The moment she pushed the door open, every eye in the room snapped to her.


    The conference room was eerily quiet. Everyone was staring at her with an odd, hard-to-read look.


    Since joining The Williams Group, Ste had never encountered a situation this bizarre.


    Her gaze shifted, and she saw Skyler''s conflicted face, Jonathan''s dark expression, and Aurora''s indifferent one.


    What on earth happened? Who was this major client?


    With that thought, Ste turned her head.


    A handsome, fair-skinned face came into view. The man''s lips were curved into a smile, just as she remembered-clean, sharp, with that familiar boyish charm.


    Ste''s hand trembled, and the files slipped from her grasp, scattering across the floor.


    Her assistant quickly bent down to gather them.


    Seeing her look over, the man greeted her as if no time had passed.


    "Star, long time no see."


    Ste struggled topose herself. "...Long time no see."


    This so-called major client for The Williams Group was Joshua.


    Skyler spoke up at the right moment. "Star, please, take a seat."


    The only empty chair in the entire room was the one next to Joshua.


    It was obviously reserved for her.


    Ste took a deep breath and sat down beside him.


    Everyone''s varied gazes darted back and forth between Ste and Joshua.


    No one could have imagined that the man they had all dismissed as a pretty-boy bodyguard was actually the head of the Gardner family.


    Every single shareholder and executive at The Williams Group recognized Joshua. He had been Ste''s bodyguard, following her in and out of the building every day. His face was too striking to forget.


    Six months ago, he had suddenly disappeared from her side. Many were surprised but didn''t ask, assuming Ste had simply grown tired of him.


    The Williams Group shareholders hadn''t pried, but several female CEOS Stetta knew had asked about Joshua''s whereabouts when they saw she had a new assistant. Many of them wanted his contact information, hinting they were interested in hiring him for themselves-at a very high price. What left Ste most speechless was that it wasn''t just women; a few men had inquired about him too.


    If Joshua knew about that, he would probably have a field day with it.


    Now, not only had Joshua


    reappeared, but he had arrived with a massive order. On her way to


    meeting, Ste had reviewed the


    contract. It was a pure sweetheart deal No wonder the shareholders of The Williams Group were taking it so seriously; attendance was higher than for any normal meeting.


    Ste had heard about this a month ago at a morning briefing. Jonathan had only said that Aurora would be in charge of the coboration and had given her all the relevant files, without disclosing any specifics.


    Thinking of this, Ste couldn''t help but nce at Jonathan.


    At that moment, Joshua, sitting beside her, broke the strange silence with a faint smile.


    "Mr. Williams, had someone send a letter of intent to The Williams Group a month ago. I can forgive the others for not having met me, but when you came to Aetheria, I personally received you. You must have known exactly who wanted for this coboration.


    "Instead of bringing back the person I intended to work with, you forcibly pushed this project onto Miss Aurora. Do you take me for some clueless rich guy? Do you think you can just brush me off with anyone?


    "Mr. Williams, this behavior of stealing someone else''s credit is quite unbing, don''t you think?"