Phoenix Rising: From Heartache to Heroism

Zelena was consumed by jealousy.

The awards ceremony began soon after, similar to the previous film festival. The main event was, of course, the awards presentation.

After the host gave a few polite opening remarks, they dove right into the awards.

They started with the smaller awards and worked their way up to the big ones. First, they handed out prizes for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing. Then, they finally got to the highly anticipated Best Newcomer Award.

"Who's going to win the Best Newcomer Award?"

The room went quiet.

Everyone was watching the two presenters up on stage.

The presenter opened the envelope, peeked at the name inside, and gave a playful smile to the crowd.

They then looked over at the row of newcomers, including Violeta.

The camera followed, catching each person's face as it moved down the line.

Everyone wore a calm smile, and the camera finally settled on Violeta, who gave a little smile back to the camera.

Then, the presenter's voice rang out.

"And the winner of the Best Newcomer Award is...

"Tracy!"

The camera instantly switched to Tracy's face.

At first, Tracy looked stunned. Then, her eyes widened, and she covered their mouth with her hand, looking completely stunned. "Wow!"

Everyone looked at Tracy as she stood up from her seat.

She radiated joy from winning the award.

Though Hattie and Zelena were unhappy, they still kept their best faces on and clapped their hands.

With so many cameras around, showing any annoyance would've made headlines for sure.

Tracy stood up, lifted her dress, and walked to the stage, with everyone watching her.

Because her dress was so big, some staff members helped her hold it as she made her way up.

Lydia, sitting in the front row, turned and gave Tracy a faint smile. Her gaze then subtly moved over to Violeta's face.

Violeta's expression remained unchanged, so it was hard to tell anything from her face.

But Lydia knew that Violeta must have been feeling awful inside.

Secretly enjoying Violeta's discomfort, Lydia clapped even louder.

As Tracy walked by, Lydia said, "Congrats, Tracy!"

"Thanks, Lydia!"

Eugene, watching the live broadcast from backstage, looked bewildered and confused when he saw Tracy win the Best Newcomer Award. Aster rushed in from outside, exclaiming, "Eugene! Can you believe the Best Newcomer Award went to ...'

Eugene replied, "Yeah, I saw it just now."

Aster frowned and said, "How did this happen? How did Tracy win? Her godfather really has connections."

Eugene's hand, holding his iPad, was pressing down so hard that his fingers turned white.

He couldn't believe that the Best Newcomer Award had actually gone to Tracy!

Eugene jumped up from the couch, leaving his iPad behind, and quickly left the room to find a familiar face backstage.

He asked, "How did she end up with the Best Newcomer Award?"

The acquaintance pulled Eugene to a quieter spot and said, "Why are you so worked up? There's a reason she got the award."

Eugene said, "What reason? How

can Blind Detective be better than The Quiet Ode? Tracy's performance was average at best. This has to be some kind of rigging!"

е

The acquaintance quickly covered Eugene's mouth and said, "Don't say that! Calm down. There are tons of media here. You might get caught on camera."

Eugene swatted the hand away and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

The acquaintance said, "There are lots of reasons she won. Look, winning isn't always about being the biggest winner, and the biggest winner doesn't always get an award. Why are you so worked up? It's just the Best Newcomer Award, not Best Actress. Violeta's doing fine with her career; she doesn't need this award."

Eugene wanted to snap, but held back.

"What are you talking about? Do you have any idea how important this award is?"

The two of them argued backstage.

Meanwhile, on stage, Tracy, beaming with joy, was holding her award and giving her acceptance speech.

In the audience, people had all kinds of reactions.

Zelena glanced at Violeta and thought to herself, If I can't have it, you won't either.