The sudden news made Cloudia feel something might be amiss with her hearing ability.


    Seven hundred thousand, Ste made that? Impossible!


    Jaxon said, "Sirena went to see her, even spotted her at the Orient Nexus working on her studio."


    The air in the hospital room turned immediately still.


    Cloudia''s pupils shrank, shock spreading slowly.


    "Are you telling the truth?"


    "Yes. She actually made over seven hundred thousandst year."


    Cloudia gasped. "No wonder she couldn''t care less about our financial threats these days. Turns out she''s..."


    "That studio, we can''t let her keep it running."


    Cloudia fumed. Just the thought of Ste making all that money behind her back boiled her blood.


    "Making that much money, yet stillpeting with Urs, squabbling over every trivial thing, might as well shut that studio down."


    Jaxon nodded, "Don''t worry, it''s taken care of."


    He had his assistant alert allpanies in Portis City not to coborate with Ste. He doubted she could still pull off deals with international firms.


    With her inferior ability, she could only reach business deals by her luck. In his mind, it was only a matter of time before Ste would be crawling back to the Larkins.


    Cloudia was still furious, "How did she even get that skilled?"


    Suddenly, it felt like they had been fools in front of Ste all these days. They had blocked her cards and cut off her job opportunities, yet she had earned so much moneyst year. Urs, who had been pretending to sleep, had heard everything. Serena and Jaxon''s conversation, and now with udia, infuriated her to the point of sickness.


    Damn Ste, where did she get such capability?


    ...


    Lunchtime.


    Ronald took Ste to a well-known restaurant in Portis City.


    Whereas Ste munched, she muttered, "I was supposed to have hot wings with Susie today."


    "From now on, no more of that junk, it''s unhealthy."


    Growing up with the Quinn family, Ste had an expressly light diet. Ronald was keen on keeping her healthy.


    Ste retorted, "What''s unhealthy about it? Food is the joy of life, get it?"


    Back when she was with Ronald, spicy food was off-limits. These past two years, she''d tasted it all.


    But, hot wings...that was one of her favorite foods.


    Ronald asked, "Joyful until you get a stomach ache?"


    Ste mmed up instantly. She couldn''t argue there. Ice cold soda with hot wings, that was soul food, ever if it was a recipe for a stomach acheter.


    The restaurant was famous, a five-star establishment. The


    floor was for diner ssicot


    floor, seafood.


    After the meal, Ronald, holding Ste''s hand, walked out of the restaurant, only to bump into Yorick in the elevator.


    Yorick''s gaze moved down,


    eventually fixing on Ronald and


    Ste''s intertwined hands. In that


    moment, the anger on his face was


    palpable.


    This despicable couple, unting their rtionship in broad daylight, whose reputation were they trying to ruin? "Ste!"


    Each syble seemed to grind out from Yorick''s clenched teeth. Seeing Yorick, Ste couldn''t help but think, "Talk about bad luck!"