Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 180

Chapter 145: The Punch

(Aurora’s POV)

He’d been so cold before the wedding. Controlled, distant, transactional. I’d thought I understood what this arrangement would look like – a contract, a convenience, two people keeping a respectful distance. And now he was making breakfast and kissing me in the entryway like he’d been planning it all along.

The more deliberate he was about it, the more I suspected he was working toward something I couldn’t see yet.

The elevator reached the ground floor. The doors opened.

And then, despite everything – despite the burning in my cheeks and the completely unreasonable flutter in my chest – I laughed. Just once, quietly, to myself.

I pressed my hand over my mouth and walked out into the morning.

(Author’s POV)

At school, Leo was called into Mr. Zimmer’s office before second period.

Mr. Zimmer gestured to the chair across from his desk and waited for Leo to sit before he spoke. “Your test scores this past month – I’ve been looking at them. They’re down. Significantly.”

Leo looked at the floor. “I haven’t been feeling great.”

“Physically?”

“Yeah.”

Mr. Zimmer studied him for a moment. “You’ve been top of your class since you enrolled here. A dip like this isn’t nothing.” He leaned forward slightly. “Don’t push yourself too hard. If you’re not well, the nurse’s office is there for a reason.”

“I know.” Leo nodded. “Thanks, Mr. Zimmer.”

He walked out.

It wasn’t his health. It had nothing to do with his health. It was Aurora and their mother – the whole impossible, tangled mess of it. Martha’s choices, Aurora’s silence about it, the way Aurora had handled everything while Leo hadn’t known what to do except feel sick and angry and completely useless.

He hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything in weeks. Every time he opened a textbook, the same thoughts crowded in.

He shoved them down and walked toward his classroom.

He heard Quentin before he reached the door.

“-I’m just saying, didn’t Leo go running to someone for help because his sister got harassed?”

* Chapter 145 The Punch

Sam’s voice, lower, uneasy: “Keep it down, man. That’s his personal business.”

“I’m just asking.” Quentin’s tone was lazy, amused. “I mean, if she got that kind of attention, she was probably asking for it. What was she wearing?”

Leo stopped outside the door.

His face went hot. His hand, hanging at his side, closed slowly into a fist.

He walked in.

Clar

The room was half–full. A few people looked up. Quentin was leaning back in his chair, one arm slung over the back, grinning at Sam. He didn’t notice Leo until Leo was standing right next to him.

Leo’s voice came out very quiet. “Say that again.”

Quentin looked up. For a half–second, something shifted in his expression. Then he leaned back further, the smirk returning. “Relax. I’m just saying your sister must be pretty hot if she’s getting that much attention. Send a photo, let us judge for ourselves-”

The punch landed before Leo fully decided to throw it.

Quentin’s head snapped sideways. He went off the chair and hit the floor, and then he was up again, hand pressed to his cheek, face red, shouting. “What is wrong with you? You’re insane-”

“Say one more word about her.” Leo’s voice shook. “Go ahead.”

Quentin’s eyes went ugly. “She’s damaged goods – everyone knows it. No one’s going to want her after this. She’s done.”

Leo grabbed him by the collar.

The room erupted. Chairs scraped. Someone shouted. Quentin swung back, and then they were both moving, crashing into a desk, and the classroom dissolved into chaos.

Sam stood frozen for one second, then bolted for the door, sprinting down the hall, bursting through Mr. Zimmer’s office door with his hands on his knees and his breath gone.

“Mr. Zimmer – it’s Leo and Quentin – they’re fighting, it’s bad-”

(Aurora’s POV)

I was halfway through reviewing a lab report when my phone buzzed on the desk.

I almost let it go to voicemail. Then I saw the number – an unfamiliar local line – and picked up.

“Is this Aurora? Leo Caldwell’s sister?” A man’s voice. Measured, professional.

“Yes. Who is this?”

“This is Mr. Zimmer, from Leo’s school. I’m calling because Leo was involved in a physical altercation with another student today. We’d like you to come in as soon as possible.”

Chapter 34 The Pumi b

My stomach dropped. “Is he hurt?”

“He has some minor injuries. Nothing serious. But the situation requires a guardian present.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Claim

I hung up, grabbed my bag, and was out the door before I’d fully processed what he’d said. I pulled up the Uber app in the elevator and had a car confirmed by the time I hit the sidewalk.

Leo. A fight. The words didn’t fit together. Leo was quiet, careful, the kind of kid who walked around arguments rather than through them. He’d been sick half his childhood and had spent most of his teenage years with his nose in textbooks. He didn’t fight.

Something had to have happened. Something bad enough to make him throw a punch.

The car ride felt longer than it was.

(Author’s POV)

Mr. Zimmer’s office had the particular tension of a room where everyone was waiting for something to explode.

Mr. Zimmer sat behind his desk and looked at the two boys in front of him. Leo sat with his head down, jaw tight, a cut along his cheekbone that had already started to bruise. Quentin sat across from him with a swollen cheek and an expression of practiced outrage, the kind that came naturally to someone who’d been getting away with things his whole life.

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