Chapter 82

Avery recognized the warning in Wyatt's words. Looking at the report on the table, she clenched her hands and remained silent. She knew very well that doing anything now would only provoke Wyatt. "This can't be true!" Lionel grabbed the test report and, after reading it, widened his eyes and glared at Evander. "You're colluding with them!" He had never heard that Octavia had saved umbilical cord blood for Stella. Hearing this, Evander raised an eyebrow and said, "Mr. Lin, your words are quite baseless. As her uncle, would I favor a fake niece?" As her biological uncle, if he couldn't confirm Stella's identity, he had no reason to favor her. Octavia and Griffin's daughter went missing when she was 3 years old, but this umbilical cord blood was stored at her birth. Therefore, this test report was sufficient to prove Stella's identity. "You—" Lionel was about to argue that Evander had not returned to the country for many years, and why he would come back at such a critical time. However, before he could finish, Stella interrupted him coldly, "Lionel, there's no need to drag others into this. Do you think your dealings with Ronan went unnoticed by everyone?" Lionel suddenly froze, his eyes shifting as if he felt guilty. Avery took all this in, furrowing her brow. Although unwilling to accept it, she knew that Lionel's game was over. She met Stella's gaze, her emotions complex, and forced a smile. "Stella, you've won again." In front of Stella, she had never won, whether it was in academics or relationships. Her previously enviable and smooth life over the past 16 years had now amounted to nothing. She didn't know how to remove Stella's shadow from her life. "Avery, I've told you before, whatever you want to do has nothing to do with me. So, stop provoking me," Stella said, her tone icy-cold. "Bullshit!" Avery exclaimed. "You've ruined my everything, how can you say it has nothing to do with you?" If Stella hadn't returned, she wouldn't have lost her grandfather's affection. She would have naturally been engaged to Aaron, and things wouldn't have turned out like this. "What's rightfully yours will never be taken away, but not everything belongs to you," Stella said, dismissing Avery and turning to Lionel. "You've been slandering me and my company through fake accounts. I've reported it to the police, they should be paying you a visit soon." Lionel's face paled at her words, recalling the days he was detained after Stella reported him to the police. He awkwardly chuckled, "It's all a misunderstanding. I did it because I was afraid something might go wrong with your identity." Seeing that Stella remained unmoved, he turned to Avery and said, "Please help persuade your cousin." But Avery turned away, avoiding his outstretched hand. "I can't help you." Her demeanor was distant. "What do you mean?" "Mean I won't help you." Lionel didn't expect her to turn on him like that. In a fit of rage, his face flushed red as he slapped Avery across the face. Wyatt swiftly stepped in, restraining Lionel while Lionel continued to mutter angrily, "Ungrateful brat! I'm your uncle! Have you ever considered why I did this?" Lionel's slap had been forceful, and despite Wyatt stopping him, Avery fell back onto the couch. She held her cheek, biting her lip, and looked up at Lionel, retorting, "I didn't ask you to do anything. You made your own mistakes, so you should deal with it." From start to finish, this was Lionel's doing, and she had no part in it. She knew well enough that Lionel had only wanted to use her to approach Wyatt. If he could retrieve shares from Stella's hands and gain benefits from her, he would. How could she allow herself to be used like that? Even though she hadn't been able to affect Stella, at least Lionel wouldn't come looking for her again. With the matter of Stella's identity settled, Lionel was detained by the police for defamation. Ronan and his son, not giving up, had also tried to approach Stella, but she reported them to the police, and after two setbacks, they had to give up. Due to personal matters, Stella hadn't been to the company for over half a month after returning to Seattle. On her first day back, she finally received some good news from Aurora. "Dorian said that CF has finally decided to have Lush Aura and Nakamura Bio jointly supply different product lines." While not exclusive supply from CF, this outcome was definitely acceptable for Lush Aura. Stella was naturally relieved. She took the authorization letter handed over by Aurora and smiled back, "Tell Dorian that he can take 10 days off, no need to rush back to Seattle." "Well, that's quite tricky. He might need to come back to Seattle," Aurora replied. Glancing at Stella's puzzled expression, Aurora continued, "His wife is pregnant." Dorian, Stella's former colleague, had a good relationship with her as well. It was thanks to Lyra's efforts that she managed to recruit Dorian in the first place. "He's certainly experiencing a double blessing," Stella smiled and said. "Could you help me prepare some gifts for pregnant women and send them to Lyra?" Aurora agreed, "Sure." After work, Stella received a SnapChat message from Kate. Kate: My Grandfather's birthday banquet is this weekend. Are you coming? Although he asked me to ask you, it seems like he also wants to announce my brother's engagement. Stella pondered over the message for a while, then took a screenshot and sent it to Ethan, who hadn't replied due to overtime. Ethan: ? Stella: Do you think we should go? After waiting for over 10 seconds without a reply, she added: Actually, Jonathan has been quite good to me. Although this consideration stemmed from her being Thomass granddaughter, he was a kind elder. When he asked Kate to inquire, Stella found it hard to refuse. Of course, even if she decided to go, she wouldn't go alone. Ten minutes later, she finally received his message: Okay, we'll go. I feel like having braised beef in soy sauce tonight. Stella smiled, imagining his reluctantly agreeing to attend.