Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 224

Chapter 189: A Mother’s Nightmare

(Author’s POV)

“Mom.” He knocked and pushed the door open. “Eat something. You need to keep your strength up.”

She turned over slowly. Her eyes were swollen, the redness around them unmistakable even in the dim

light.

“You cooked.” Her voice came out rough.

“Chicken and rice soup. It’s hot.” He set the tray on the nightstand. “You should eat it before it gets cold.”

She looked at him – really looked at him – and her face crumpled. She pressed her lips together hard,

fighting it.

“I’ll eat it in a bit,” she managed. “Thank you.”

“Mom.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “What’s going on? And don’t say it’s a cold, because your eyes don’t

look like that from a cold.”

“It’s nothing.” She reached out and patted his hand once, quickly, like she couldn’t bear the contact for

long. “I’m just being emotional. You know how I get sometimes. Go eat your dinner.”

He studied her face for another moment. Then he stood up. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”

He went back to the kitchen, ate his dinner alone, and cleaned up. By eight o’clock the apartment was

quiet. He lay in bed with the ceiling above him and his mind running.

He couldn’t figure it out. Martha had her low days – he knew that. But this felt different. This felt like something had broken.

He fell asleep eventually, but it took a long time.

In her room, Martha ate the soup in small, slow spoonfuls. It was good. He’d made it well, better than she

would have expected. She cried silently into the bowl and hated herself for it.

She finished it, set the tray aside, and lay down.

Sleep pulled her under fast.

The dream started gently, the way the worst ones always do.

She was young. Hugely pregnant, sitting in a hospital waiting room while her husband filled out paperwork She remembered the feeling that low, constant guilt she hadn’t been able to name at the time. Like a premonition.

The baby came and she was beautiful. Her husband held her and laughed, the first time Martha had seen him laugh in months.

Then the bills started. Then the job ended. Then the apartment got smaller and the arguments got louder

Chapter 189 A Mother’s Nightmare

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and Martha lay awake at night staring at the water stain on the ceiling and thinking about the woman in the next recovery room. The Rathbone woman. The one with the silk robe and the private nurse and the

husband who arrived with flowers.

She told herself she was doing it for her daughter.

The hospital’s camera system was being upgraded. There was a window of four hours. She’d worked in enough facilities to know how to move without being seen.

She did it quickly. She told herself it wasn’t permanent. She told herself she could undo it.

She never undid it.

Instead, she went back. She knocked on the Rathbone woman’s door two weeks later, explained that she

was a trained nurse, that her husband had just lost his job, that she was desperate. The woman – kind,

soft–spoken, already visibly unwell – had hired her on the spot.

And Martha had watched her daughter grow up in that house. Watched her eat at that table, wear those

clothes, sleep in that room. Watched her become someone else’s child in every way that counted.

She’d told herself it was the best thing for Aurora. She’d told herself that so many times it had almost

become true.

The woman in the dream reached out and wrapped both hands around her throat.

Her face was pale. Her eyes were open.

*Why did you take her?*

Martha screamed.

She woke up gasping, drenched in sweat, the room dark around her. Her heart was slamming. She pressed

both hands over her mouth and sat there, shaking.

The door flew open,

“Mom.” Leo was already at her side, hand on her shoulder. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

“Nightmare.” She pulled in a breath. “Just a nightmare. I’m fine.”

“You screamed.” His voice was tight. “I’m taking you to the hospital.”

“No.” The word came out sharper than she intended. She saw him flinch. “No I’m sorry. I’m not going. I’m

fine, Leo. It was just a bad dream.”

He looked at her for a long moment, jaw set. Then he let out a slow breath and stepped back.

“Okay,” he said quietly. “Okay.”

He turned toward the door.

“Leo-”

Chapter 189 A Mother’s Nightmare

He paused.

She couldn’t finish it. She didn’t know what she’d meant to say.

He waited a second longer, then walked out and pulled the door shut behind him.

In the hallway, he stopped.

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Through the door, very faint, he heard her voice. Not calling his name. Just murmuring, over and over, like

she wasn’t even aware she was doing it.

*“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to happen like this. I’m sorry.”*

He stood there with his hand still on the doorframe. His brow pulled together.

She wasn’t talking to him.

He had no idea who she was talking to.

He went back to his room and sat on the edge of his bed in the dark, turning it over in his mind. The

swollen eyes. The untouched food. The nightmare. The apology she hadn’t meant for him to hear.

He didn’t have an answer. He just had the weight of the question sitting in his chest, heavy and

unresolved.

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