The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 1317

Stella's question caught them both off guard.

"Are you and Joshua close?" she pressed. Her mind was still reeling, but her instincts were sharp. Jake wouldn't have taken such a huge risk to help someone he barely knew.

"Well..." Jake, a man accustomed to high-stakes situations, felt a bead of cold sweat form on his brow. His mind raced, trying to invent a plausible story.

Just then, Harold spoke up. "Forget it, Jake. We should just tell her."

"But—"

"No buts," Harold cut him off. "There are some things Ms. Cameron deserves to know." He turned to Stella. "Ms. Cameron, could we speak privately for a moment?"

Joshua's surgery would take hours. Stella glanced at Antoney, who gave her a slight nod of encouragement. She followed Harold and Jake to a quiet corner of the hallway.

"The truth is," Harold began, "Joshua was the one who arranged that five-billion-dollar investment for you. He and Jake go way back. They... they both used to work for a man named Mr. J."

When Foreman had fallen into Leonard's trap, Stella had cleverly turned the tables and used the opportunity to buy out Israel's company at rock bottom. But she had also used the remaining funds to bail Foreman out, giving The Richards Group the lifeline it needed to survive the onslaught from Leonard and Israel. In the end, Foreman's company emerged not only unscathed but stronger than ever.

Joshua despised Foreman, but he would never dictate what Stella did with something he had given her. So when she chose to help Foreman, he had said nothing. But to see that same man turn around and try to kill him...

Stella's eyes flickered with guilt. "Foreman helped me a great deal in the past. I couldn't just stand by and watch him fail. And... at the time, I thought he was the one who invested the money."

At the mention of that treacherous snake, Jake couldn't help but grit his teeth. "Even if you'd known the money wasn't from him, you still would have helped him, wouldn't you?"