chapter1073

As Stella and Joshua were about to leave, someone called out from behind.

"Star."

Stella turned and found herself facing her uncle Hugo.

She offered him a polite, measured smile. Uncle Hugo, is there something you need?"

Hugo smiled warmly. "Star, you haven't met your grandparents yet, have you? When you have some free time, let me take you over to the Cameron family estate to visit them. When they heard they had another granddaughter, they were over the moon. They keep talking about you, hoping to meet you soon."

Stella kept her tone courteous. "My brother mentioned he misses our grandparents too. I'll come by for a visit with my brothers another day."

She glanced at Hugo and his son, then added, "Uncle, cousin, I have some things to take care of right now, so I'll be off. I'll be in touch when I'm free."

Without waiting for a reply, Stella and Joshua walked away.

Hugo's expression stiffened.

Ever since that mess a few years back-when that troublemaker from the second branch got involved in an altercation and, leveraging his connection to the Williams family, ended up killing someone-the three Williams brothers had kept their distance from the Cameron family.

They used to visit the Cameron estate from time to time, if only for the sake of the elderly couple. But after that incident, the Williams brothers stopped coming altogether, and the business orders from their side started to dry up. It was clear they wanted to cut ties.

There were rumors that Stella held a ten percent stake in original shares. If they could win her over, perhaps the Camerons could regain their place among the elite families.

They assumed Stella, having grown up away from the family, hadn't seen much of the world. They thought if they played the family card and offered her a few favors, she'd be easy to win over.

No one expected Stella to greet them with such cold indifference.

...

Back in her office, Stella watched as Joshua swept the room with a strange- looking device.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Checking for surveillance," Joshua replied, methodically scanning every corner.

After a thorough check, he finally put the device away. "There's nothing for now, but we can't get complacent. Just because we're clear today doesn't mean we'll be safe tomorrow. We should check every day."

Stella nodded. "I'll leave that to you."

Joshua turned serious. "How did things go today?"

Stella's eyes grew thoughtful. "Pretty much as you predicted. The people who support my mother are

struggling at the Williams Group net

About half of the company sides with my father, maybe twenty percent support my mother, and the other thirty percent stay neutral." s

In other words, even if Stella managed to sway all the neutral parties, she'd only

be able to split the company fifty-fifty with Skyler. The odds were still not in her favor.

It wasn't really about Skyler and his father favoring the illegitimate daughter, Aurora, or simply wanting to see Stella fail. The truth was, they were using Aurora as an excuse to reclaim the original shares held by Stella and the other minorit

shareholders. Content b tongs to s

Joshua said, "Breaking the stalemate isn't impossible. Since they want your shares, they'll make the first move either by tripping you up this year or making it impossible for you to work at the Williams Group." s Th? link to the orig?n of this information r?sts ?n FindN()vel.net

He had barely finished speaking when there was a gentle knock at the office door.

A young man entered, introducing himself with respectful formality. "Ms. Cameron, hello. My name is Aicken-your personal assistant."

Aicken was tall, with striking good looks and the kind of youthful charm that was all the rage these days. He could easily have been mistaken for an actor or a model, even among the stars in the entertainment industry.

If Abby were here, she probably wouldn't have hesitated to sign him on the spot.