Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 209

Chapter 174: Roses At Dusk

(Author’s POV)

The butler knocked twice before entering. He leaned down and spoke quietly near William’s ear.

William’s expression did not change. He set down his glass and stood.

Claim

The painting was called *Roses at Dusk*. It had no particular market value. It had been painted by a close

friend of William’s who had died fifteen years ago – a man he had known since university, whose work he

had kept not because it was worth anything but because it was irreplaceable.

He stood in the hallway and looked at the handprint.

Rosalind had already gone. By the time William reached the hallway, she was back in the sitting room,

pressed against Victoria’s side, crying.

“She yelled at me,” she sobbed, pointing vaguely toward the door. “The housekeeper yelled at me and I didn’t do anything.”

Eleanor sat across the room and watched.

She didn’t say a word. She just watched the child cry, watched Victoria wrap an arm around her and shush

her, and understood something she had suspected for a long time.

She understood now why Aurora had let go of custody.

Jasper followed William into the hallway and saw the painting.

He went still.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll find a professional conservator. The best one in the city. We can have it restored, I’ll

make sure of it personally-”

William wasn’t looking at him. He was looking at the canvas.

He stood there for a moment without speaking. Then he turned to the butler.

“Take it down,” he said quietly. “Put it in my study.”

The butler nodded.

William looked at Jasper. “I’m tired tonight. We’ll leave the rest for another time.”

That was all he said.

Jasper heard it clearly. He nodded, said good night, and went to collect his family.

The goodbyes were brief. Rosalind had stopped crying. Sienna said the right things. Victoria thanked Eleanor for the evening. William stood at the door and watched them go.

When the cars had pulled out of the drive and the gate had closed, William walked back into the sitting

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<Chapter 174 Roses At Dusk

room.

He picked up the crystal whiskey glass from the side table and threw it against the floor.

It shattered. The sound rang through the room and then died.

Eleanor did not flinch. She did not look up from her hands.

Claim

“I told you,” she said. “The moment you brought that branch back into this house, it was only a matter of

time.”

William stood in the middle of the broken glass and said nothing.

The drive back from the estate was quiet.

Sienna sat in the front passenger seat and stared out the window. She hadn’t said more than a handful of

words since they left. Jasper kept his eyes on the road, jaw set, and didn’t try to fill the silence.

In the back, Rosalind sat pressed against Victoria’s side, still sniffling from earlier.

Jasper’s eyes moved to the rearview mirror.

“Rosalind.”

She looked up.

“Were you told last night not to touch anything in that house?”

“No,” she said immediately.

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying.” Her chin came up. “Nobody told me that.”

“You had frosting on your hands from dessert.” His voice was flat. “You put your hand on a painting in the hallway. You knew exactly what you were doing.”

Rosalind crossed her arms. “It’s just a painting. If it’s dirty, you pay for a new one. You have plenty of

money. You can just pay the old man back.”

The car went very quiet.

Jasper’s hands tightened on the wheel.

“That painting,” he said, his voice low and controlled, “was made by a man who died fifteen years ago. He and my father were friends since university. There is no new one. There will never be a new one. You can’t buy that back with money.”

Rosalind stared at him. She looked genuinely confused, as though the concept hadn’t occurred to her.

Then her face crumpled and she burst into tears, throwing herself against Victoria’s chest.

“Daddy’s yelling at me,” she sobbed. “I didn’t do anything wrong, Grandma. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

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Claim

Victoria wrapped her arms around her granddaughter and rubbed her back. “All right, all right. We were guests today, sweetheart. The rules are a little different at other people’s homes.”

Rosalind pulled back and looked up at her with wet eyes. “But you never stopped me before. When I touched things at home, you never said anything. Why is it suddenly wrong now?”

Victoria opened her mouth. Closed it again.

She had no answer. There wasn’t one.

Jasper looked at them both in the mirror and felt a dull, throbbing ache start behind his eyes.

He remembered Aurora crouching down to Rosalind’s level in the living room, patient and steady,

explaining in a quiet voice what was acceptable and what wasn’t. He remembered Victoria interrupting. He

remembered himself saying nothing.

He had let it happen. Over and over, he had let it happen.

“Starting today,” he said, “you follow the rules Aurora set for you. All of them. If you don’t, no screen time.

No exceptions. I’m not negotiating on this.”

Rosalind let out a fresh wail.

Victoria looked like she wanted to argue. She didn’t.

In the front seat, Sienna turned her face slightly toward the window. Her expression didn’t change, but her

shoulders had gone rigid.

She knew what it meant when Jasper brought up Aurora’s name like that. She had learned to recognize it –

that particular flatness in his voice, the way he reached back toward something he couldn’t let go of.

She said nothing. She kept looking out the window.

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