Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 140

Chapter 104: Locked in the Laboratory

(Author’s POV)

Aurora had been in the lab since six-thirty.

The missed sessions from her leave had piled up, and she’d been working through them in chunks – early mornings, late evenings, whatever gaps she could find between her regular schedule. She didn’t mind. The work was straightforward, and the quiet of the lab before the rest of the team arrived suited her.

She knew Phineas was having dinner at the Everett estate tonight. Eleanor had mentioned it in passing. during their last phone call, and Aurora had felt something she wasn’t entirely proud of relief. A clean, uncomplicated relief that she wouldn’t have to navigate an evening of careful conversation and the low-grade awareness that Eleanor had asked her to keep an eye on him.

It wasn’t that she found him difficult to be around. It was more that she never quite knew what to do with the way he looked at her sometimes, like he was waiting for her to catch up to something she hadn’t figured out yet.

She pushed the thought aside and focused on the data in front of her.

She was halfway through cross-referencing the compound results when she heard footsteps in the corridor outside. She didn’t look up. People passed the lab all the time.

What she didn’t see was Serena pausing outside the glass partition.

Serena lingered in the office for a while after work, and unexpectedly caught sight of Aurora still inside the laboratory as she passed by.

She stood in the corridor and watched Aurora through the glass for a moment, bent over her workstation, completely absorbed.

The punishment from Phineas still stung. Three days confined to the estate, her cards suspended, her car keys held by Mrs. Potts. All because of a misunderstanding – or so Serena had told herself, often enough that she almost believed it.

She glanced down the corridor. Empty in both directions.

She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a folded square of cardstock she’d torn from a folder. She worked it carefully into the keyhole of the lab door, pressing it in until she felt the latch mechanism catch against it.

It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t permanent. It would just be a nuisance – the kind of thing that would keep Aurora stuck inside until someone with a master key came along.

Serena straightened up and walked away.

She wanted to see, she told herself, whether Phineas would make a fuss about it. Whether he’d drop everything for Aurora the way he had before. Whether Aurora was really as untouchable as she seemed

Chapter 104 Locked in the Laboratory

25 Points

Phineas arrived at the Everett estate just after seven.

He walked into the main sitting room and stopped.

Jasper was on the sofa.

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

William started to say something – an introduction, an explanation – but Phineas spoke first.

“I didn’t realize we were having guests.” His voice was flat. “Specifically, guests from the branch line. The one that split off and took half the family’s reputation with it.”

“Phineas.” William’s voice carried a warning.

“I’m just noting the occasion.”

William set down his glass. “This afternoon, I had a medical episode in the elevator at the Meridian Tower. Asthma attack. Jasper was in the building – happened to be in the same elevator. He administered first aid

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and called the paramedics.”

Phineas looked at Jasper. “Happened to be.”

“That’s what I said,” William said.

“And the elevator?”

“I had the maintenance records pulled. No tampering.”

“Records can be managed.”

“Phineas.”

“I’m asking reasonable questions.” He turned back to Jasper. “What were you doing at Meridian Tower?” Jasper met his gaze without flinching. “Meeting with a client. Renstrom Capital, fourteenth floor. You’re welcome to verify it.”

“I will.”

“I assumed you would.”

They looked at each other. Neither moved.

“I haven’t gone crazy enough to design a crisis that could potentially involve murder.” Jasper said. His voice was even. “Whatever you think of me, I’m not that.”

“What I think of you,” Phineas said, “is that you’re exactly the kind of person who would calculate every angle of a situation before walking into it.”

Jasper said nothing.

Chapter 104 Locked in the Laboratory

William stood. “Enough. Dinner is ready. Jasper is staying.”

Jasper rose from the sofa. He straightened his jacket, and as he did, he turned to William with an expression that managed to be both composed and quietly wounded.

“I want to say – I know there’s been talk. About the divorce. I imagine some of it has reached this house.”

He paused.

“Aurora is a capable woman. I don’t say anything against her. But she was never able to accept that building the company required everything I had. Every hour, every decision. She read it as neglect. I read it as responsibility.” He spread his hands slightly. “We wanted different things. That’s all.”

Phineas felt his stomach turn.

He looked at Jasper – at the careful grief in his posture, the measured regret in his voice, the whole polished performance of a man wronged by circumstance – and felt a revulsion so clean it was almost clarifying.

“I’ve lost my appetite,” he said.

He set his glass on the side table and walked toward the hallway.

“Phineas.” William’s voice sharpened.

“I’ll be in my study.” He didn’t turn around. “Enjoy dinner.”

He heard William make a sound of irritation behind him – the kind that came from wounded pride rather than genuine anger. And he heard, a moment later, William tell Jasper to sit back down, the food would be served shortly.

Out of sheer stubbornness, Phineas thought. That was William’s way. The more someone pushed back, the more firmly he planted his feet.

He walked down the corridor toward the east wing, loosening his collar.

Behind him, he could hear Arthur saying something about the quarterly reports, neatly redirecting the conversation toward business, and Eleanor’s voice responding in a tone that was perfectly pleasant and entirely opaque.

Eleanor, he knew, hadn’t believed a word of it.

She never did.

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