Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 122

< Chapter 87: Disappointment-2

Chapter 87: Disappointment-2

(Author’s POV)

Jasper lowered the phone and set it on the seat beside him.

He sat there in the quiet. The corridor hummed. Somewhere past the double doors, his mother was being kept alive by people he’d never met, and he was out here alone with a plastic chair and a dead phone screen.

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The thought came to him sideways, the way absurd thoughts do when you’re running on no sleep and too much adrenaline. If Sienna called right now – just called, just asked how his mother was doing, just said one sentence that showed she was thinking about someone other than herself – he’d marry her the moment the divorce was finalized. He’d stop questioning it. He’d stop feeling whatever this hollow thing in his chest was and he’d just

commit.

He looked at the phone.

It didn’t ring.

An hour passed. Then another. A doctor came through the double doors and told him Victoria was stable, that she’d need to stay overnight for monitoring, that someone should remain with her. Jasper nodded and said he’d stay.

He settled back into the chair. The phone sat silent on the seat beside him.

He picked it up once, looked at the screen, and put it back down.

The call never came.

***

When he got home, Leo draped his jacket over the back of a kitchen chair.

Martha was sitting at a small table by the window, flipping through a magazine; judging by the slump of her shoulders, she was already in a bad mood.

She’d rented a place near his school – a reasonable enough arrangement – but she’d been making pointed comments all week about expenses, about how Aurora used to at least cover the basics without being asked, about how things were different now.

Leo made himself a sandwich, ate it standing at the counter, and said nothing.

Martha went out for groceries mid-afternoon. The corner market was a ten-minute walk, and

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4. Chapter 87, Disappointment-2

she was nearly there when she heard her name.

“Martha? Is that you?”

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She turned. Mrs. Green was coming up the pavement with a shopping bag over one arm, her face bright with the particular pleasure of someone who has news and an audience.

“I haven’t seen you in ages.” Mrs. Green grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “You look wonderful. And your daughter – I heard she married well? Good for her. She always seemed like a sensible girl.”

“She’s doing fine,” Martha said.

“I’m sure she is.” Mrs. Green dropped her voice and leaned in. “Speaking of which – you’ll never guess what’s been happening over at the Rathbones’.” She pressed her lips together in

a show of reluctance that fooled neither of them.

“Richard was absolutely furious last week. Apparently Sienna’s been carrying on with her late husband’s brother, and it all came out in court. A divorce case. The whole thing’s been dragged into a courtroom.” She shook her head with great satisfaction. “A family like that. It’s

shameful.”

The word *court* hit Martha like cold water.

“In court?” she repeated.

“A full hearing, from what I heard. The wife – the ex-wife – had lawyers, evidence, the whole production. Richard was livid. He said it’s made them look like a circus.”

Martha stopped listening. Her chest had gone tight and the pavement felt unsteady under her feet. She already knew – she was certain of it, with the bone-deep certainty of someone who has spent years assigning blame – exactly who had dragged this into a courtroom.

“I’m sorry,” she said, cutting Mrs. Green off mid-sentence. “I just remembered I have something I need to handle. It was good to see you.”

She turned and walked away quickly, her bag swinging at her side.

That girl, she thought. That impossible, reckless girl. Couldn’t let anything go. Had to make everything a spectacle. Had to drag everyone through the mud just to prove a point.

She walked faster.

After coming home, Martha called Leo into the living room with the kind of quiet that meant she’d already made up her mind about something.

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Chapter 87 Disappointment-2

“Where were you Thursday afternoon?” she asked. “You said you were going to the gym.'”

Leo stood by the doorway. “I was at the gym.”

“Were you in that courtroom with your sister?”

He didn’t answer fast enough. Martha’s eyes narrowed.

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“I didn’t go inside the courtroom,” he said finally. It was technically true. He’d waited in the hall.

“Don’t split hairs with me.” Martha folded her arms. “Everything I do, I do for you. And you go behind my back to help her drag this family through a public spectacle.”

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