Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 186

Chapter 151: Brother–in–Law

(Author’s POV)

He found a cloth under the sink and started wiping down the dining table while Aurora put water on to boil. The kitchen smelled like garlic within minutes.

The doorbell rang.

Leo dropped the cloth over the back of a chair and went to answer it, assuming it was a delivery.

He opened the door.

The man standing in the hallway was tall, broad–shouldered, and wearing a dark coat. Leo recognized him

immediately – he’d seen him once, briefly, at the hospital several weeks ago. He’d thought at the time that

the man was Aurora’s boss.

He still thought that.

“Uh.” Leo stared at him. “It’s kind of late.”

“I know.” The man’s voice was calm. “Aurora wasn’t answering her phone. I wanted to make sure she was

all right.”

“She’s fine. She’s in the kitchen.”

“Good.” The man stepped inside.

Leo blinked. He hadn’t actually said come in. But the man moved through the doorway with the ease of someone who had never once in his life waited to be invited somewhere, and Leo found himself stepping back automatically.

“She’s – yeah, the kitchen’s that way,” Leo said, pointing unnecessarily.

“I know where it is,” the man said.

Leo stared at his back. *He knows where it is.*

In the kitchen, Aurora had just set down her wooden spoon to check on the pasta. She heard footsteps

and turned around, expecting Leo.

Phineas was standing in the kitchen doorway.

She went very still.

“Rory.” His voice was even, but there was something underneath it. “You went to pick up your brother and

didn’t tell me. I’ve been calling for two hours.”

The name hit Leo like a bucket of cold water. He’d followed Phineas to the kitchen doorway and was now standing just behind him, staring at the back of the man’s head with an expression of complete

bewilderment.

Chary

*Rory*

Nobody called Aurora that. Nobody had ever called Aurora that.

Phineas turned slightly and looked at Leo, then back at Aurora. He settled his hand over her shoulder, easy and unhurried, and raised one eyebrow.

“Did you not tell your brother we got married?”

The silence lasted approximately three full seconds.

“I haven’t had a chance,” Aurora said. Her voice was remarkably steady.

Leo’s gaze went from Phineas to Aurora and back again. “Aurora.” His voice came out flat. “Did someone

force you into this?”

Phineas looked at him with mild interest. “Do I look like that kind of person?”

“I don’t know what kind of person you are,” Leo said. “I met you once. For about four minutes.”

“Fair point.”

“Leo.” Aurora stepped slightly forward. “He didn’t force me. We’re together because we chose to be. He

treats me well.”

Leo’s eyes narrowed. “A month ago he was your boss”

“People’s circumstances change.”

“That’s not a normal amount of change for one month, Aurora.”

“It was fast,” she admitted. “I know how it looks. But I’m fine. I’m genuinely fine.”

Leo stared at her, reading her face the way he’d always been able to, looking for the thing she wasn’t

saying. Aurora kept her expression steady and tried to look like a woman who had married her employer of her own completely free will and was very happy about it.

She wasn’t sure how convincing she was.

Phineas, apparently unbothered by the interrogation, glanced at Leo with something approaching amusement. “You can call me brother–in–law, by the way.”

Leo’s expression made it very clear what he thought of that suggestion.

“The water’s boiling,” Aurora said, and retreated into the kitchen.

The pasta took twelve minutes. Aurora made it with garlic, olive oil, and a handful of fresh basil she’d bought at the store, and she set three plates on the table without asking whether Phineas was staying

because she already knew the answer.

They sat down.

Leo pushed his pasta around his plate. He wasn’t sulking exactly – he was thinking, which on his face

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looked similar.

Phineas ate without apparent concern for the tension. After a moment, he looked at Aurora.

“Why weren’t you picking up?” he asked, quieter now.

“I was at the school. It didn’t feel right to take a call.”

He glanced at Leo’s face – the bruising along his jaw, the cut near his eyebrow, still visible beneath the

bandage. “He was in a fight.”

It wasn’t a question.

Leo said nothing. He’d clearly decided that silence was the safest strategy.

Aurora set down her fork. “There’s a student in his class. Quentin. He made some comments in front of

the whole class – about me, about our family. Leo responded.” She kept her voice level. “Quentin’s parents

showed up at the school. They weren’t interested in a reasonable conversation.”

Phineas went still.

It was a different kind of stillness than his usual composure. Something in his face cooled by several

degrees.

“Quentin,” he repeated.

“Quentin Rathbone,” Aurora said.

The name settled over the table. Phineas set down his fork very deliberately.

“I’ll look into it,” he said. “I want to know exactly what he thought he could get away with.”

Leo had been staring at his plate. Now he looked up slowly.

He was quiet for a moment. He seemed to be weighing something. Then, with the careful deliberateness

of someone making a decision they weren’t entirely comfortable with, he said:

“Thank you.” A pause. “Brother–in–law.”

Aurora looked up.

Phineas looked at Leo.

Then, unhurriedly, he smiled. “Don’t mention it.”

He picked up his fork again. Then he added, in exactly the same tone:

“That was pretty good to hear, actually. Say it again.”

Aurora stared at the ceiling.

Leo stared at him in silence.

(Aurora’s POV)

3/4

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