Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 152

Chapter 117: A Practical Proposal

(Phineas’s POV)

I accepted that with a nod and let the silence sit comfortably for a moment. She ate. I ate. The morning light came through the windows and the apartment felt, briefly, like it contained nothing urgent.

Then I set down my coffee cup.

“So,” I said. “Why the rush to leave?”

She glanced up. “It’s not a rush. It’s just – I have money now. Real money. It makes sense to buy my own

place.”

“You could do that and still stay here.”

“I’d want to pay back the rent I’ve owed you. Properly.” She met my eyes. “Reset things to what they actually are. Landlord and tenant. Keep it clean.”

I leaned forward slightly. “I thought we were past that.”

“Past what?”

“The landlord-tenant thing.” I kept my voice easy, unhurried. “I thought after everything this year, we were at least friends.”

She looked uncertain. Not cold – just careful, the way she always got when she wasn’t sure what was being

asked of her.

I let a beat pass. Then I said, “You know what the honest problem is?”

“Tell me.”

“I’m particular about food.” I said it simply, like it was a confession of minor embarrassment. “I’ve been to enough business dinners to last several lifetimes, and I eat at all of them out of obligation. I cook for myself when I have to, but I don’t enjoy it.” I looked at her. “Since you’ve been here, I’ve actually eaten properly. Real meals. Things that weren’t just fuel.” I paused. “Part of why I made that arrangement with you in the first place – the marriage, the whole thing – was that I knew you’d actually feed me. Not in a transactional way. Just because that’s who you are.”

She stared at me. Then she laughed, short and disbelieving. “You’re telling me I’m staying because you my cooking.”

“I’m telling you it’s a factor.”

“Phineas.”

“A significant factor.”

She shook her head, but the corner of her mouth was doing something she was trying to suppress.

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Chapter 117 Phachcal thep

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I pulled back. Let the lightness drop just slightly, replaced it with something quieter. “If you want to go, I’m not going to stop you. You’ve earned the right to do whatever you want with your life” I picked up my coffee again. “I managed before you got here. I’ll manage after.”

The table went quiet.

I watched her without watching her peripheral, careful. She was turning something over, I could see it in

the slight tension around her eyes, the way she set her fork down and didn’t pick it up again.

Then she said, “Does this building have any other units available? For sale, not rent.”

I kept my expression neutral. “The one next door.”

“I could buy it,” she said. “Live there. I’d still be close enough to come cook without it being inconvenient.”

“The paperwork can be done today,” I said, before she’d fully finished the sentence. “Send Director Harrison a message, let him know you need the morning. We can go handle the transfer of ownership

before noon.”

She blinked. Looked at me.

I looked back, perfectly calm, as though we were discussing where to have lunch rather than a property transaction that I had been prepared to offer at a moment’s notice for reasons I wasn’t going to examine too closely right now.

(Aurora’s POV)

I laughed, a little awkwardly, and waved my hand at the phone in his.

“You don’t have to call anyone right now. The transfer from Jasper’s side hasn’t cleared yet – he said he needs time to liquidate some assets. I don’t actually have the funds to buy anything at the moment.”

Phineas set his phone down. He picked up his coffee instead, and a faint, almost bemused look crossed his face.

“I didn’t realize your ex-husband was so strapped for cash.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it.

“Can we talk about something else?” I said.

He didn’t take the hint. He leaned back in his chair, unhurried, and looked at me with that calm grey gaze that made it very difficult to tell what he was actually thinking.

“I want you to consider staying,” he said. “Not as a houseguest. Properly.”

“Phineas-”

“Hear me out.” He wasn’t asking. “I’ve never wanted children. That’s not going to change. What I’m proposing is practical – two people who get along, who have compatible lives, who aren’t going to make each other miserable. That’s rarer than you’d think.”

Chapter 117 A Precal

I stared at him.

“Also,” he continued, “Jasper just lost sixty percent of his assets in a divorce ruling. That man has an ego the size of a building, and you’re the one who cost him that. He’s not going to let it go. He’ll find ways to make your life difficult through your work, through your brother, through whatever angle he can reach.” He set his mug down. “If we’re married, he can’t touch you. He won’t dare.”

“You’re describing yourself as a security system.”

“I’m describing myself as a practical solution.” The corner of his mouth moved slightly. “I’ll have a prenuptial agreement drawn up. Everything in my name, you get half. Everything in your name stays yours entirely. I’m not asking you to give up anything.”

I put my fork down. “You’d give me half of Everett Global.”

“The agreement would be structured properly. Yes.”.

“That’s insane.”

“It’s a number on paper.” He said it like it genuinely didn’t matter to him, which was somehow more alarming than if he’d made a show of the generosity. “I told you – I have a medical condition. I can’t have children. I’m not interested in other women. I’ve spent twenty years building something, and there’s no one to come home to at the end of it.” He paused. “What’s the point of building an empire if there’s no one to come home to?”

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