Jonathan also looked at Aurora. "Did Princess Wright mention Ste at all?"


    Aurora took a deep breath. "No. Besides exining what happened, Princess Wright never mentioned Ste. It''s as if Ste had nothing to do with it."


    Jonathan let out a bitterugh. "The moment we establish a connection with the Wright family, Stees along and ruins it!


    And it''s one thing to ruin it, but to get someone killed... she''s absolutely vicious!"


    Aurora rubbed her temples in frustration.


    They had prepared for so long, finally bing Princess Wright''s saviors, and had even found a man like Prince Wright-arrogant and easy to manipte.


    Just as they were nning their next move, Joshua went and killed him.


    No one would believe it wasn''t intentional.


    "Now, not only have we lost Prince Wright as an asset, but we''ve also made an enemy of the Wright family," Jonathan said.


    That was the hardest part to ept.


    "I''m starting to believe what Simone Lerman told me might be true," Aurora said.


    Jonathan and Coleman looked at her. "What was that?"


    Aurora said, "Simone told me that Leonard Lerman seems to have fallen for Ste."


    The two men were stunned, asking in unison, "What?!"


    Aurora gave a faint, knowing smile. "I didn''t believe it at first either, but now... I''m starting to."


    Germany.


    Leonard arrived in Germany a day after Ste, just as she had finished signing her contracts and was sightseeing with Abby Murphy.


    Other than for business trips, Leonard rarely traveled.


    He never understood the appeal of visiting boringndscapes that looked the same everywhere.


    But seeing how happy Ste and Abby seemed, he found himself following the same tourist route they had taken.


    However, halfway through, he saw Ste and two bodyguards leaving in a hurry. It was clear something serious had happened.


    At the same time, he realized Ste''s friend, Abby, had suddenly disappeared.


    After having someone look into it, Leonard learned that Abby had been kidnapped.


    And Ste had obviously gone to rescue her.


    Leonard wasn''t surprised. He knew Ste would never abandon Abby.


    He called his assistant.


    "Find out who kidnapped Abby."


    About ten minutester, the assistant called back.


    "Mr. Lerman, Abby was kidnapped by Princess Wright."


    The information he found was no different from what Ste and Joshua had discovered earlier.


    He even found out that Prince Wright and Aurora had dined together.


    Leonard''s eyes narrowed slightly as he listened.


    He asked calmly, "Does the Lerman family still have some people in Germany?"


    "The Lerman family has a stake in a casino here, so we do have some personnel," the assistant replied, "but... not that many."


    He seemed to guess what Leonard


    was nning and added in a low


    voice Storming the pge to


    rescue someone will be veryo` difficult."


    "We don''t need to storm it," Leonard said. "Just find a way to get inside first. I''ll give


    you further instructions after that."


    After Abby and the others left,


    1.n


    Joshua didn''t ask Ste why she hadn''t gone with them. Instead, he said, "The pce in Germany is huge. It''s difficult to leave on foot. We need to grab one of the internal. patrol cars first."


    Both Ste and Joshua had entered the pce by car.


    Ste hade with Noah, while Joshua had been brought in by King Wright.


    Although Prince Wright was in critical condition, if they waited until they could walk out of the pce, the window of opportunity would be long gone