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.

a different story-his accent was always a bit rough around the edges. Still, among non-specialists and complete beginners,

publicly humiliated by a

some slip in her accent. But no matter how many times he replayed her words in his mind, he couldn't find

mom all these years? How could her grammar be so refined, her

his mother in disbelief, his eyes wide

between Franco and his mom. When the judges started whispering about cheating, even Keen had begun to

never imagined his mother-who, as far as he knew, had never learned French could speak it at all, let alone with such natural fluency.

Jasper were just as

be cheating-maybe someone's feeding

any French,

voice. "Haynes,

stared at his wife on stage,

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