The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 2073

Neither Israel nor Violet attended today's birthday banquet.

Stella sat at the main table alongside Coleman and Jonathan.

A moment later, Queenie took the seat next to Jonathan. She shot Stella a look, a gloating, malicious smirk plastered on her face.

"Your winning streak ends today, Stella."

Stella frowned. What on earth had happened in the five minutes since they spoke to make Queenie so intensely confident?

While she was mentally calculating the angles, Coleman gently nudged her arm.

"Stella... is that Joshua?"

The moment she heard the name, Stella's eyes sharpened, her head snapping up.

A tall, elegantly built man was sitting at a table not far from theirs.

Stella froze.

For a split second, she thought she was hallucinating.

It was Joshua.

It was actually Joshua.

Neither the Chapmans nor the Williams family had even invited the Burtons today. Why was Joshua here?

The absolute last thing Stella wanted was for Joshua to interact with the Williams family.

Because they knew exactly who he was.

While she doubted anyone in the Williams family was stupid enough to casually bring up her past relationship with him, every second he spent near them was a ticking time bomb.

Joshua wasn't someone you could easily bluff.

Her mind raced, a thousand disastrous scenarios playing out at once.

Perhaps her stare was too piercing, because the man slowly turned his head, his gaze locking flawlessly onto hers.

Seeing her, a dark, entirely unreadable smile touched his striking features.

He raised his wine glass, giving her a slow, deliberate toast from across the room.

"I imagine you must be just as shocked as I am, right?"

Stella typed frantically: "What makes you think it's her? And how did you even find her?"

Joshua: "I asked you and Laurel to help me, but after all this time, neither of you gave me a single lead."

"Since I couldn't rely on anyone else, I had to take matters into my own hands. The solution was actually quite simple. I put out a public bounty for information, and the tips came flooding in."

Stella stared at the glowing screen, her fingers completely stiff. She couldn't type a response.

A second later, another text from him popped up.

"Turns out, public money talks faster and louder than your network."

Stella forced her fingers to move, numbness creeping up her arms.

"How can you be absolutely certain it's her? What if she's playing you?"

Joshua: "I have my ways of verifying it. Aurora has the token from back then."