Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 205

Chapter 170: Stop The Car

(Aurora’s POV)

I was quiet for a moment. “That’s going to be a lot for one week.”

“He’ll manage.” Phineas moved toward me. “The whole point is to let him sit with a little well–earned discomfort. He’s spent sixty years believing he can read a man’s character from across the room.” He

reached out and drew me closer. “He’s about to find out what that’s actually worth.”

I didn’t laugh, but something softened in my face.

“What if he doesn’t come around?”

Phineas pressed a kiss to my forehead. “He will. He always does, with people worth keeping.”

I didn’t answer. But I didn’t pull away either.

I had spent the better part of a year being told, in dozens of small ways, that I was someone to be tolerated rather than chosen. The Wynne household had perfected the art of it. A look over the rim of a teacup. A pause that lasted two beats too long. The way Victoria would fold her hands and say *of course,

dear* in a tone that meant the opposite.

Phineas had never spoken to me in that voice.

I let myself stand there a moment longer, his hand at the small of my back, and tried to take that fact in

without picking it apart.

(Author’s POV)

Across town, Jasper came home walking on air.

He found his mother in the sitting room and told her immediately. William had agreed. The formal

welcome dinner was set for the day after tomorrow.

Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.

She had carried this quietly for years – the wish that her son would be recognized, properly, as part of the

family he had always belonged to. And now, finally, it was happening.

“I want to go to the courthouse with Sienna right after,” Jasper said. “Make it official.”

“Wait until after the dinner,” Victoria said. “Do it properly. Don’t rush it.”

He agreed, but he couldn’t wait to tell Sienna. He picked up his phone before he’d even sat down.

Sienna had been in a low mood for days. The damage to the Rathbone family’s business hadn’t fully

settled, and Tiffany’s resentment sat like a splinter she couldn’t reach. She had been moving through the week at half–speed, going through the motions.

Then Jasper called.

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Chapter 170 Stop The Car

She listened, and felt something loosen in her chest. She had made the right choice. All of it – every decision, every calculation – had led here.

Claim

They agreed without much discussion. The morning after the welcome dinner, they would go together and file for a marriage license.

That evening, Phineas took Aurora out for dinner.

They were in the car afterward, moving along the road that curved beside the lake, when Aurora suddenly

sat forward.

“Stop the car.”

Phineas looked at her. Then he looked toward the water.

A woman was sitting on the railing of the lakeside barrier, her back to the road, her body completely still.

Not the stillness of someone resting. Something else.

Phineas recognized the silhouette. His brow drew together slightly, but he pulled over without a word.

Aurbra was already reaching for the door.

Tiffany had gone home that afternoon and walked into the middle of a conversation she wasn’t supposed to hear. Quentin had been talking to Zachary in the hallway – his voice flat, impatient – telling his father to hurry up and get the divorce sorted out, as though it were a minor administrative inconvenience. A form to

file. A box to check.

That was the moment the last thing holding her together gave way.

If even her own child didn’t need her, she couldn’t find a single reason to stay. She had driven to the lake without deciding to. She had sat on the railing without deciding to. She looked down at the dark water and

her mind went completely empty.

Then she heard footsteps on the pavement behind her.

She turned, and when she saw who it was, something broke open inside her chest.

“Get away from me,” she said. Her voice came out raw. “You have no right to be here. Go away.”

Aurora stopped a few feet back. She didn’t move any closer and she didn’t retreat.

“You look like a fool right now,” she said.

Tiffany stared at her.

“Your son has been spoiled rotten,” Aurora said. “Your husband is, at his core, a bad man. You took your

anger out on someone who had nothing to do with any of it, and now you’re about to pay for both of them with your life.” Her voice was flat. Not cruel. Just direct. “What does that accomplish?”

Tiffany didn’t answer.

“Why would you spend everything you have left on people who were never worth it?”

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Chapter 170 Stop The Car

Claim

The water moved below. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

“I went through a divorce,” Aurora said. “The day it ended, I was certain the world was over. I was

absolutely sure there was nothing left.” She paused. “I was wrong. It wasn’t the end of the world. It was

just a door closing. And outside that door, there was everything else.”

She stopped there.

Then she turned and walked back toward the car. She didn’t look back. She kept her steps slow and her

ears open.

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