Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 121

Chapter 86: Disappointment-1

Chapter 86: Disappointment-1

(Author’s POV)

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Sebastian found Sienna curled on her bed, still in the grey silk she’d worn to court, her face buried in a pillow. He closed the door behind him and sat on the edge of the mattress without a word.

Of all her brothers, Sebastian had always been the soft one where Sienna was concerned. It traced back to a hospital room, their mother’s hand thin and cool in his, her voice barely above a whisper. *She’s the youngest. She needs someone looking out for her.* He’d been nineteen. He’d nodded and meant it.

He’d meant it every year since. Every girlfriend he’d ended things with the moment Sienna wrinkled her nose. There’d been one he’d genuinely cared about – a quiet, sharp-humored woman he’d met at a conference in Edinburgh.

Sienna had pulled him aside at a family dinner and said the woman had mocked her behind her back, called her a professional widow looking for her next meal ticket. He’d ended it the next morning. No explanation given. He still thought about her sometimes.

Sienna had always known exactly how much she could get away with. Today was the first time in her life that their father had raised his voice at her, and she was treating it like a

catastrophe.

“Stop,” he said, rubbing slow circles on her back. “You’re going to make yourself sick.”

She pushed herself upright, eyes swollen, mascara tracked down both cheeks. “Does he not love me anymore? Is that it? He’s going to take her side over mine? She’s nobody. She was a secretary.”

“He’s not taking her side.” Sebastian kept his voice even. “He’s taking the family’s side. There’s a difference.”

“It feels the same.”

He was quiet for a moment. Then: “Sienna. I need you to answer me honestly.”

She looked at him.

“Do you actually have feelings for Jasper? Real ones?”

The question landed and she didn’t answer immediately. She turned it over behind her eyes, and Sebastian watched her do it. That pause told him more than anything she could have

said.

Chapter 86- Disappointment-1

Claim

The truth, though she would never have framed it this cleanly, was that she wasn’t sure. She’d grown up with Jasper’s attention the way she’d grown up with central heating – always there, never thought about, only noticed when it flickered.

What she couldn’t tolerate was Aurora. That woman, with her quiet face and her hazel eyes and her complete refusal to stay small, was standing in a place that had always been background scenery. She’d been a placeholder, a convenience, and now she was something else entirely. The idea of it made Sienna’s chest tight in a way she couldn’t quite name.

“I don’t know,” she said finally.

Sebastian exhaled through his nose.

“That’s not a great answer.”

“I know.” She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth. “But I can’t stand the thought of her winning. I can’t stand it, Sebastian. She walked out of that courthouse like she’d already won everything.”

He looked at her for a long moment. Then he put his arm around her shoulders.

“All right,” he said. “If it matters to you, I’ll figure something out.”

She turned into his shoulder, her voice muffled and wet. “You’re the only one who’s ever actually been on my side.”

He didn’t say anything to that. He just held her and stared at the wall and tried not to think about the woman in Edinburgh, or the look on his father’s face downstairs, or the fact that he’d just made a promise he had no idea how to keep.

Three miles away, Jasper sat in a hospital corridor on a plastic chair and stared at the floor.

Victoria had been taken in forty minutes ago. The medical team he’d called was the best available – he’d made sure of that in the car, phone in one hand, his mother’s wrist in the other, checking her pulse every thirty seconds. They’d taken her through the double doors and told him to wait, and now there was nothing to do but wait.

He couldn’t sit still. He shifted forward, then back, then leaned his elbows on his knees. The corridor was quiet except for the hum of the ventilation system and the occasional soft footstep of a nurse passing through.

He picked up his phone and typed a message to Aurora before he’d consciously decided to.

*My mother collapsed. She’s in emergency care.*

He hit send.

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Chapter 85, Disappointment-1

The system notification came back in under five seconds. Message undeliverable.

He stared at it.

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She’d blocked this number too. He hadn’t realized she’d gotten around to it yet. He set the phone face-down on his knee and looked back at the floor.

The phone rang. He picked it up without checking the screen.

“Jasper.” Sebastian’s voice was clipped and carrying an edge he didn’t bother to soften. “I’m going to be generous and not make an issue out of today’s little performance in court. But if you want to keep seeing my sister, you need to come get her. Tonight. She shouldn’t be sitting here alone after everything that happened.”

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