But her eyes were unnervingly dark.


    She bit her lip so hard that it started to bleed.


    She had nothing left.


    Everything she had worked for, everything she had painstakingly built over so many years, had been destroyed overnight.


    There was no possibility of starting over.


    In that moment, she felt as if she had been plunged into an endless hell.


    "Hahahaha!" She suddenly threw her head back andughed like a madwoman, her eyes glinting with a frenzied light. "If I''m in hell, then all of you areing down with me!"


    After the meeting, Ste returned home.


    She had gone to The Williams Group for the meeting, but Joshua hadn''t apanied her. He had gone back ahead of her. Since the Fordham Group brothers had died at the scene, he still had a lot of cleanup work to do.


    This time, Ste had emerged as the biggest winner.


    Although she wasn''t yet the head of the family, the power within The Williams Group that had once been out of her reach was now in her hands.


    She was just one step away from the top position.


    But Ste wasn''t in a hurry.


    She knew very well that even if she managed to take that position now, she wouldn''t be able to hold onto it securely.


    Now that there were no more obstacles in her way, she didn''t need to take any more risks. All she had to do was steadily consolidate her power, and when the time was right, she would naturally ascend.


    On her way upstairs to find Joshua, Ste still felt a bit dazed.


    It was too fast.


    Everything she had gained hade so incredibly fast.


    So fast that it felt unreal, faster than she had ever dared to dream.


    And it was all because Joshua was helping her.


    At that thought, an indescribable tenderness bloomed in Ste''s heart.


    Now, she could finally focus on nning her wedding with Joshua.


    When she reached Joshua''s study, Ste knocked lightly, but there was no response from within.


    Was Joshua not in the study?


    Ste was about to turn away when she noticed the door was ajar, not fully closed.


    She could see that Joshua''sptop seemed to be on.


    He must have stepped out for a moment and would be back soon.


    With that in mind, Ste decided to wait for Joshua in the study.


    Ste came to Joshua''s study often, so she was very familiar with it. She saw a custom caricature figurine of Joshua sitting on his desk.


    It was a gift she had personally made for him.


    Ste walked over to the desk, picked up the figurine to look at it and considered whether she should


    make a few more to give to Mould


    After carefully cing the figurine back on the desk, Ste''s gaze


    swept across the surface a


    Wel


    suddenlynded on a notebook.


    There was a lot of handwritten content in it.


    Ste''s gaze sharpened, and she picked up the notebook.


    It looked like a schedule, or perhaps a diary.


    There were entries for different times, but they were all very brief. The shortest ones were just a single word.


    Ste flipped back a few pages and found more of the same.


    She looked at the date on the first page and realized it had been started after they returned from Novaris.


    A faint sense of confusion arose in Ste''s mind.


    Before Ste could figure out what was going on, the study door was pushed open, and Joshua returned.


    The moment he saw Ste, Joshua''s eyes lit up.


    "Star, you''re back."


    Ste nodded lightly, then hesitated for a moment before asking, "Joshua, are you keeping a diary?"


    Joshua''s gaze subtly swept over the


    notebook in Ste''s hand. His eyes


    he


    darkened for a moment, then he broke into a brilliant smile again.


    "Yeah. I''m just keeping a log of recent events. I thought it would be nice to look back


    on it together someday."