He was so blunt, you almost wanted to sew his lips shut.

"Yes, he ran all the way back," Stella answered with a wry smile.

Yvonne was speechless. Ran back..... Well, if anyone was capable of something so ridiculous, it was Finley. On the surface, the guy acted loud and harmless, but when forced into a corner, there was nothing he wouldn't do.

Hearing that Ronald was upstairs, Xander shot Yvonne a look. "I'll go up and talk to him."

"Go ahead,” she replied. Men always found things to discuss, no matter the hour.

As Xander disappeared up the stairs, Stella turned to Yvonne, glancing after him. "Hasn't he mellowed out a bit?" she observed. Honestly, in Stella's mind, Xander and Finley might as well have been two peas in a pod-both had sharp tongues that left her defenseless.

"Mellowed? Clearly you didn't see how smug he was in the car just now," Yvonne snorted. "I thought Dan was going to lose his mind."

Stella burst out laughing. "Alright, I take back what I said. Xander and 'mellow' don't belong in the same universe. The guy's never been reliable. Remember when Ronald was furious with him all those years ago? Xander could barely form a coherent sentence trying to explain himself. And now, with Dan? Even worse."

Yvonne gave Stella's delicate hand a squeeze, suddenly serious. "Berry hasn't caused you any trouble, has she?"

"Not for now," Stella said quietly.

"My people looked into it—Berry's definitely at Novaderma. Mona's been there a lot lately, too."

Yvonne's eyes narrowed. "She actually got surgery to look like you?"

Stella nodded. "When I saw the pictures, I honestly thought I was looking at myself. Especially her figure and posture."

"That doesn't seem possible, though." Yvonne frowned, thinking it through. "Berry's so much shorter than you."

Exactly—the face might be easy to copy, but height isn't so easily faked.

"Maybe the plan isn't to replace me outright," Stella mused. "If I were to die-very publicly then Berry could show up after as a double."

Not a swap, but a stand-in playing her part. The realization sent a chill down Yvonne's spine.

It made a twisted kind of sense. If

Stella really had a complication giving birth and didn't survive, Ronald would be shattered. Grief-stricken, he could easily be manipulated by someone with Stella's face showing up at just the right time-perfectly positioned to slip into his life as the new Stella, a living ghost.

Yvonne's eyes flashed with anger. "That dan Berry. She's not getting away with this. Neither is Mona Regina Schultz was already enough? of a snake-looks like her own daughter's just as bad."

"Berry's definitely not Samuel Schultz's child," Stella declared with certainty.

"Of course not," Yvonne scoffed. "If she was really his, she wouldn't have spent years living outside the Schultz family. Berry's Mona's illegitimate daughter, no question."

Yvonne glanced at Stella, protective and fierce. "Let me go take care of them for you."

"What? You're just going to confront them?" Stella sounded surprised.

"Why play games?" Yvonne's voice sharpened with rage. "I've wanted to crush them for ages, and I'm done being nice. Guess I was too much a good girl in the Schultz house-that's why they had the nerve to pull this stunt."

With that, she jumped to her feet, already heading toward the stairs.

Stella grabbed her wrist. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Going to get Xander-we'll finish this once and for all," Yvonne said, teeth clenched.

Stella just stared at her.