"What are you doing?" Clara had just groped her way into the study when she heard the sound of papers turning. Her heart tightened, and she instinctively walked towards the desk.
Vanessa ignored her and instead picked up the top manuscript. In front of Liam, she tore the page in half with a sharp tear.
The crisp tearing sound was like a knife, stabbing deeply into Clara's heart.
“Vanessa!” Clara’s voice suddenly rose, trembling with despair, “Stop! That’s my manuscript!”
"Your manuscript?" Vanessa scoffed, her hands continuing to tear page after page, shredded paper falling to the floor like snowflakes. "It's yours now, but it'll be nothing later. What's the point of keeping this trash?"
She even lifted her foot and stomped hard on the scraps of paper, the sole of her shoe crushing the writing, turning seven years of hard work into unrecognizable pieces: "From now on, my designs will be the best, Liam's company will only use my designs, and your junk should be thrown into the trash can!"
"No--"