can say is I went from hater to fan today.]

[I’m a fan now, too. That performance was hot as hell. OMG.]

[Same. Instant fan.]

People respected strength, and Alicia had just proven she had it in spades.

Naturally, she was winning them over.

On top of that, after everything she’d been dragged through before, people were starting to feel genuine sympathy and protectiveness toward her.

Even some of the people who’d attacked her in the past felt guilty and embarrassed about it now.

In this moment, countless viewers were converting from haters to fans, from casual observers to devoted supporters.

This time, the backlash wasn’t aimed at Alicia anymore.

Instead, the criticism targeted Starlight Entertainment, Haley, and the other four LUMIA members.

Even Alicia’s longtime fans and new supporters couldn’t hold back, flooding LUMIA’s group X and Starlight Entertainment’s official account with angry comments

As for Haley’s X, it had already been attacked before, so she’d disabled the comment function entirely.

Haley had been watching the livestream the whole time.

When she saw Alicia nail the music video performance flawlessly, her expression turned ugly.

She’d known before that Alicia’s singing and dancing skills weren’t any weaker than the other four members who’d trained at Hocem.

In fact, ever since the group debuted, Alicia had been paying for private lessons with professional vocal and dance coaches out of her own pocket.

But Haley never expected that after deliberately sidelining Alicia for a year, her skills hadn’t declined at all.

If anything, they’d gotten stronger, which meant Alicia had kept training and practicing this entire time.

This was one of the things Haley hated about Alicia.

It reminded her of Celia back in the day. Celia had already been so powerful and wealthy, with everything she could want.

However, when they were in college together, she still pushed herself to excel at everything and stole the spotlight from everyone else.

And Alicia’s rapid improvement in singing and dancing was something Haley hadn’t known about before.

During the past year of being used as a scapegoat and getting trashed online, Alicia had never shown this level of skill.

‘Looks like that little bitch never fully trusted me after all, Haley thought bitterly.

In that moment, she realized the truth.

Alicia had probably been planning to leave the group for a while now.

No wonder she’d been so cooperative these past six months, even though her attitude had grown colder and colder, no matter what Haley threw at her.

Haley felt like she’d been played for a fool.

Her fans felt embarrassed and disappointed, like they’d been backing the wrong person this whole time.

Some tried to defend her, but they got shut down so quickly that they just went silent.

In the live studio, trainees looked at Alicia with stars in their eyes, completely starstruck.

The ones who’d been picked for Alicia’s group were especially smug, standing there with their chests puffed out like they’d won the lottery.

Alicia was incredible.

And this whole thing was going to blow up, bringing insane levels of attention and popularity.

They’d definitely ride that wave and benefit from it too.

Maxwell looked ridiculously proud, even more excited than when he performed himself

He couldn’t help but brag “See? I told you Alicia didn’t cheat She’s always been this talented

‘She’s my sister, he thought. ‘She’s always worked hard to be the best at everything”

Everyone around him stayed quiet. ‘What’s he so proud about? Does Alicia even know him that well?”

His fans were speechless, too.

They thought. We spent so much time trashing Alicia before, and now he’s over here acting like her biggest fan.

They felt awkward. ‘Hey, please stop. Can you be serious for once? Stop embarrassing us. We can’t even bear this anymore.

Nicolas’ expression softened with a deep, satisfied smile. “Exactly. She’s the best.”

‘She’s my childhood friend, he thought. My future wife. She’s always been like this since we were kids. Wherever she goes, she shines.

Nicolas’ fans thought to themselves, Why is he losing it too? Don’t copy Maxwell. Please don’t start sucking up to her.

Then Nicolas glanced at Felicity, whose expression had crumbled entirely, and her face turned cold.

He added with pointed meaning. “It’s good to prove yourself. Otherwise, some people keep thinking they’re the most professional while everyone else is just dead weight holding them back.”

Because of Nicole’s position, they couldn’t say certain things outright.

But for someone like Felicity, who had targeted Alicia before, they didn’t need to hold back.