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.

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, among non-specialists and complete beginners,

a housewife who hadn't worked in

to find some flaw in her grammar, some slip in her accent. But no matter how many times he replayed her words

finished secondary school? Wasn't she just a stay-at-home mom all these years? How could her grammar

below, Keen stared up at his mother

the exchange between Franco and his mom. When the judges started whispering about cheating, even

knew, had never learned French could speak it at all, let alone with such natural fluency. In fact, her French was smoother than that of the teacher

were

frowned, grasping at straws. "She must be cheating-maybe someone's feeding her lines through an earpiece

didn't know any French, she'd never sound that natural. You

at Haynes, lowering her voice. "Haynes, did you know Ms. Cameron

stared at his wife on stage, his

violin. He hadn't known