The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 2009

Leonard understood her hidden meaning perfectly.

"I'm jealous," he said, staring right into her eyes. "How did he manage to earn such absolute, unconditional love from you?"

Even buried under all the pain and resentment, the foundation of her love for Joshua was unshakable.

Stella's expression remained entirely blank, showing zero interest in entertaining the conversation.

Leonard shifted his gaze toward the therapy room. "If he agreed to this, it means he's absolutely certain the hypnosis won't work.

For a guy like Joshua, if he doesn't lower his defenses voluntarily, nobody is getting inside his head."

Having said his piece, Leonard didn't linger. He gave her one last, deep look and walked away.

A little while later, Dr. Winter stepped back out to wait with Stella in the hall.

Three grueling hours later, the door finally opened. Joshua emerged.

He instantly looked for Stella, only to be met with a gaze full of crushing disappointment.

Joshua's dark eyes dimmed. "Star, do you really want to erase me that badly?"

"Yes," Stella said simply.

"Once I forget you, we'll be nothing but strangers," Joshua stated.

Stella paused for a long time. "Joshua, stop fighting it. Let me go."

The warmth vanished from Joshua's eyes, leaving nothing but dead winter.

...

After that disastrous session, the tentative peace Stella and Joshua had built completely shattered. They were back to square one.

The breaking point came a few days later when Dr. Winter called to say Calico had been poisoned and barely survived.

Accused by the woman who refused to trust him, Joshua didn't even bother to put up a fight.

He didn't value human life; a cat meant nothing to him.

Still, he offered one flat denial. "I didn't poison the cat. If I wanted it dead, I wouldn't have used such a complicated method."

Stella completely ignored him. First thing the next morning, she headed straight to Mr. Burton's estate to check on the cat.

While seeing the cat was a priority, her main objective was to get an update from Colby.

When she arrived, Colby was aggressively pacing the room, looking like he was tearing his hair out, while Dr. Winter flipped calmly through a stack of reports.

"The induction went perfectly," Colby muttered to himself. "It shouldn't have failed! Where did I go wrong?"

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