Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 252

Chapter 217: The Last Reunion

(Author’s POV)

Gavin Sterling stood with his back to the man in the jacket, facing her, his expression completely neutral.

“I’ve been looking for you,” he said. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Hey-” the other man started.

“She’s with me.” Gavin didn’t turn around. He said it the way he probably said things in court – not loudly,

just with a finality that left no room for argument.

The man muttered something and left.

Olivia looked up at Gavin. The bar lights were slightly blurry at the edges. His collar was still open from

earlier, the same slight dishevelment she’d noticed at the restaurant.

She didn’t think about it. She just reached up, looped both arms around his neck, and pressed her face into

the curve of his throat. His pulse was warm against her cheek. Her lips grazed his throat as she murmured

into his collar.

“Take me home.”

Gavin went completely still.

She could feel him swallow.

“What are you doing?” he asked, very quietly.

She pulled back just enough to look at him, cheeks flushed, eyes slightly unfocused. “You were late tonight,” she said, with great conviction. “And you were mean.”

His expression shifted – something complicated moving through it that she was too warm and too tired to

decode.

“You were mean first,” he said. His voice came out lower than before, a little rough at the edges. He looked

at her for a long moment. “And this – this was your move.”

(Aurora’s POV)

I woke up alone.

The other side of the bed was already made, the pillow undisturbed. I had no idea what time Phineas had come home. That was the arrangement – same bedroom, same bed, opposite sides, an invisible line neither of us crossed. I’d been asleep before he returned, and apparently he’d been gone before I opened

my eyes.

Downstairs, he was already at the breakfast table, coffee in hand, reading something on his phone with the particular expression he wore when he was amused about something he hadn’t decided to share yet.

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<Chapter 217 The Last Reunion

“Gavin wants a favor,” he said, without looking up.

I poured myself coffee. “Good morning to you too.”

Claim

“He wants you to help arrange another meeting with your friend.” He set his phone down. “Apparently he managed to ruin things last night before the entrée arrived.”

I stared at him. “He was an hour late.”

“He had a genuine emergency. Two clients got physical in the middle of a hearing.”

“Phineas.” I set my mug down. “He walked in an hour late to a first meeting. It doesn’t matter why. The

door was already closed.”

“He seems to think you could reopen it.”

“He thinks wrong.” I picked up my fork. “Olivia didn’t want to go in the first place. Nobody asked either of us. The families just decided it was happening and expected us to show up and be grateful.” I shook my

head. “I’m not getting in the middle of that.”

He tilted his head slightly. “So you won’t help.”

“I can’t make Olivia feel something she doesn’t feel. Gavin helped me before and I’m grateful for it, but

that’s not how this works.”

Phineas leaned back in his chair, that faint, infuriating smile settling at the corner of his mouth. “Then I suppose I’ll have to find him someone else. Don’t blame me when I introduce him to someone perfectly

suitable and he moves on entirely.”

I looked at him flatly. “Is that meant to be a threat?”

“Just a statement of fact.” He picked up his coffee. “Eat your breakfast.”

I ate my breakfast.

The quarterly research report was supposed to take me until noon. It took longer, partly because I kept getting distracted by the conversation happening two desks over

I wasn’t trying to listen. But the office was open–plan, and my colleagues had the particular gift of

whispering just loudly enough to be heard.

“-apparently it’s happening soon. The whole family’s been notified.”

“He’s never even been photographed with anyone. Not once. You’d think someone would have caught

something by now.”

“I heard he had a thing when he was younger. Someone he actually chased. Like, flew out specifically to find her.” A pause for effect. “She turned him down flat.”

I stopped typing.

“No.”

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< Chapter 217 The Last Reunion

Claim

“Completely. Sent him away at the door. He went abroad right after, threw himself into work, and that was

1. it. No one since.”

I stared at my screen without seeing it.

I didn’t know this. I’d never asked, and he’d never offered. Our arrangement had a clause built in – if either

of us developed feelings elsewhere, we’d end it cleanly, no complications. It was sensible. I’d agreed to it

without hesitation.

But *first love* was a different category than *feelings elsewhere*. First love was the kind of thing that

didn’t fully leave. It just went quiet.

I told myself it didn’t matter. It was years ago. Whatever it had been, it was over.

I told myself that twice more before I believed it enough to get back to work.

The parking garage was nearly empty by the time I got down there. I was almost at the exit when I heard

my name – two colleagues from the third floor, heading the same direction.

I glanced toward the exit and saw Phineas’s car already waiting, engine idling.

“Friend picking you up?” one of them asked.

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