Phoenix Rising: From Heartache to Heroism novel Chapter 398

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.

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!"

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.