"If you hadn''t hinted at high risk and high reward, do you think I would''ve fallen into their trap?!" Israel raged.


    Coleman, being his twin, sighed softly. "Israel, we admit we miscalcted on this one. It wasn''t just you; if they had targeted me with a simr scheme, I''m not sure I would have seen through it either."


    Jonathan, Coleman, and Aurora had all felt that things were progressing too smoothly, which had raised some doubts. But the trap was perfectly tailored to Israel''s personality; he was bound to fall for it. If they had been the target, Joshua would have likely devised a different scheme to exploit their own weaknesses.


    Coleman''s expression was grim. "Not only was Aicken exposed, but two of the shareholders we had nted in Ste''s camp were also revealed."


    They had suffered a major loss.


    Aurora''s eyes were icy. "Joshua must have bribed Israel''swyer long ago. The live stream, the public contract signing... it was all a charade. Not only that, he wanted Israel to cause a scene, preferably to take it to court, so Ste''s shares would be frozen and protected. After all, you can''t just freeze shares without the consent of all shareholders. And finally..."


    Aurora calmly pieced it together. "They eliminated the spies we had nted around them..... a brilliant strategy, killing three birds with one stone!"


    The room fell into a heavy silence.


    They couldn''t figure out how a situation that seemed so promising for them had turned out like this.


    To get Israel''s shares back, they would have to go through legal proceedings. Legal proceedings meant freezing the shares. Their only other option was to swallow this bitter pill.


    A full ten percent of thepany''s shares!


    As of today, Ste now held ten percent of the original shares and twenty percent of themon stock.


    After hearing Aurora''s analysis, Israel had calmed down considerably. Having suffered such a huge setback, his mind was, for once, working at full speed.


    "This wasn''t some premeditated


    n to get me. It was thrown together on the spot. Ste and Joshua aren''t fortune tellers. Th They couldnt have known Sellers would snap like that, and they definitely didn''t know what he''d do next."


    He looked around at the others, a sarcastic smile ying on his lips. "Look at all of us, and we still got outyed by just twe.people ff''s - it''s embarrassing. We were the ones trying to split them up, and they ended up flipping the script and


    walking us right into a trap."


    Jonathan looked at him. "You''re saying... Ste was also part of this n?"


    Israel sneered "When I kidnapped Joshua, he suggested the share exchange, and Ste agreed without a moment''s hesitation. And when all those rumors about Joshua being a mole were spreading through thepany, she did nothing to suppress them. She just let them circte. You think... she didn''t know?"


    He curled his lip in mockery. "Even if she doesn''t know Joshua''s true identity, she certainly knows what he''s capable of. She didn''t have to do much. All she had to do was give him her unconditional trust and let him work his magic."


    Silence descended once more. The fact that Joshua could devise such a potent n in such a short amount of time was extraordinary. Was it truly wise to make an enemy of someone so terrifying?


    After a long moment, Aurora finally spoke. "Israel, don''t be rash. I''ll go ask Sellers and see if he has a better solution."