Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 249

Chapter 214: A Secret to Share

(Author’s POV)

Martha stood in the hallway alone. She thought about what Leo had said – that the man took good care of Aurora. She turned that over in her mind. A man like Phineas Everett, and he’d chosen Aurora. Not Sienna, who was beautiful and polished and had spent years positioning herself perfectly.

The thought flickered through her and left a bitter residue.

But then she remembered what she still knew. What she was still holding. And she thought about the

people on all sides of this mess who could make her life very difficult very quickly. She let out a slow

breath and went back to the kitchen.

She wouldn’t reach out. Not now. She’d wait, and hope that time smoothed everything over, and focus on

Leo finishing school in one piece. That was enough. That had to be enough.

In the house Jasper shared with Sienna, things were quieter than usual – and not in a comfortable way.

Rosalind had been in a strange mood ever since the last visit to the Everett estate. She sat through meals

without speaking, pushed her food around her plate, and answered questions in single syllables. Jasper

noticed but didn’t push. He assumed it would pass.

At kindergarten, it didn’t pass.

During the mid–morning break on Wednesday, a group of children clustered near the climbing frame, and someone – a girl with pigtails who had clearly overheard her parents talking – pointed at Rosalind and

asked, “Is your new mom a stepmom?”

Rosalind’s face went red immediately. “Sienna Mommy is not a stepmom.”

“But you had a real mom before,” another boy said. “And now you have a different one. That’s what a

stepmom is.”

“She’s not-”

“My mom said stepmoms are always mean.” A third child, helpfully. “Is she mean to you?”

“She’s not a stepmom!”

The voices kept coming, layering over each other, and Rosalind couldn’t shout loud enough to drown all of them out. Some of the kids had seen the video – the one from the wedding, where a little girl in a flower dress stepped on a veil and sent a woman stumbling. Their parents had watched it. Their parents had

talked about it at the dinner table.

“If your real mom was so nice,” the pigtailed girl said, tilting her head, “why did your dad get a different

one?”

Rosalind didn’t have an answer.

Chapter 214 A Secret to Share

“She’s not your real mom,” the girl added, matter–of–fact. “She never will be.”

The words didn’t feel like much in the moment. But they stayed. They followed Rosalind home and sat

with her at dinner and were still there when she lay in bed that night, staring at the ceiling.

Claire

She didn’t understand why everyone kept saying Sienna wasn’t good. Sienna bought her things. Sienna

took her to nice restaurants. But there was a difference between those things and something she couldn’t quite name yet – something she’d felt sitting next to her father at the Everett estate, watching Phineas refill Aurora’s glass without being asked.

She didn’t have the words for it. She was five. But the question had lodged itself somewhere it wouldn’t

easily dislodge.

By Friday, Rosalind had a fever.

She lay on the sofa under a blanket, flushed and miserable, and refused to let go of Jasper’s hand. Every time he tried to stand up, she whimpered and tightened her grip. Sienna sat across the room, watching.

“Daddy,” Rosalind said, in the small, scratchy voice of a sick child, “don’t go.”

“I’m just getting you water,” Jasper said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Sienna can get it.”

Sienna’s expression didn’t change. She rose and went to the kitchen.

Rosalind watched her go. Then, with the unsettling perceptiveness that small children sometimes deployed without warning, she called out, “Sienna Mommy, are you upset?”

Sienna stopped in the kitchen doorway. “Of course not,” she said. Her voice was perfectly even. “Why would I be upset?”

“Your face looked like it.”

“I’m fine, sweetheart.”

She turned back to the kitchen and gripped the edge of the counter. Her jaw was tight. She’d spent months on this child – the gifts, the patience, the careful management of every interaction – and the return on that

investment remained stubbornly, infuriatingly close to zero.

She filled a glass with water and carried it back without letting any of it show on her face.

But she had made a decision. She needed something that was entirely hers, something that couldn’t be

questioned or undermined or taken away. She needed to get pregnant. Soon.

(Aurora’s POV)

Olivia arrived at eleven on Saturday morning with a garment bag over one shoulder and a coffee in each

hand.

“I come bearing gifts,” she announced, handing me one of the cups. “And I need to see this bridesmaid

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Chapter 214 A Secret to Share

Claim

dress on my actual body before I commit to wearing it in front of a hundred people.”

We spent the better part of an hour in the dressing room off the main bedroom. The dress fit her perfectly, which she accepted as her due.

“I’m the only bridesmaid,” she said, examining herself in the mirror with visible satisfaction. “Just me. I have the entire aisle to myself.”

“Don’t make it weird.”

“I’m going to make it wonderful.” She turned sideways. “Is Patrick actually going to be the groomsman?

Patrick Sloan?”

“Yes”

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