Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 167

Chapter 132: Leverage

(Author’s POV)

Leo looked down at his hands. He opened his mouth, closed it again. She could see him working through something – the pull between wanting to defend Martha and knowing, at some level he couldn’t argue himself out of, that defense wasn’t possible this time.

He’d grown up watching Martha choose Sienna over Aurora. He’d watched it happen again and again, in small ways and large ones. He knew the shape of it.

He lifted his head.

“Aurora.” His voice was quiet but steady. “Call the police.”

She looked at him.

“Whatever you decide, I’ll back you up.” He held her gaze. “Whatever you decide.”

(Aurora’s POV)

I looked at Leo for a moment. Then I said, “Head back to school.”

He started to protest, but I kept my voice even. “Do you have enough in your meal plan account? Eat there

for the next few days. I’ll have dinner sent to you.”

“I’m not leaving you here alone-”

“I’m not alone.” I met his eyes. “Go.”

He exhaled through his nose, jaw working. Then he nodded, once, and stood.

But before he reached the door, he stopped. He turned back, and I could see him working up to something

– that same look he got as a kid when he was about to say something he wasn’t sure he should.

“Aurora.” His voice dropped. “When the weekend comes – I want to go see Martha.”

I didn’t answer right away.

I understood what he was doing. He wasn’t choosing her over me. He was choosing the version of her that had existed for him – the mother who packed his lunches and showed up to his school plays, the woman who had never looked at him the way she looked at me. That version was real to him, even if it had never

been real to me.

“We’ll talk about it when the weekend comes,” I said.

He nodded again, and this time he left.

I sat on the hospital bed and stared at the wall. The room was quiet. I turned the conversation with Leo over in my head, then set it aside. There was nothing useful in sitting with it.

I thought I was alone. Then the door opened, and Phineas walked back in carrying a paper bag.

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He’d gone to get food. Takeout boxes from the café downstairs – something light, he said, because the doctor had recommended keeping it simple today.

He set the bag on the bedside table without ceremony and pulled up the chair.

“Mr. Everett,” I started.

He looked up at me, and something in his expression was patient and faintly pointed all at once.

I caught myself. “Phineas.”

The name felt strange in my mouth. Not unpleasant. Just unfamiliar.

“Can we go see Martha after this?” I asked. “I need to talk to her.”

He nodded. “After you eat.”

We sat in silence while I worked through the food – a chicken sandwich and a cup of soup, nothing

complicated. Phineas had his phone out, typing something to Benny. I watched him from the corner of my

eye and didn’t ask. A few minutes later, I understood: he’d arranged for Martha to be brought somewhere

nearby so I wouldn’t have to travel far.

He’d thought of that without me asking.

I looked back down at my soup and didn’t say anything.

The boutique hotel was ten minutes from the hospital. Phineas pushed open the door to the private suite,

and I walked in ahead of him.

Martha was in a chair in the center of the room, wrists bound behind her. The moment she saw me, she

lurched forward against the restraints, her face crumpling.

“Aurora – Aurora, I swear I didn’t plan any of it, I didn’t know he was going to-”

“I know,” I said.

She kept talking. Her voice climbed higher, words tumbling over each other – she’d been scared, she hadn’t known what Neil would do, she was sorry, she was so sorry, please just let her go-

I turned to Phineas. “Can you give me thirty minutes alone with her?”

He didn’t ask why. He leaned down slightly, letting his gaze rest on Martha for one cold, measured second. Whatever she saw in his face made her go quiet mid–sentence. Then he straightened, walked out, and

pulled the door shut behind him.

I turned back to Martha.

I crossed the room slowly. She watched me with red–rimmed eyes, and I could see the moment she realized I wasn’t going to hug her or cry or tell her it was okay.

“Neil’s gone,” I said. “He ran. It’s just you.”

“Aurora-”

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“I could call the police right now.”

She let out a sound that was half sob, half scream. “I was forced into it – he threatened Leo, he said if I didn’t help him find you he’d go after Leo, I didn’t have a choice-”

I stopped her.

I stood there and let her voice wash over me, and I felt very, very clear.

She hadn’t called the police when Neil first contacted her. She hadn’t warned me. She hadn’t protected me – not because she was too frightened to act, but because, somewhere in the calculation she’d made, I had never been the thing worth protecting. I had always been the liability. The inconvenience. The daughter who looked too much like the father she hated.

She had helped him because she’d wanted something out of it too.

I breathed in slowly, and I pressed all of that down.

“You have two options,” I said.

Martha stared at me.

“Option one: I call the police now. You get arrested. You have a criminal record.” I kept my voice level. “That record won’t ruin my life. But it will follow Leo. When he’s ready to start his career, when he wants to enter public service or any field that runs background checks, it’ll be there. I don’t want him walking into his future carrying that.”

She opened her mouth. I kept going.

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