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


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


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


    The entire room froze.


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


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


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


    When it came to tranting texts or academic research, he was second to none. Spokennguage, however, was a different story-his ent was always a bit rough around the edges. Still, among non-specialists andplete beginners, he could easily hold his own.


    Yet here he was, publicly humiliated by a housewife who hadn''t worked in five years.


    Franco desperately wanted to find some w in her grammar, some slip in her ent. But no matter how many times he reyed her words in his mind, he couldn''t find a single fault.


    Wasn''t this woman 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 refined, her ent so perfect? There was simply no way someone with her background could speak French like that.


    Down below, Keen stared up at his mother in disbelief, his eyes wide with shock.


    He spoke threenguages 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 doubt her.


    He''d 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. In fact, her French was smoother than that of the teacher hired to tutor him.


    Rachel and Jasper were just as stunned.


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


    For once, Callie spoke up on Ste''s behalf. "Even if someone''s prompting her, if she didn''t know any French, she''d never sound that natural. You can''t fake that level of fluency just by repeating what you hear."


    Rachel nced at Haynes, lowering her voice. "Haynes, did you know Ms. Cameron could speak French?"


    Haynes didn''t answer. He just stared at his wife on stage, his expression unreadable.


    He hadn''t known she could y the violin. He hadn''t known she could speak French, either.


    Jasper tried another theory. "Maybe Ste picked it up in secret when the family hired Keen''s French tutor?"


    After Keen started talking, the O''Briens had brought in private teachers for him— multiplenguages at once.


    Haynes shrugged, his voice even. "Maybe."


    It was the only exnation that made any sense.


    Then, Keen spoke up, his voice small but insistent. "What if... Mom always knew French?"


    Everyone turned toward him.


    Jasper rolled his eyes, scoffing. "How could she? She barely finished high school there''s no way she could know French."