Rising From Betrayal Reborn As The Family Outcast novel Chapter 35

Chapter 35

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Chase shot Ross a look, and before Felicity could say anything, Ross was already pulling the video back up on the big screen.

This time, everyone leaned in and watched closely.

Ross made a point of pausing right at the timestamps Alicia had mentioned, rewinding and replaying those sections twice so everyone could hear and see everything clearly.

Sure enough, at the thirty-nine-second mark, anyone with even half-decent musical training could catch it. Felicity’s transition from low to high register wasn’t quite smooth, and the notes didn’t connect the way they should have.

At one hundred thirty seconds, when she dropped from high back to low, she was actually slightly off-key.

The thing was, the song itself was so energetic, and Felicity had been dancing so hard that most people focused on the

visuals.

Plus, her overall performance was solid, so those two shaky transitions had flown under the radar.

Looking at Alicia’s dance performance at those two specific moments, careful observers could spot the flaws.

Her first movement had a slight misstep, but she recovered so quickly that most people missed it.

During the second movement, she nearly lost her balance on the turn and immediately masked it with a downward tilt.

The average viewer wouldn’t catch these mistakes, but anyone paying close attention would see them clearly.

The panel of judges reacted instantly. Simon, Hannah, and Darren’s eyes went wide as they stared at Alicia, their expressions screaming, “Holy shit, she is dope.”

The other contestants looked at her with newfound awe, and the live stream chat exploded.

[Holy crap, that’s insane.]

[I was already shocked that Alicia could spot problems in Felicity’s performance, but pinpointing them down to the exact second? That’s next level.]

[How the hell did she do that?]

[I can’t think of any other words except ‘badass.]

Felicity’s fans immediately jumped to her defense: [She obviously studied that video beforehand on purpose.]

[Alicia is so manipulative. She memorized all of Felicity’s mistakes ahead of time just so she could call her out and humiliate her in front of everyone.]

[Exactly! And they’re just tiny mistakes anyway. Is it really worth making such a big deal out of them?

[Nobody’s perfect when they’re singing and dancing at the same time. Everyone makes small errors.

[Plus, that was two years ago when Felicity had just joined LUMIA. She wasn’t as mature or skilled as she is now.)

Alicia’s fans jumped into the fray, too. So your idol can make mistakes, but the trainees can’t?)

[You can point out the trainees’ mistakes and criticize them way too harshly, calling them petty, and that’s disappointing behavior.]

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[But when Ms. Sterling makes a mistake, suddenly there’s an excuse?]

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[The key difference is that your idol already debuted in a group, but these guys are still growing and fighting to debut.]

[Your double standards are showing. What an eye-opener!]

Other fans and viewers agreed with this assessment.

Felicity and her fans were being way too hypocritical.

When she messed up as a debut idol, it was understandable, but she held these growing trainees to impossible standards and criticized them harshly.

The trainees’ fans especially joined the barrage of sarcastic comments flooding the screen.

They’d been fed up with her holier-than-thou professional act for a while now, and they made sure to mock her so-called expertise.

Some people even went digging into Felicity’s background, and what they found only made things worse. She hadn’t attended any professional academy or studied with qualified instructors back home.

She hadn’t even finished high school.

The only credentials she could claim were joining LUMIA and her brief stint as a trainee at Hocem. That was it.

Even Nicole’s fans couldn’t hold back anymore. [Nicole’s the real victim here. Felicity’s dragging her down.]

[If Felicity hadn’t screwed herself over in that livestream, students would actually pick them now.]

[The trainees are scared of Felicity, so they’re choosing other groups instead. What did Nicole do to deserve this?]

[Her only mistake was getting paired with Felicity.]

[Nicole brought her on the show out of kindness, and this is how Felicity repays her? I’m so pissed.]

Alicia’s fans jumped in with their own jabs. [Isn’t she Nicole’s friend, though? There’s a saying about birds of a feather, you know.]

[Exactly. If your girl chose to bring Felicity here to mess with Alicia, then she’d better be ready to deal with the consequences.]

