The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 2169

But Sellers's situation was completely different. Aside from the child Aurora was carrying, he had absolutely no hope of securing an heir.

Stella looked up, her mind spinning. "So, he thinks Aurora poisoned him, which explains the sheer hatred. But the Burtons are a legendary medical dynasty. How could they not cure him?"

"They're brilliant, but they aren't gods," Leonard replied. "According to the intel, the toxin has been in his system for at least a year, and it's a slow-acting, insidious compound. The longer it sits in the body, the harder it is to eradicate."

Leonard had survived a poisoning himself; he knew exactly how vicious it could be.

"He's had it for over a year, and they've been treating him for three..." Stella calculated rapidly. "Working backward, he must have been poisoned around four years ago. That lines up perfectly with the height of his affair with Aurora. It makes sense why he'd suspect her."

She paused, looking intently at Leonard. "Do you think the real baby is his?"

"Doubtful," Leonard said, shaking his head. "You can do a paternity test while pregnant. The fact that Aurora needed Sherman's help when giving birth proves she knew the baby wasn't McCoy's. And the timeline of her pregnancy is very close to when Sellers first discovered his condition. The odds are he was already sterile by then. Therefore, the child isn't his. The baby girl stashed away in Fisherman's Cove almost certainly belongs to Sherman."

Stella couldn't help but look at Leonard with a newfound respect.

There was a reason he was the head of the Lerman family.

"Normally, Sherman wouldn't have the guts or the competence to pull off something like this," Leonard elaborated. "Even if he wanted Aurora for himself, assassinating his own family head is way above his pay grade. If he actually went through with it, someone had to be whispering in his ear, pushing him to do it. Plus, this wasn't some off-the-shelf poison; it had to be complex enough to stump the entire Burton medical network. The person supplying it is definitely no amateur. Convincing Sherman to turn traitor wouldn't happen overnight. It would require months of manipulation, followed by a steady supply of the toxin."

Stella's heart skipped a beat. She already knew exactly where he was going with this.

Leonard's gaze grew distant and shadowed.

"Dethroning a family head is incredibly difficult, especially in a fiercely loyal syndicate like the Burtons. Sellers's grip on power is far tighter than mine ever was, and his succession was undisputed. The economic pressure I put on their company recently only caused a few headaches; it wasn't enough to break him. Joshua probably recognized that years ago, which is why he planted this seed four years in advance. He just never got the chance to finish the job before undergoing his hypnosis. But this poison was a ticking time bomb. Even if he walked away, it was always going to detonate. The hypnosis just bought Sellers and Aurora three extra years of borrowed time."