Chapter244 The Plagiarism Accusation
While Miranda was working her plan around Dominic, she had no idea that someone else was working a plan around her.
All three Lancasters rushed to the hospital.
The moment Arabella walked into the room and saw her son, her eyes filled with tears.
Dominic followed her in. Whatever distance had grown between him and his children over the years, the sight of Christian lying there brought a genuine ache to the surface.
He crossed the room and looked him over with a furrowed brow.
"What happened?"
Christian gave his mother a weak, reassuring smile first, then looked at Dominic and delivered the prepared version with deliberate calm.
"Drunk driver. He's already in custody."
He shifted his gaze to Miranda.
"Fortunately, this is a Prescott private hospital. The doctor told me the bills are covered and they'll be using the latest treatments. No lasting effects, guaranteed." He smiled at his sister. "That must be because of your position, Miranda. Thank Clifton for me when you see him."
Dominic's brow came together the moment he heard it.
He had just transferred thirty million to Miranda, and Clifton had turned around and sent him a twelve-million-dollar watch. The man was clearly generous.
Letting the Prescotts cover Christian's medical bills while he stood there doing nothing? That would make him look cheap in front of his son-in-law. If Clifton started thinking Lancaster was small-minded, it could cost him everything he was working toward.
"Absolutely not," Dominic said immediately, his voice carrying the full weight of a man who had already decided. "We pay. Best medications, best doctors. Bill goes to my account. Christian, have my assistant come handle the paperwork."
Christian and Miranda caught each other's eyes for a fraction of a second.
Neither of them let a single thing show on their faces.
"Of course, Dad." Christian adopted the expression of a dutiful son. "Whatever you say."
Arabella stepped in with perfectly timed consideration.
"Dominic, you have the company to worry about. I'll stay here with Christian. Go home and get some rest. Don't wear yourself out."
Dominic lingered for a little while, then left.
--
The next morning at the Lancaster residence, Dominic woke up and his first instinct was to raise his left wrist.
The Patek Philippe caught the early light with a quiet, unmistakable luxury.
His mouth curved with satisfaction.
This was the kind of thing that said everything about who a man was. Outside of the Prescott family, very few people on earth could get their hands on a piece like this.
His phone rang from the nightstand.
His assistant.
"Morning." His mood was good enough that his voice came out easy.
The assistant's tone, however, carried a note of careful hesitation.
"Mr. Lancaster, are you certain you want Christian's full medical costs transferred from your personal account?"
Dominic's ease evaporated.
"Of course I'm certain. Just do it."
The assistant looked at the number on the screen, took a breath, and tried one more time.
"It's just that the total amount is quite..."
"Enough." Whatever patience Dominic had was gone. He hated having his decisions questioned, especially when money and pride were involved.
His voice went sharp.
"That's my son in that hospital. Are you seriously suggesting I can't afford to take care of my own child?"
The assistant swallowed the rest of what she was going to say.
"Understood, Mr. Lancaster. I'll take care of it right away."
--
At the hospital, the billing office informed Miranda quietly that the full amount had been received.
The corner of Miranda's mouth lifted slightly. Her eyes went cool.
"Leave it untouched for now. I'll deal with it later."
The money had to go through the hospital's accounts first, in plain sight, with a clear paper trail. Once it was there, Dominic had no mechanism to pull it back.
--
Meanwhile, at the Prescott estate, Celeste was sitting in the armchair by her bedroom window, phone pressed to her ear.
She sat up straight and her voice went sharp.
"Say that again. Miranda actually has a real shot at landing Governor Ava's clean energy project?"
Whatever the person on the other end said made her expression darken further. The jealousy burning in her eyes was nearly visible.
She had never respected Miranda.
And the fact that she had been punished because of Miranda while Miranda's career kept rising made it worse.
She was not going to allow it.
She was going to drag Miranda off that stage and drop her face-first into the kind of mess she would never climb out of.
Minutes after hanging up, Celeste dialed another number. Her voice was flat and cold.
"I need you to pay some people. Here's what I want..."
--
Two days passed quickly.
Late one afternoon, Miranda was finishing her last document and getting ready to leave the office when there was a knock at the door.
Lisa came in fast, her usual composure cracked. She crossed the room and held out her tablet with the screen facing Miranda.
"We have a problem." Lisa's voice was tight and quick. "Several major tech influencers just posted simultaneously claiming our core technology is plagiarized. They've put up what they're calling evidence."
Miranda's expression shifted the moment she heard the word.
Less than a week remained before the government made its final selection. This was the worst possible moment for something like this to surface.
Her stomach dropped. But her face stayed calm.
"Call an emergency meeting with legal and PR now. Contact the attorneys and get a cease-and-desist drafted. And I want the source of these posts tracked down immediately."
"Yes." Lisa was already turning for the door.
The office went quiet.
Miranda pulled up the posts on the tablet and went through them one by one.
She didn't have the luxury of time. She needed to shut this down before it spread any further.
At the same time, her mind was moving fast.
The timing was deliberate. Was this coming from one of the competing firms, or someone else?
She kept scrolling through the so-called evidence.
By the time she reached the end, the expression on her face had gone completely still.
The problem wasn't outside.
It was inside.
Some of the data and charts in these posts referenced a specific technical challenge her R&D team was currently working through, along with several directions they hadn't yet cracked. None of that had ever been made public. That information existed only inside the company, known only to the core development team.
Miranda closed her eyes.
When she opened them, everything soft was gone.
She moved the cursor, clicked through a few screens, and brought up the full personnel files of every founding member of her team.