[You guys kept saying Alicia was holding people back, but you never had actual proof. Just a bunch of passive-aggressive nonsense.]

[But now Ms. Sterling’s dragging Nicole down, and that’s crystal clear for everyone to see.]

Nicole’s fans were livid. [What do you mean by birds of a feather? Nicole and Felicity aren’t even friends.]

[Has anyone ever heard Nicole and Felicity being close? Like, ever?]

[She only brought Felicity on the show because Starlight Entertainment made her.)

[Didn’t you see how awkward she looked when Maxwell told her to be careful who she associates with?)

[She couldn’t explain it on livestream because Felicity isn’t actually her friend]

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[Starlight Entertainment is the real villain here, forcing Nicole to work with someone like that.]

[And by that logic, are Simon and Hannah friends? They came on the show together, too.]

[I don’t think Alicia and Darren were friends before this either.]

Simon and Hannah’s fans were exasperated. [If you’re gonna fight, fine, but leave us out of it.]

The war raged on, and more viewers kept piling in.

Felicity’s reputation tanked, and her follower count started dropping.

People were unfollowing her on X left and right, and some of her fans even jumped ship completely.

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Haley watched the disaster unfold and threw several glasses in frustration. She kept cursing Felicity, calling her an idiot over and over.

She immediately contacted the PR department and told them to clean up Felicity’s mess. But the PR team not only refused to handle it, they completely ghosted her.

Apparently, Nicolas had already spoken with the PR manager. He made it clear that Starlight Entertainment was not allowed to target or smear Alicia anymore.

Since Nicolas was on that variety show, the PR department had been watching it too.

They noticed that Nicolas clearly despised Felicity, so there was no way they would help with her damage control.

If they did, Nicolas might come after them later, and they couldn’t afford that kind of trouble.

This left Haley furious and helpless at the same time.

She sensed that something was off with how everything was playing out, and she suspected that Lucent Media had stepped in to help Alicia take down Felicity.

‘How am I supposed to fight against Lucent Media’s PR department on my own?’ she thought bitterly.

It was just like before, when Alicia had been all alone without Starlight Entertainment’s PR support and couldn’t wash away the dirt that had been thrown at her.

Right now, Haley had no way to fix this situation and could only watch helplessly. She just hoped that Felicity would be a little smarter and more rational going forward.

Felicity watched the video replay and spotted exactly what Alicia had pointed out. The mistakes were there, clear as day, and that made her even more furious and embarrassed.

I was just starting out back then,’ she thought defensively. A few small mistakes shouldn’t matter. And if Alicia hadn’t pointed them out, no one else would’ve even noticed.

The realization stung. “This bitch is deliberately targeting me

But she’d made the mistakes, and there was no denying that.

If she argued back now, she’d be contradicting everything she’d just said to the other trainees. She couldn’t afford to look that hypocritical.

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So she shifted topics quickly. “Let’s just continue with team selection.”

She’d backed down again.

While Alicia and Felicity were going at it. Nicole quietly pulled out her phone.

She typed a message into a private group chat with four members. She sent a crying emoji.

Nicole: [Nicolas, Maxwell, help! Save this poor child!]

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Nicole: [Felicity is so stupid. This stunt she pulled made everyone avoid choosing us, and now I’m embarrassed, too!]

Nicole: [All the remaining trainees are ranked at the bottom. If we team up with them and bomb the public performance again, it’ll be even worse.]

Nicole: [I don’t care about myself, but I don’t want them to get eliminated because of Felicity.]

The group chat included Nicolas, Maxwell. Caleb, and herself.

She’d created it deliberately.

These three had grown up close with Alicia, sharing years Nicole had never been part of. They’d lived through memories and experiences that didn’t include her, and that had always made her jealous. She was determined to change that dynamic and steal them away at every opportunity.

Alicia used to be the one with them,’ Nicole thought with satisfaction. ‘But from now on, it’ll be me.’

Getting them to help her now would solve multiple problems at once. It would ease her embarrassment and show everyone how much they doted on her.

And as a bonus, it would twist the knife in Alicia’s side just a little bit more.

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