Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 208

Chapter 173: Not Even Your Sister

(Author’s POV)

Martha sat down across from him. She had not slept well in weeks. Every time a car slowed down outside,

she thought it was the police. Every time her phone rang with an unknown number, her stomach dropped.

Aurora had not done anything. Not yet. But the waiting was its own kind of punishment.

Leo put his phone down.

“I need to say something,” he said.

She looked at him.

“What happened before – I’m not going to report it. I’m not going to bring it up again.” His voice was steady,

older than it had any right to be. “But you have to stop. Whatever you’re planning, whatever you’re thinking

about doing to Aurora – it ends. Now.”

“Leo-”

“I mean it.” He met her eyes. “If you go after her again, I’ll drop out.”

Martha shot to her feet. “Don’t you dare-”

“You know I will.” He didn’t raise his voice. “My future is the only thing you actually care about. So I’m telling you – if you touch her, I walk. That’s the deal.”

Martha paced across the living room, her hands shaking. The nerve of him. The absolute nerve, sitting

there in her house, using her own sacrifices against her.

“Is she really that important to you?” she snapped. “Do you even know what she is? What if she’s not even really your sister?”

Leo went very still.

“What did you just say?”

Martha heard herself. She felt the blood drain from her face.

“I just mean-” She waved her hand. “She doesn’t acknowledge me as her mother. So she’s not really your

sister in any meaningful sense. That’s all I meant.”

Leo stared at her for a long moment.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said finally. “Aurora is my sister. She always will be. Don’t say things like that about her again.”

He stood up, picked up his plate from dinner, and walked into the kitchen.

Martha stood in the middle of the living room and listened to the water run.

< Chapter 173 Not Even Your Sister

Leo stood at the sink and let the hot water run over his hands.

He turned her words over and over. *What if she’s not even really your sister?* There had been something

in her face when she said it. Something she’d caught herself on.

He didn’t push it. He couldn’t push it. Not yet.

He wasn’t strong enough. That was the truth of it, the one he kept running into no matter which direction

he turned. He was stuck in the middle – couldn’t force Martha to stop, couldn’t protect Aurora, couldn’t do

anything except make threats he hoped she believed.

He scrubbed the plates clean and stacked them on the rack.

He needed to grow up faster. That was all there was to it.

Back in his room, he lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling for a long time before sleep came.

At the Everett family estate, the welcome dinner was already underway.

Phineas had declined to attend. He’d cited work obligations two days in advance, and no one had argued

with him.

Jasper arrived with Victoria, Sienna, and Rosalind at seven o’clock sharp. They were dressed well – all four of them, as though they had coordinated. William met them at the entrance and pressed a thick envelope into Jasper’s hands with a word of welcome.

Eleanor stood beside her husband and said the right things. She smiled at the right moments. But there was no warmth in any of it, and anyone paying attention could feel the difference.

Rosalind had been coached. Victoria had spent the car ride drilling her: address them as Mr. and Mrs. Everett, no nicknames, no family terms, stand up straight, don’t interrupt. Rosalind had listened with the focused expression of a child who understood that something important was at stake.

She performed perfectly through dinner. “Good evening, Mr. Everett. Good evening, Mrs. Everett.” She sat straight. She used her cutlery correctly. She answered questions when asked and didn’t speak otherwise.

But she leaned close to Victoria afterward and whispered, “She doesn’t like us.”

Victoria stiffened and pressed a hand over her granddaughter’s mouth. “Quiet,” she murmured.

The dinner itself was civil and hollow. The two branches of the Everett family had barely spoken in

decades. There was no real warmth to draw on, nothing to build from. The meal was more of a formal

appearance than anything resembling a reunion.

When the plates were cleared, William took Jasper to his private study. The women moved to the sitting

room.

Victoria made an effort. She asked Eleanor about her garden, about a mutual acquaintance, about a charity event she’d read about in the papers. Eleanor answered each question with perfect courtesy and gave nothing back. It was not rudeness. It was something more difficult to counter – a complete and

Chapter 173 Not Even Your Sister

gracious absence of interest.

Rosalind got bored.

Claim

She wandered the sitting room, then drifted into the hallway. She had eaten too much dessert – a small

fruit tart with glazed pastry cream – and her fingers were still sticky when she reached out to touch the

frame of a painting on the wall.

She didn’t even realize what she’d done until she stepped back and saw the print.

A clear handprint, pressed into the lower left corner of the canvas.

A maid passing through the hallway stopped dead. She looked at the painting, then at Rosalind, then turned and walked quickly toward the study.

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