The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance

Chapter 388

"But your pronunciation just now was quite off. The correct way to say it is like this..."

Stella paused, then calmly repeated-in flawless French-the very words Franco had used moments ago to mock her education.

Her voice was light and clear, every syllable crisp and precise, each word pronounced with textbook accuracy.

The entire room froze.

A second earlier, the crowd had been snickering along with Franco, treating Stella as the punchline of his joke. Now, their laughter died on their lips, replaced by stunned silence and awkward, fixed expressions.

Franco's jaw twitched involuntarily, his face cycling rapidly from red to pale. No one had slapped him, yet his cheeks burned as if he'd been struck.

He'd spent his life immersed in languages, built his reputation as one of the most respected professors in the field. Wherever he went, people addressed him as Dr. Franco without hesitation.

texts or academic research, he was second to none. Spoken language, however, was a different story-his accent was always a bit rough around the edges. Still,

a housewife who hadn't worked in five

in her grammar, some slip in her accent. But no matter how many times he replayed her words in his mind,

supposed to have barely finished secondary school? Wasn't she just a stay-at-home mom all these years? How could her grammar be so

stared up at his mother in disbelief, his eyes

three languages himself, French among them. He'd understood every word of the exchange between Franco and his mom. When the judges started whispering about cheating, even Keen had begun to

as far as he knew, had never learned French could speak it at all, let alone with

were just as

grasping at straws. "She must be cheating-maybe

know any French, she'd never sound that natural. You can't fake that level of fluency

at Haynes, lowering her voice. "Haynes, did you

He just stared at his wife on stage,

play the violin. He hadn't known she could speak