The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 635

“Sherman, weren’t we good friends once? Why would I have any reason to want you dead?”

Sherman opened his mouth to speak, but the words caught in his throat and he swallowed them back.

The truth—that he’d set Stella up, orchestrating her expulsion from the Williams family—was a secret known only to Sellers. He couldn’t exactly announce to everyone that he’d plotted against Stella and that she’d been nursing a grudge ever since, could he?

He stumbled over his words. “It’s because... it’s because I didn’t take responsibility for you back then. That’s why you resent me.”

Stella let out a soft, almost amused laugh. “Didn’t take responsibility for me? If I remember correctly, I was the one who chose to cut ties with the Williams family rather than marry you. How is it that, in your story, it’s all about you refusing to take responsibility, and me holding a grudge because of it?”

She glanced around the room, her gaze lingering on Jonathan and Aurora. “Sherman, your brother and Aurora are right here. You really shouldn’t make things up.”

Sherman turned and, sure enough, saw Jonathan and Aurora staring at him, surprise written all over their faces.

Both of them had been there all those years ago. Skyler had been desperate to save face and wanted to marry Stella off to Sherman. In the end, Stella had chosen to walk away from the Williams family rather than be forced into that marriage. Jonathan and Aurora knew exactly how it had gone down.

Listening to the exchange, Jonathan and Aurora exchanged a look, both sensing that something wasn’t adding up.

Was there more to what happened back then than they’d realized?

Jonathan fixed Sherman with a steady look. “Sherman, you and Stella were inseparable back then—she was your only real friend. Why would you think she resented you?”

Back then, when Stella refused to marry Sherman, everyone assumed it was because she’d realized Aurora didn’t care for him and lost interest in someone she’d only wanted on a whim. It was Stella’s decision not to marry; that was her business. Sherman’s reluctance to “take responsibility” was another matter entirely.

The Williams family wasn’t so easily manipulated.

Even Aurora looked at Sherman now, her confusion plain.