Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 240

Chapter 205: The Fall

(Author’s POV)

The wedding photographer appeared, gesturing them into position for pre–ceremony portraits. They stood close. They tilted their heads toward each other. They smiled on cue.

The photographer frowned at his screen and said nothing. In fifteen years of shooting weddings, he’d never photographed a couple who looked quite so much like strangers on their wedding day.

By the time the guests were seated, the Everett family’s presence in the room was unmistakable. William sat with the rigid composure of a man who had attended too many events to be moved by any of them. Eleanor was beside him, poised and unhurried. Arthur occupied the seat on William’s other side, his expression carefully neutral.

But Phineas’s seat was empty.

Serena, standing with the bridesmaids near the altar, leaned slightly toward the woman beside her. “He’s probably not coming,” she murmured.

Jasper caught the words from the altar. His jaw tightened. He knew better than anyone what Phineas’s absence would signal – not just to the Rathbone family, but to everyone in the room who understood how

the Everett family actually worked.

Eleanor, however, looked entirely unbothered. “My son will be here,” she said, with the calm certainty of someone who had already spoken to him that morning.

A ripple of movement spread through the seated guests. Sienna had still not reappeared after slipping away to have her gown adjusted. The officiant stood at the altar with a fixed smile. Jasper checked his watch, then stopped himself.

When Sienna finally emerged, she was on her father’s arm, her cathedral–length gown trailing behind her. Rosalind walked ahead, scattering rose petals from a white basket, her small face scrunched in

concentration.

The music shifted. The guests rose.

Richard walked his daughter to the altar with the careful deliberateness of a man who had rehearsed this moment in his mind many times. When he placed Sienna’s hand in Jasper’s, he held Jasper’s gaze directly.

“Take care of my daughter,” he said. “She deserves better than this world usually gives.”

Jasper closed his hand around Sienna’s and said, quietly, that he would.

Then Sienna’s fingers found the inside of his forearm, and she pinched – hard, her nails pressing in, a sharp twist that made him inhale sharply through his teeth. His step faltered.

Sienna kept her expression serene.

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<Chapter 205 The Fall

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Behind them, Rosalind was paying careful attention to her petal basket and very little attention to where

she was stepping. Her right foot came down squarely on the hem of Sienna’s gown.

Sienna took two steps forward. The gown didn’t follow.

She went down hard, the momentum pulling her backward and sideways, landing on the floor of the aisle

in full view of every guest in the room. The hall erupted – a gasp, then a collective held breath, then the barely suppressed sounds of people fighting very hard not to laugh.

Jasper lurched forward, reaching for the gown, reaching for her arm, but the sequence had already completed itself.

Rosalind stood frozen with her basket, one hand pressed over her mouth.

And then, from the side entrance of the hall, two figures walked in.

Phineas moved at an unhurried pace, Aurora’s hand in his. He didn’t look at the chaos on the aisle. He looked at the room the way a man looks at something that is exactly what he expected it to be.

(Aurora’s POV)

I felt the stares before I’d taken three steps inside.

I didn’t turn my head to meet them. I followed Phineas’s lead, keeping my pace even, my expression composed. The hall was loud with the aftermath of whatever had just happened at the altar, but the energy was already shifting – redistributing itself toward us.

Phineas found our seats without consulting anyone and guided me into mine with a hand at my back.

I looked toward the altar.

Jasper had straightened up. He was helping Sienna to her feet, one hand under her elbow, the other

smoothing the back of her gown. But his head had turned.

His eyes found me through the crowd.

I’d braced for it, and it still landed differently than I expected. The shock on his face was unguarded – raw in a way I hadn’t seen from him in years. His gaze moved to Phineas, then back to me, and something in his expression fractured at the edges.

Phineas, beside me, raised his voice just enough to carry.

“We walk in and the bride puts on a show just for us.” He sounded faintly amused. “That’s generous.”

The murmur that swept through the room had a different quality now. I heard it – the recalibration, the realization. The woman beside Phineas Everett was his wife.

Somewhere to my left, I heard Victoria’s voice, low and strained: “That can’t be right-”

On the altar, Sienna had regained her footing. Her composure was back in place, but only just. She turned to Jasper and said something sharp and low, and I didn’t need to hear it to understand the shape of it.

< Chapter 205 The Fall

Claim

Jasper’s response was equally quiet. He bent his head toward her, and I could see from the set of his jaw that he was telling her to hold it together.

Rosalind stood off to the side, twisting the fabric of her dress between her fingers, looking between the adults with the particular expression of a child who suspects she has caused a problem but isn’t entirely

sure how.

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