The True Heiress Returns (Tilda Jenson) novel Chapter 198

Chapter 198 No Plans

Alfie just stared at Tilda like she had grown a second head.

“You’re serious? You weren’t bluffing when you said you didn’t plan anything?”

“I told you already,” Tilda said flatly. “I didn’t. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

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She leaned her chin against her palm, looking half–asleep as she stretched and even let out a lazy yawn.

Alfie was baffled.

So… she really had no plan?

Then why was she acting like she had this whole thing in the bag?

The next part was the online vote.

Since this was a national–level event, the organizers made it strict–you had to log in with your ID and phone number.

No easy bot–farming like in those cheesy talent shows.

Still, with enough cash, you could bend the rules.

It just cost a lot more.

For Preston, money was not even a problem.

If blowing a mountain of cash meant crushing Tilda and winning points with Kyla, he would do it in a heartbeat.

At first, the committee did not even want an online voting section.

However, the Bells pushed hard, saying art needed to “adapt to the modern era“. Letting people across the country pick their favorite would get art trending and make it accessible to more people.

Their argument was airtight, so the judges gave in.

To be fair, the online votes only made up a small fraction of the total score.

For example, number four was trailing two votes behind number five. To make that up, they would need over 5,000 online votes.

If the contest was close, maybe that would matter.

However, with a huge gap like this? Unless the audience suddenly lost their eyesight, number five was the obvious choice..

The live voting began.

Numbers ticked upward on the giant screen.

1/3

13.08 Mon, Sep

Chapter 198 No Plans.

Entry five surged ahead instantly, climbing so fast it looked unstoppable.

Number four trailed right behind.

Entries one, two, and three barely registered–nobody even bothered looking their way.

Up in the VIP box, Preston frowned.

“What the heck? Why aren’t we catching up?”

He had already spent a fortune on vote–buying.

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Finished

At the same time, he could not go overboard–too many fake votes would scream “cheating“-but still, number four should have been closer to number five by now.

Frustrated, he texted his contact.

“You guys buying the votes or not?”

“We already started, boss. If we’d waited any longer, we wouldn’t have had enough time to rack up numbers.”

“What?”

Preston’s eyes widened.

“Then why hasn’t number four passed number five yet? At this rate, she’s gonna win!”

MEA

“Uh about that…” came the reply. “Bad news, boss. Number five just went viral on Twitter. People are flooding in to vote for her!”

Panicking, Preston yanked out his phone and opened TikTok.

Right there at the top of the trending page, highlighted in blazing red letters–Trending.

Here’s the contest link–National College Art Competition! Voting’s open right now! Go vote number five if you’re as amazed as I am!”

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