Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 216

Chapter 181 The Silhouette

Clam

Chapter 181: The Silhouette

(Aurora’s POV)

I spoke before she could. “I’m the one who messaged you last night. About the gown in your post.”

A beat. Then her shoulders dropped slightly. “That was you.”

“That was me.”

We sat down on the small sofa near the window. Tiffany set two glasses of water on the table and folded

her hands in her lap.

“I should tell you upfront,” she said, “this is my first piece since I relaunched. It’s entirely hand–sewn. My

timeline is slower than a proper atelier. You’d be better off going to someone with a full team.”

“Can I see it?”

She looked at me for a moment, then stood and went into the back room.

When she came out, she was carrying the gown over both arms, the way you carry something you don’t

want to crease.

She hung it on the rack near the window and stepped back.

The fabric was cream satin, not white – warmer, softer. The skirt was constructed in layers, each one folded and gathered in a way that suggested rose petals stacked over each other, dense at the hip and opening as they fell. The bodice was built up in organza – multiple layers of it, shaped and pinned into something that looked like a flower crown worn low across the chest, three–dimensional and light at the

same time.

I stood up and walked toward it.

“I want this one,” I said.

Tiffany blinked. “I just told you the timeline is-”

“And I want three more. Different styles.” I turned around. “Can you do four gowns in a month?”

She opened her mouth. Closed it. “If I work nights, yes. But-” She stopped. “Does it bother you? That I’m the one making them?”

I didn’t pretend not to understand the question. “Yes,” I said. “Honestly, yes. But that’s separate from whether you can design. I’m paying for the work, not the history.”

Phineas spoke from behind me. He’d been standing near the door the whole time, quiet, watching.

“We’ll pay the rush fee,” he said. “I want to see preliminary sketches for the other three by next week. Final fittings in three weeks.”

Tiffany looked at him. Something moved across her face not quite embarrassment, but close to it. The

Chapter 181 The Silhouette

particular expression of someone recalibrating a very wrong assumption they’d held for a long time.

I paid the deposit in cash. Tiffany wrote out a receipt with careful, precise handwriting.

Claim

Outside, the afternoon was cool. Phineas fell into step beside me, and we walked half a block before he

said, “You really liked it.”

“The skirt,” I said. “The way the layers are built. I’ve never seen anything constructed quite like that.”

“Mm.” He glanced at me sideways. “Not because of any other reason.”

“What other reason would there be?”

He didn’t answer, but the corner of his mouth moved.

I let it go.

(Author’s POV)

Sienna pulled Jasper out of the car before he’d even fully turned off the engine.

“Come on,” she said. “He’ll be happy. I know he will.”

She was wrong.

Richard Rathbone stood in the doorway of his study and listened to his daughter announce her marriage with the expression of a man who had just been handed an invoice he hadn’t agreed to sign.

“You didn’t say a word to me,” he said. “Not one word.”

“Dad-”

“You walked into a government office and signed papers without telling your family.” His voice was controlled. Flat. “Do you understand how that looks?”

Sienna’s chin lifted. “We’re in love. I didn’t think it needed a committee vote.”

“It needed basic courtesy.” He turned to Jasper, gave him a brief, cool nod, and said nothing else of welcome. “We’ll have dinner. The two families. That’s all.”

He didn’t invite them to stay. He didn’t offer congratulations. He walked back to his desk and sat down.

Sienna stood in the hallway for a moment, jaw tight, then turned and walked out.

Jasper told Victoria that evening. He kept it brief – the date, the location, the dinner Richard had proposed.

Victoria was sitting in the armchair by the window with a book open in her lap. She looked up when he

finished.

“All right,” she said. “I’ll be there.”

Her voice was perfectly pleasant. Her expression gave nothing away.

Jasper looked at her for a moment, then nodded and left.

Chapter 181 The Silhouette

Victoria turned a page she hadn’t read.

The dinner was held four days later at a private room in a restaurant that was neutral territory – neither

family’s usual ground. Richard arrived with Stefan and Sebastian. Victoria came with Jasper.

Claim

The pleasantries were brief. Richard passed Jasper an envelope across the table – a check, substantial,

the kind of gesture that fulfilled obligation without warmth.

Then it was Victoria’s turn.

She looked at Sienna with a smile that reached her eyes in the way practiced smiles do.

“When Sienna married Adam,” she said, conversationally, “I gave a gift then, of course.” She paused. “It

would feel redundant to do it twice for the same bride.”

The table went very quiet.

Stefan’s jaw tightened. Sebastian set down his fork. Jasper said, low and sharp, “Mother.”

Victoria laughed – a light, easy sound. “I’m joking. Goodness.” She reached into her handbag and produced

an envelope, which she held out to Sienna. “Congratulations, my dear.”

Sienna took it. Her smile didn’t move.

Comments