The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance

That evening, Stella received a call from Skyler.

On the other end of the line, Skyler insisted the rumors hadn't come from him-he claimed he had no idea how things had gotten out of hand. He promised that, at the upcoming family reunion, he'd clear everything up in person.

Stella listened, unruffled. Her heart was still as a lake at dawn.

Once rumors start, no amount of denial can erase them; in the eyes of outsiders, Skyler's clarifications would only make him look guiltier, as if he were trying a little too hard to cover things up.

For all she knew, Skyler might even see the gossip as a stroke of luck.

The whispers about Stella being an illegitimate child had barely died down when a new, even more explosive scandal rocked both society's inner circles and the public at large.

"Shocking! The real illegitimate daughter isn't Stella—it's Aurora!"

"Aurora's goddess persona shattered-turns out she's the daughter of the other woman!"

Fisherwoman, and Nora-love, betrayal, and everything in

the rumors about Aurora came with hard evidence-pages and pages of it. Even Skyler's mysterious disappearance and memory loss

frenzy over Stella was nothing

gold standard of high society's debutantes— elegant, poised, a paragon of virtue with not the slightest blemish on her record. Every gesture she made drew attention, admiration, envy, and awe from her peers. She was untouchable-the queen bee, the one every other heiress secretly wished to outshine but never

had been toppled. The revelation that Aurora was the child

outside the social elite were in disbelief. Even the old-money

The truth was

Aurora's grace and

could have easily overshadowed her parentage-if only she hadn't been painted as society's untouchable darling. Those who'd long harbored resentment, who'd spent years looking for any dirt on her and always come up empty, finally had their opening. There was no way they'd let this

and accusations flew from every

Aurora, the golden girl, is actually illegitimate? So

the Williams family, while