Israel instinctively clutched his stinging cheek, hissing, "Are you crazy? What did you hit me for?!"


    "To stop you from embarrassing yourself," Violet said coldly. "Israel, if you don''t want the Williams family to be known for selling out their own mother for profit, you''ll shut your mouth. You and your brothers know perfectly well whether Ste is a Williams or not. I''m just curious to see if you''re really willing to ruin your own mother''s reputation, to use her of having an affair with another man, and to trample her name into the dust, all for the sake of ''business.""


    "What nonsense are you spouting?!" Israel sputtered. "Mother would never have an affair! Ste must be an imposter who tricked us..."


    "Israel," Coleman Williams cut in, his voice like ice. "Shut up."


    Israel froze. Seeing the cold warning in Coleman''s eyes, he didn''t dare say another word. The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. If Ste insisted she was Nora''s biological daughter, but imed Nora was adopted and therefore not a biological Cameron, and then a test showed she wasn''t a Williams either... it would lead to only one conclusion: Nora had cheated and given birth to Ste. It would imply that Nora had fled the Williams family out of fear that Skyler would discover her infidelity.


    That wouldpletely destroy Nora''s reputation. No matter what, Nora was the mother of all three brothers, and she was long dead. They couldn''t allow their own mother to be posthumously branded an adulteress. And if the truthter revealed that Nora had been faithful, their willingness to nder their own mother for the sake of shares would make them utterly contemptible. What kind of person wouldn''t defend their own mother from such an usation?


    The same logic held true for Skyler. For years, he had painstakingly maintained the facade of a devoted widower, never remarrying.


    If it came out that Nora had cheated on him, his years of devotion would be a public joke. Nora was, after all, hiswfully wedded wife. If the story was confirmed, The Williams Group''s stock would plummet the next day.


    This was precisely why Joshua had shifted the focus to Skyler. A man as obsessed with his public image as Skyler would never admit Nora had been unfaithful just to get his hands on some shares.


    Sure enough, Skyler''s deep voice resonated through the hall. "Star is my daughter. That is beyond


    question. We performed a test when she returned to the family.


    эл


    Therefore, another public test is Unnecessary. As for whether Star is biologically rted to the Camerons, that''s not my concern."


    He paused, his gaze turning razor-sharp as he looked at Lynne. "I don''t care whether Nora and Star are Camerons by blood. I only know that they are my wife and my daughter. And that is enough."


    twas loaded with


    The statement


    meaning, implying that Nora herself might not be a biological Cameron If the Camerons insisted on a test and it showed no link to Stel?, then from that day forward, the two families would no longer even be connected by marriage.


    The faces of the Camerons turned grim, their expressions incredibly ugly.


    In the audience, Sherman whispered to Sellers, "Uncle, what now? The Williams family isn''t taking the bait."


    Sellers''s expression remained calm, as if he had expected this. "It doesn''t matter. That wasn''t my primary objective anyway."


    He had merely been offering the Williams family a choice, to see if greed would make them turn on Ste and Nora. If they had, it would have been a bonus. Since they didn''t, it was no great loss He had never expected to take down Ste and the Williams family so easily.