Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 202

Chapter 167: A Resemblance

(Author’s POV)

Tiffany looked at him.

Claire

“You leave with what you came with.” His voice was low and clipped. “Which is nothing. Seventeen years

and all you managed was one kid. This marriage should’ve been over a long time ago.”

She didn’t flinch. She just stood there, looking at him, and her face was very still.

She thought about the day she’d married him. Her family had been nearly bankrupt. She’d brought what

was left of their assets into the Rathbone household like a dowry, and she’d told herself it was a

partnership. She’d told herself she was building something.

Seventeen years.

She’d thought she was a wife. She was a transaction that had already been spent.

“Fine,” she said. “I agree to the divorce. I don’t want any of the assets. I won’t fight for custody.”

Zachary looked at her. She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t shaking. She was just standing there, agreeing to

everything, and something about that irritated him in a way he couldn’t name.

He turned and walked to the car without another word.

Marcus followed. Richard had already left.

Tiffany stood alone on the plaza for a moment. Then she picked up her bag and walked in the opposite

direction.

At the Langford estate, Joyce Langford sat in the high–backed armchair by the window, her iPad propped against the armrest. She read through the coverage slowly, then set the tablet down and leaned back.

“She’s more capable than I gave her credit for,” she said.

Her son Jonathan sat across from her, coffee cup in hand.

Joyce’s eyes went soft. “That girl reminds me so much of Clarissa. That same refusal to bend. The harder you push, the harder she pushes back.” Her voice dropped. “That’s exactly how your sister was.”

Jonathan was quiet for a moment. He glanced at the screen.

“There is a resemblance,” he said finally. “Especially that stubborn streak.”

Joyce didn’t answer. She was somewhere else for a moment, looking at something only she could see.

Jonathan set his cup down gently. “Aurora isn’t Clarissa, though. And Clarissa’s daughter is Sienna. We

should have her over for dinner sometime. It’s been a while.”

In the corner of the room, Chloe Langford said nothing. She’d been half–listening from the armchair she’d claimed near the bookshelf, and at the mention of Sienna, her expression shifted into something flat and

unimpressed.

A Mereriblance

Clem

She’d never had much patience for Sienna. Not since they were children. There was always something performative about her – the trembling lip, the wounded eyes, the way she arranged herself into the most pitiable version of every situation.

Chloe stood up, grabbed her bag off the side table, and leaned over to kiss her grandmother’s cheek.

“I’m heading out, Gran.”

Joyce patted her hand. “Don’t be back too late.”

“I won’t.” She straightened up. “I just found out Tiffany’s been dealing with something huge and I had no

idea I’m not going to just sit here.”

She walked out before anyone could ask where she was going.

Chloe had known Tiffany since they were seven years old.

She’d watched her friend grow up, fall in love with Zachary before either of them knew what love actually

cost, and walk into a marriage at twenty–two with her whole family behind her and stars in her eyes. Chloe

had been the one standing at the edge of it all, arms crossed, saying they were too young, that life hadn’t even started yet. Tiffany hadn’t listened. She’d wanted Chloe to be happy for her, and Chloe had tried,

because that was what you did for your best friend.

Then Tiffany’s family business collapsed three years ago, and Zachary began to change. Not all at once. Just gradually, the way a house settles – small shifts, then bigger ones, until the whole structure was off.

Chloe hadn’t been surprised when it ended. She’d just hoped it wouldn’t end like this.

She found Tiffany in a small park two blocks from the research building, sitting alone on a bench with her

bag at her feet and her eyes fixed on nothing.

Chloe sat down beside her.

“Are you all right?”

Tiffany shook her head.

Chloe looked at her for a moment. Then she said it anyway.

“That was reckless, Tiff. Showing up at someone’s office, making a scene – that’s not you. That has never been you.”

Tiffany didn’t answer right away. A pigeon landed near her feet and she watched it without really seeing it.

“I kept telling myself everything was fine,” she said finally. “For months. Maybe longer. I was so terrified of the moment it actually ended that I convinced myself if I could just find something to blame – someone to blame – I could hold it together a little longer.”

She stopped.

“I turned myself into exactly the kind of woman I always hated.”

Chloe studied her. There was something underneath the exhaustion, something that didn’t quite fit.

“Whose idea was it?” she asked. “Going to that office. Whose idea was it really?”

Tiffany’s eyes slid sideways.

“Mine,” she said.

“No.” Chloe kept her voice even. “A plan that badly thought–out didn’t come from you. Someone put you up

to it. Who was it?”

Silerice.

Theri, quietly: “Sienna.”

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