Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 190

Chapter 155: Toast and Cocoa

(Aurora’s POV)

I told her about the agreement Phineas and I had signed. That it was structured, clear, and gave me a way out if anything went wrong.

Olivia listened to all of it without interrupting, which was unusual for her. When I finished, she was quiet for a moment.

Then she said, “Your mother.” Her voice had gone flat. “She’s been taking everything out on you for years just because she hated your father. You were a kid. And then Jasper-” She stopped. Shook her head. “I thought he was going to be the good thing that finally happened to you. I genuinely thought that.”

“So did I.”

“He wasn’t.”

“No.”

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She reached across and squeezed my hand once, hard, then let go. She picked up her wine glass again, remembered it was still empty, and flagged down the server to fill it.

When the server left, she leaned forward on her elbows and looked at me with the particular focus she reserved for things she considered genuinely important.

“Okay,” she said. “I need to ask you something. And I need you to answer honestly.”

“Go ahead.”

She lowered her voice to barely above a whisper, her eyes bright with the specific energy of someone who

has been sitting on a question for the last twenty minutes and can no longer contain it.

“So – those rumors about Phineas.” She raised her eyebrows. “Is he actually… not up to par?”

(Author’s POV)

Aurora didn’t answer the question.

Partly because the server had already come back twice in the last ten minutes, and she was reasonably

certain that at least one of them had caught enough of Olivia’s commentary to make tomorrow morning

interesting for someone in the kitchen. But mostly because she didn’t have an answer. She knew Phineas

was an exceptionally good kisser. Beyond that, the terms of their arrangement hadn’t required her to find out anything else.

“I’m keeping his name out of the gossip,” Aurora said. “He’s given me his protection. The least I can do is not speculate about him over dinner.”

Olivia looked at her for a long moment, then leaned back and seemed to recalibrate.

“Okay,” she said slowly. “Okay, I can work with this.” She tapped one finger against the table. “He’s never

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had a scandal. Not one. No tabloid photos, no rumors about affairs, no trail of women with NDAs. Whatever else he is, he’s clean.” She nodded, convincing herself. “And compared to Jasper and Sienna-” She stopped. Her expression darkened briefly, then cleared. “Honestly? Even if the rumors were true, he’d still be a better option than any man who leaves a trail of broken hearts and legal agreements behind him.”

“He’s not cold,” Aurora said, before she’d fully decided to say it. “Not the way people think. He’s-” She paused. “He pays attention.”

Olivia stared at her.

“You’re defending him.”

“I’m correcting a misconception.”

“Aurora.” Olivia pointed at her with a bread stick. “You have that look.”

“I don’t have any look.”

“You have the look of a woman who has been very pleasantly surprised and is now trying to be reasonable about it.” Olivia set the bread stick down. “I’m watching it happen in real time and it’s fascinating.”

“You’re reading into nothing.”

“I’m reading into everything, and I’m usually right.” Olivia refilled her own wine glass. Then she went still. Her eyes went slightly wide. “Wait.”

“What?”

“Phineas is Jasper’s uncle.”

“Yes.”

“Which means-” Olivia set the bottle down very carefully. “You are now Jasper’s aunt. Technically. By marriage.” She looked at Aurora with an expression of pure, undisguised delight. “Aurora. You outrank him.

He has to call you Aunt Aurora.”

“He absolutely does not have to-”

“When are you going public?” Olivia leaned forward, both elbows on the table. “Tell me it’s at the wedding.

Tell me Jasper gets an invitation and walks in and realizes what he’s looking at. I need this. I have needed

something like this for three years.”

Aurora smiled despite herself. “We haven’t set a date yet. When the time comes, it’ll be public enough.”

“The wedding is going to be the most satisfying event of this decade.” Olivia sat back, looking genuinely

content. “Though I’m not sure Jasper deserves an invitation.”

“Let’s get through dinner first.”

Olivia raised her glass. “To your husband,” she said, with only a small amount of irony. “Whoever he

actually turns out to be.”

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Aurora lifted her sparkling water and touched it to the rim of Olivia’s glass.

When Aurora got home that night, the house was quiet. She’d been back for less than twenty minutes when she heard the front door.

Phineas came in, jacket over his arm, and she caught the faint smell of whiskey from across the room.

“Business dinner,” he said, before she could ask. “I had a few drinks.” He set his jacket over the back of a chair. “I’ll go shower. I know you don’t like the smell.”

Aurora stood there for a second after he’d disappeared down the hallway.

She tried to remember the last time someone had noticed something like that about her without being told. With Jasper, coming home after drinks had always been a production – the weight of the day, the difficulty of the deal, the stress he was carrying, all of it landing on her like something she was supposed to absorb. He’d never once thought about whether the smell bothered her.

She went to the kitchen.

She toasted two slices of bread, sliced some cheddar and laid it alongside, then made a mug of hot cocoa and arranged everything on a small tray. It wasn’t much. It was just something to come back to.

She set it on the nightstand on his side of the bed and went to sit by the window.

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