The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 388

“But your pronunciation just now was quite off. The correct way to say it is like this…”

Stella paused, then calmly repeated—in flawless French—the very words Franco had used moments ago to mock her education.

Her voice was light and clear, every syllable crisp and precise, each word pronounced with textbook accuracy.

The entire room froze.

A second earlier, the crowd had been snickering along with Franco, treating Stella as the punchline of his joke. Now, their laughter died on their lips, replaced by stunned silence and awkward, fixed expressions.

Franco’s jaw twitched involuntarily, his face cycling rapidly from red to pale. No one had slapped him, yet his cheeks burned as if he’d been struck.

He’d spent his life immersed in languages, built his reputation as one of the most respected professors in the field. Wherever he went, people addressed him as Dr. Franco without hesitation.

When it came to translating texts or academic research, he was second to none. Spoken language, however, was a different story—his accent was always a bit rough around the edges. Still, among non-specialists and complete beginners, he could easily hold his own.

Yet here he was, publicly humiliated by a housewife who hadn’t worked in five years.

Franco desperately wanted to find some flaw in her grammar, some slip in her accent. But no matter how many times he replayed her words in his mind, he couldn’t find a single fault.

Wasn’t this woman supposed to have barely finished secondary school? Wasn’t she just a stay-at-home mom all these years? How could her grammar be so refined, her accent so perfect? There was simply no way someone with her background could speak French like that.

Down below, Keen stared up at his mother in disbelief, his eyes wide with shock.

He spoke three languages himself, French among them. He’d understood every word of the exchange between Franco and his mom. When the judges started whispering about cheating, even Keen had begun to doubt her.