The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 1734

Beckett couldn't explain his reasons.

Was he supposed to announce in front of everyone that he had partnered with Stella for Laurel Quinn's sake?

Doing so would inevitably drag Laurel Quinn into the situation.

The Williams family was a complete mess right now; anyone who got involved would be asking for trouble.

He couldn't let Laurel Quinn get dragged into this.

With that in mind, Beckett said coldly, "Does a partnership need a reason? Why don't you go ask all the other partners of the Williams family why they chose to work with you?"

Joshua replied, "Others don't need to, but Mr. Torres definitely owes everyone an explanation.

After all, none of the other partners are obsessively tracking your kidnapped daughter, are they?

Mr. Torres, your intense focus on Ms. Williams can only mean one of two things.

One, you're the culprit who kidnapped her.

Two, you have a secret crush on her."

Joshua looked at Beckett with a slight smile. "Which is it, Mr. Torres?"

Beckett was so furious he could have spit blood.

Joshua was forcing him to either admit to kidnapping Aurora or to having a crush on her.

He would never choose either.

But if he absolutely had to pick one, he would rather admit to the kidnapping.

Admit he had a crush on Aurora?

His standards weren't that low.

In Beckett's eyes, Aurora wasn't even in the same league as Stella.

"Joshua," Beckett said icily, "everything you've said is just speculation. It's not evidence."

Joshua's tone was lazy. "As the esteemed head of the Torres family, it would be all too easy for you to destroy any evidence. Finding these few breadcrumbs was hard enough."

After all, they were all his children.

With that, Skyler stood up.

I'll leave you all to it. I've had enough excitement for one day; I'm retiring for the evening."

Though Skyler was still the head of the Williams family and held real power, he had grown to dislike getting involved in these disputes as he got older.

Besides, he was an elder. It was unseemly for him to be trading barbs with the younger generation.

After Skyler left, the housekeeper informed him that Aurora was awake, so he went to see her.

Back with the Williams brothers, Jonathan was lost in thought.

He was weighing his options: should he insist on holding Stella responsible, or should he shift his focus to Beckett?

Continuing to press Stella had a low chance of success.

Now that Beckett was available to take the fall, it wasn't a bad outcome.