"The only reason we didn''t sever ties earlier was because the Burton Group was irreceable. As for now..." Old Mr. St. John looked at Sellers with a knowing smile. "Thankfully, the elder Mr. Burton is not a man driven solely by profit like you. In the end, he left us a way out."


    By the time Sellers left Old Mr. St. John''s residence, his face was a mask of chilling fury.


    He spat out a single sentence through clenched teeth, "You have some nerve, Ste, stealing the Burton family''s resources from right under my nose!"


    The next day, an unwee guest arrived at Ste''s office.


    Ste showed no surprise at the sight of Sellers.


    "It''s a rare honor to have you here, Mr. Burton. Would you prefer coffee or tea?"


    Sellers stared at her, his eyes burning with intensity. "You''re the one who poached my partners, aren''t you?"


    Ste gave him an odd look. "Mr. Burton, you''ve been in business long enough. You should understand the concept of fairpetition."


    Sellersughed as if he''d heard a joke. "Fairpetition? You sneak around behind my back, sabotaging everything I''ve built, and now you have the nerve to talk to me about fairpetition?"


    Ste smiled faintly. "I don''t have the deep pockets of the Gardner Group to pay off exorbitant contract termination fees. Mr. Burton, since you''vee to me, you should already know that I couldn''t have poached those people even if I had wanted to. Many of them were willing to pay the penalties themselves just to break ties with the Burton Group. What does that tell you? It tells me that under your leadership, the Burton Group has be deeply unpopr."


    Here, Ste leaned back, settlingfortably into her chair. Though she was sitting and Sellers was standing, her presence was in no way diminished.


    She said coolly, "Mr. Burton, you always believed you were irreceable, so you treated the partners who followed your family from the early days with impunity Did it never ur to you that the same water that floats the boat can also sink it?"


    Sellers''s voice was cold. "You took advantage of the fact that I was preupied with the Gardner Group to stab me in the back. Ste, stop ying the innocent saint.


    You''re not as harmless as you pretend to be."


    Ste''s expression was one of


    dawning realization. "Innocent saint? So that''s how you talk about me behind my back? I should thank you, then." She smiled. "You''re right. If I weren''t so innocent'' and ''saintly why would the elder Mr. Burton have been willing to gift me such a crucial core asset?"


    Sellers almost choked withughter. "I''ve never seen a thief so proud of themselves."


    Ste didn''t get angry. Instead, she looked up at him. "Old Mr. Burton would rather give it to an outsider than to his own family. Doesn''t that suggest... he saw this daying?"


    Ste slowly rose to her feet, meeting Sellers''s gaze directly. "If the Burton family hadn''t been so ruthless, the asset Old Mr. Burton gave me would have been nothing more than a source of passive ie. But now, things are


    different Because of your arrogance and your drastic reforms, the people under you are full of resentment. They would rather pay massive penalties than continue working for you."


    This time, Ste was using the very asset Old Mr. Burton had given her. She''d never beenfortable taking what she didn''t feel she''d earned, so even though she epted it, she never touched it, and never nned to.


    But after Sellers had released the paternity test results and then tried to undermine her position by poaching her partners and framing Joshua as a mole, Ste knew it was time to put that gift to use.


    Before deciding to move against Sellers, she had made a special trip to see the elder Mr. Burton.


    Joshua had invested a fortune, and it was for more than just simple revenge against Sellers. He had already done more than enough for her. The next step was hers to take.