Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 120

<Chapter 85 The Reckoning

Chapter 85: The Reckoning

(Author’s POV)

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Jasper stood at the top of the courthouse steps and watched Aurora disappear around the corner of the parking structure. Something in his chest went quiet in a way that had nothing to do with relief.

Victoria didn’t wait to get back to the car.

“Half a billion dollars.” Her voice was low and controlled, which made it worse. “Jasper. Half a billion dollars. In cash transfers. Jewelry. God knows what else. Is that true?”

Sienna pressed her lips together. “That’s Aurora’s fabrication. She manufactured those records to humiliate me – to humiliate both of us. You can’t seriously believe-”

Victoria’s eyes moved to Sienna’s necklace and stopped there.

She didn’t need to say anything. The appraisal was already happening behind her eyes, and the number she arrived at matched the one Gavin Sterling had read aloud in that courtroom.

She wasn’t blind enough not to see the price of a string of high-quality pearl necklaces, and after Odora moved out, Siena bought even more of these things.

Victoria understood, in that moment, exactly what her son had become. In his heart, his biological mother and Rosalind, his biological daughter, combined were not as important as Siena.

A darker thought followed. Her eldest son was already dead. And now this woman had her hands around her second son’s life with the same quiet, patient grip.

She didn’t finish the thought. She turned, took Jasper’s arm, and steered him toward the car.

“You,” she said, not looking back at Sienna. “Go home. Your own home. Tonight.”

Sienna’s face went still.

Victoria didn’t repeat herself. She kept walking, pulling Jasper with her. He went without resistance, without a word, without even a glance back at Sienna. He moved like a man who had stopped deciding things.

Sienna stood on the courthouse steps alone, watching the car door close.

The moment the door shut, Victoria launched into it. Her voice filled the car, sharp and relentless – Aurora was after his money, had always been after his money, and now she was

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Chapter 85: The Reckoning

going to walk away with half of everything he’d built. If the ruling went against them, they would appeal. There was no other option. She wasn’t going to sit back and watch-

Jasper leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes.

His mother’s voice became noise.

He took out his phone and typed a message to Aurora.

*Do you really have to go this far?*

The reply came back in under two minutes.

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*If I wanted to go far, those photos would already be on every financial news site in the country. Aether’s stock would have opened this morning at half its value. I didn’t do that. I’m not going to – for Rosalind’s sake. You still have the last shred of dignity I left you. Don’t make me reconsider.*

He read it twice. Then he set the phone face-down on his knee.

“We’re not appealing,” he said.

Victoria stopped mid-sentence.

“Whatever the ruling is,” Jasper said, “I’m not filing an appeal.”

The silence lasted about three seconds. Then Victoria’s voice came back at a completely different register – higher, faster, stripped of its earlier control.

“Have you lost your mind? What kind of hold does she have over you? Has she completely brainwashed you? You are going to hand over half of everything because she sent you a text message – Jasper, look at me-”

He didn’t open his eyes.

“No appeal,” he said again.

Victoria’s voice climbed higher. She was saying something about lawyers, about the family name, about everything she’d sacrificed – and then her voice cut off. Not tapered. Cut.

Jasper opened his eyes.

She was slumped sideways against the door, her head lolling against the window, eyes closed.

“Stop the car.” He was already moving toward her. “Turn around – nearest hospital, now. Go.”

Chapter 85. The Reckoning

The driver pulled a hard U-turn without a word.

At the Rathbone estate, the drawing room felt smaller than usual.

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Richard Rathbone stood with the photographs in his hand. He’d been holding them for the better part of ten minutes, and he still couldn’t quite make himself put them down.

Sienna stood in front of him with her head bowed, her voice tight and bitter. “She staged all of it. Aurora has been trying to destroy me since the beginning – this is a smear campaign, nothing more-”

“Enough.” Richard’s voice came out harder than he intended. “Where is your dignity, Sienna? Where is your self-respect? I raised you better than this. Or I thought I did.”

“You don’t understand-”

“I understand what I’m looking at.” He set the photographs down on the side table, face-down. He couldn’t keep looking at them. “Do you have any idea what this does to our name? To everything this family has built? You’ve made us a joke.”

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