Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 109

Chapter 74: Did You Find Her?

(Author’s POV)

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They talked. It was easy, surprisingly easy – easier than Joyce had expected with a woman forty years her junior. Aurora was direct without being blunt, curious without being intrusive. She asked questions that showed she was actually listening. She didn’t perform interest; she had it.

By the time their main courses arrived, Joyce had quietly made a decision.

She’d come with a check in her handbag. A generous one, the kind of sum that would be meaningful to a young researcher on a corporate salary. She’d planned to present it at the end of the meal as a formal expression of gratitude.

She left it where it was.

It would be an insult. She understood that now, sitting across from this woman. Not because Aurora would be offended by money, but because the gesture would reduce what had happened between them – would reduce Aurora – to a transaction. And that felt wrong.

When the meal wound down and they asked for the bill, Joyce reached into her handbag. Aurora watched her for a brief moment, something carefully neutral in her expression – the look of a person who had half–expected something and was waiting to see if she’d been right.

But what Joyce took out instead was a business card.

She turned it over and wrote on the back, slowly and carefully, in a clear hand.

“My personal number,” she said, sliding it across the table. “And my home address. If you ever find yourself in a difficult situation – any kind of difficult situation – please don’t hesitate.”

Aurora looked at the card. The address was in one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in the city, the kind where the houses had names instead of numbers.

“That’s very kind of you,” she said.

“I mean it,” Joyce said. “I’m not being polite. I’m being serious.”

Aurora put the card in her coat pocket with a small nod. There was something in her manner that suggested she didn’t intend to use it – they’d known each other for exactly one dinner, and she didn’t seem like the kind of person who called near–strangers for help. But she kept it without protest, and that was enough.

Chapter 74 Old You Find Her?

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“One more thing,” Joyce said, as they gathered their things to leave. “I’m having a small birthday dinner next week. Nothing grand. I’d love it if you came.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you,” Aurora said, and her voice was warm without being committal. “I’ll see what my schedule looks like.”

Joyce smiled at her like she knew exactly what that meant.

At the door, Aurora flagged down their server and asked him to box up a second portion of the pasta she’d ordered. Joyce watched her do it.

“Is that for your husband?”

“No husband,” Aurora said. “Just a friend.”

Joyce accepted that with a nod, and they said their goodnights.

She stood at the restaurant entrance and watched Aurora walk back toward the office building, the takeout bag in one hand, coat collar turned up against the evening air.

She didn’t move for a long moment.

She was still thinking about the photograph. About the line of the jaw, the curve of the mouth, the quality of stillness in the eyes.

She clearly found that Aurora’s marital status showed as married, so why did she say she had no husband?

Joyce turned and walked back to where Alice was waiting with the car.

That night, when Joyce returned home, she couldn’t stop thinking about the girl.

She settled into the armchair across from George and said it before she could stop herself. “They look so much alike! The resemblance is uncanny. It’s as if-”

“Joyce.” George’s voice was flat. His jaw tightened. “Don’t.”

She looked at him. He was staring at the fireplace, his expression closed off in the way it always went when someone mentioned their daughter. Eight years, and the grief still sat in him like a stone he couldn’t put down.

“I know,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

She let it go. There was no point pressing. George had his ways of coping, and pretending Eleanor had never existed was one of them. It was wrong, in her opinion, but she understood

Chapter 74: Did You Find Her?

1. it. Some people couldn’t hold grief and stay upright at the same time.

She changed the subject and didn’t bring it up again.

Sienna arrived in time for dinner.

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She swept in looking polished as always, kissed Joyce on the cheek, and took her usual seat at the table. George’s face softened the moment he saw her, the way it always did.

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