The wedding dress had been beautifully tailored. Even if Stella gained a little more weight over the next two days, it wouldn't be an issue.

Yvonne had deliberately left enough extra fabric.

The two of them sat down, and a maid brought over some freshly squeezed fruit juice. Yvonne took a sip.

"Berry is starting to panic," Yvonne said smoothly.

Stella paused.

She looked at Yvonne.

As for Berry, even though she had absolutely nothing to do with Ronald, dealing with

a mistress's illegitimate child was always somewhat sickening.

But with Yvonne stirring the pot, Stella at least felt a sense of vindication.

"Has Mona tried anything else against you?" Stella asked.

Even though Yvonne wasn't afraid of snakes.

Stella still worried that Mona might try to pull another terrifying stunt.

Since Yvonne was pregnant, Stella was terrified the stress might harm her.

"After the way I wrecked her plans, you think she'd dare try anything else?" Yvonne scoffed. "She's spent the last few days desperately begging Tristan for cash."

Earlier, Mona had been acting like a madwoman, desperately trying to snatch back control of the household finances.

But she quickly realized that Yvonne was utterly bulletproof, fearless, and completely unbothered by her petty provocations.

It was as if Mona possessed a full arsenal of deadly weapons but had absolutely nowhere to aim them.

Realizing she couldn't break Yvonne, she gave up on that front entirely.

Instead, she went straight to Tristan for the money.

"Would Tristan actually give it to her?" Stella asked.

"Absolutely not," Yvonne grinned. "If he handed it over, all the groundwork I laid with

him would have been for nothing."

Stella paused.

She couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Ronald had been right when he told her not to underestimate Yvonne's chaotic methods.

Her seemingly reckless and random actions were actually carefully constructed traps.

At the time, Mona assumed Yvonne had uncovered her secret and was going to expose her directly.

Instead, Yvonne simply used Tristan's mounting suspicions to bleed Mona dry financially.

It was far more agonizing than a straightforward exposure.

st

"I looked into it," Yvonne explained "Berry needs surgery urgently. They already put down a deposit, and if they don't go through with the procedure, it's non-refundable.

Basically, the deposit locked them in. Canceling wasn't an option.

But their biggest problem right now was figuring out how to come up with the rest of the cash.

"So she must be frantically bouncing off the walls back in Novaderma?" Stella noted.

"More than that."

"When I was heading out this morning, caught Mona on the phone in the backyard. Berry was losing her dan mind on the other end of the line."

Stella completely understood. For deeply greedy people, whoever held the money was king.

If the cash stopped flowing, they wouldn't give you a single shred of respect, let alone speak to you nicely.

Right now, Mona was essentially being roasted on an open fire.

Xander wandered down the stairs, catching Yvonne and Stella gossiping about the

Schultz family drama once again.

He felt a sharp twinge of jealousy.

He couldn't even pinpoint when it

started, but every time he saw Stella

and

acting like two peas in a

him

pod rubbe wrong way.

it

Walking beside him, Ronald shot him a sideways glance. "What's with that look?"

"I'm annoyed, okay? How can two sisters be this ridiculously close?"

Xander grumbled. He walked straight down the stairs and looked at Yvonne. "Let's go."

Yvonne eyed him like he was crazy. "Go where? We haven't even had dinner yet." She fully intended to eat before heading back.

Ever since taking over the Schultz family's finances, she had essentially washed her hands of any actual household management.

She came back to the Quinn estate for dinner every single night, not even leaving the Schultz family enough pocket change to buy groceries.

"I'm taking you out to eat tonight," Xander stated.

"Where?"

"Lott and Ashley said they're tired of running," Xander explained. "They want to apologize to you, so they're treating you to dinner."

Yvonne arched an eyebrow.

Lott and Ashley.

Those were Xander's ride-or-die best friends.