From Broken to Beloved-Chapter 115- truly a sweet burden

Amy looked at her with deep resentment.

"Catherine, did you save the Milky Way in your past life or something?!"

Otherwise, how could she possibly run into a man like Bert—and be cherished by him like this?

Catherine smiled and tried to comfort Amy.

"Amy, you’ll definitely meet a man who loves you very much someday."

Amy pulled herself out of that resentful mood and returned to her usual sharp, capable workplace persona. With an easy shrug, she sighed,

"Hopefully. And if not, that’s fine too. Worst case, I’ll just live my life on my own."

When they reached the elevators, one arrived just in time. The two of them stepped in, only for Bert—who wasn’t far behind—to quicken his pace and join them as well.

What had been just the two of them instantly became three. Soon after, a few more people entered, and the three of them retreated to the very back of the elevator.

During the morning rush hour, the elevator was fairly crowded. Catherine had originally wanted to keep a bit of distance from Bert, but with so many people packed in, Bert worried she might get shoved. He simply lifted an arm and pulled her into his embrace, turning his body slightly to shield her from any unwanted contact.

Blushing, Catherine protested softly from within his arms,

"You don’t have to do this. I used to take the elevator like this every day."

During rush hour, how could elevators not be crowded? Unless you took the stairs.

"You said it yourself—that was before."

Bert replied with just that one sentence.

Before, she had been single, with no one to protect her, no one to dote on her.

But now it was different. She had a boyfriend, and naturally, it was his job to protect her. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Besides, Bert couldn’t stand the thought of other men brushing against her or coming into contact with her because of the crowd.

Catherine had always known that once he made up his mind about something, resisting him was pointless. So she could only let him hold her like that, ignoring the envious look Amy was giving them from the side.

Catherine and Amy worked in the design department, so when the elevator reached their floor, they were the first to get off. Bert still had to go up a few more floors. Catherine glanced at him and said softly,

"I’m heading off now."

Bert replied,

"Don’t eat in the cafeteria at noon. We’ll have lunch together."

The building where Bert Technologies was located had a cafeteria for employees’ convenience. Before this, Catherine usually ate there with Silvia—cheap and filling.

Sometimes Amy joined them; other times she had plans to eat out. Amy was actually quite popular and was often asked out by men.

By the time the elevator reached their floor, most people had already gotten off, but there were still a few left—including several employees from Bert Technologies. So his invitation to have lunch together was overheard, though everyone pretended not to notice.

In an environment with relatively few female employees, gossip was rarely an issue. Men generally weren’t that interested in gossip; at most they’d notice it in passing. They wouldn’t gather together making wild speculations the way women sometimes did.

So for now, there hadn’t been any negative talk within Bert Technologies about Catherine and Bert’s relationship. In that sense, Bert’s earlier insistence on hiring more male employees had been a wise decision.

Following behind Amy, Catherine all but escaped from the elevator and let out a long breath of relief.

Amy glanced at her expression and couldn’t help sighing again,

"A sweet burden."

Then she clicked away toward her desk in high heels. Catherine smiled faintly behind her.

Yes—truly a sweet burden.

He loved her, and that love made her feel blissful. But his love—so open, so unconcerned with appearances—was also, in its own way, a burden to her.

Once Catherine had taken her seat, the day fell back into its usual rhythm of nonstop work. However, just before the lunch break, a scandal erupted in the design world.

Someone online exposed Channing Jewelry’s chief designer, Lucca, accusing her of plagiarism.

The whistleblower compiled a list of jewelry designs Lucca had publicly released over the years and conducted an in-depth breakdown of exactly which works she had copied. Even the tiniest instances of plagiarism were traced back to their original sources. With side-by-side comparison images laid out so clearly, even outsiders could tell at a glance that Lucca had indeed plagiarized other designers’ work.

What infuriated onlookers even more was just how severe the plagiarism was. Among all the exposed designs, there wasn’t a single piece that wasn’t copied. In other words, Lucca had never independently designed a complete piece of jewelry from start to finish.

This time, the whistleblower had posted only nine images, jokingly calling it a "nine-grid teaser," and added that there was much more to come, inviting everyone to stay tuned.

Once the scandal broke, social media exploded. The phrase "Lucca plagiarism" was quickly pushed to the top of the trending charts, where it stayed for quite some time, accompanied by an overwhelming wave of criticism.

With evidence so irrefutable, Lucca herself never issued a response—nor did it seem like she could. One company that had just signed a collaboration deal with her even announced outright that the partnership was being terminated due to the plagiarism scandal.

The exposé had been deliberately released just before the lunch break. By the time lunch officially began, the topic had already fermented. With people finally free and scrolling during their break, public attention only intensified.

At first, Catherine was somewhat surprised by Lucca’s scandal. But she quickly calmed down. Lucca had never truly possessed any design talent to begin with. She had chosen jewelry design as a career merely to compete with Catherine over something.

And given Lucca’s personality, doing something like plagiarism was entirely unsurprising.

Catherine wasn’t much of a gossip person to begin with, and since Lucca was someone she already disliked, she didn’t pay the matter much attention. There was no need to. Once this exposé was out, Lucca’s reputation in the design industry was effectively ruined. No amount of image repair would ever bring her back.

Thinking back to everything she had gone through the night before, Catherine was fairly certain that this plagiarism scandal was Bert’s doing. She felt not the slightest bit of sympathy for Lucca. After all, this situation had only come about because Lucca already had skeletons in her closet—otherwise, Bert wouldn’t have had anything to exploit.

If Lucca had conducted herself properly, there would have been no opportunity to destroy her reputation at all.

Beside her, Silvia muttered complaints under her breath.

"This is just disgusting. I even used to think Lucca had some talent. Turns out it was all plagiarized!"

"Couldn’t she at least design one piece herself? Every single one was copied!"

As a fellow designer, Silvia felt nothing but contempt and disdain for Lucca’s behavior.

Amy joined in coldly from the side.

"How could she not have her own designs? It’s probably just that her original work would scare people to death, so she had no choice but to copy others."

Amy’s tone was sharp and dripping with sarcasm. Silvia immediately echoed her words.

"Exactly. Her own work must be completely unpresentable."