Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 263

Chapter 228: The Morning of the Wedding

(Aurora’s POV)

Then he looked up.

+25 Port

His hand stopped moving. He didn’t say anything. He just looked at me, and the expression on his face was something I didn’t have a word for. Not quite wonder. Something quieter than that. Something that sat in the chest rather than the eyes.

“Is there still time?” I asked.

His gaze moved over me slowly, from the top of my head to the hem of the dress, then back up.

When he finally spoke, it wasn’t about time.

“You are,” he said, “the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life.”

“Phineas. The guests-”

“Aurora.”

“We can’t keep them waiting.”

He crossed the distance between us and took my hand. I expected him to start walking. Instead,

he pulled me toward him, and his arms came around me, and his breath was warm against my

shoulder.

“Give me a minute,” he said quietly. “Just one.”

I felt the slight tremor in his chest. It was so faint I almost missed it. My own heartbeat stumbled

in response.

The kiss lasted longer than a minute.

When I finally pulled back, I pressed two fingers to my lips and gave him a flat look. “You smudged

the lipstick.”

He looked entirely unrepentant.

“Go fix it,” he said.

“You’re impossible.” I turned back toward the makeup room.

I’d barely pushed the door open when I nearly collided with Olivia, who had clearly been about to knock. She took one look at my face- and at Phineas standing behind me – and immediately

reversed course.

She turned around and walked directly into Gavin’s chest.

“Oh-” She shoved him back, her face going red. “Don’t just stand there.”

Center 228 The Morning of the Wedding

“I wasn’t doing anything.”

“Move.” She pointed firmly away from the door. “Give her five minutes.”

(Author’s POV)

The ballroom was already filling when Sienna walked in on Jasper’s arm.

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She had prepared herself for this. She had stood in front of the mirror this morning and told herself it was just a social obligation, just another event to get through. She was good at getting through things.

But the room stopped her cold.

The flowers alone must have cost more than most people’s weddings. The light came through tall windows and caught the crystal arrangements on every table, scattering small prisms across the white linens. It was flawless. It was the kind of wedding that got photographed for magazines.

And Aurora was at the center of it.

Sienna’s chest went tight with something she refused to name.

Jasper’s eyes had found Aurora before Sienna even registered she was looking. He went still. His jaw tightened. Aurora stood near the front of the room in that ivory dress, and she was laughing at something Phineas had said, and she didn’t look in their direction once.

Phineas noticed Jasper before Jasper noticed him noticing.

He raised an eyebrow. Just slightly. The silence stretched.

Sienna pressed her fingers lightly against Jasper’s arm. He blinked, came back to himself, and

turned toward Phineas with a stiff expression.

“Congratulations,” Jasper said. His voice was flat.

“Thank you,” Phineas said. Nothing more.

The photographer appeared from somewhere to the left, camera raised, expression helpful and entirely oblivious. “Excuse me – would the four of you like a photo together? To commemorate the

occasion?”

Something moved in Phineas’s eyes. Brief and unreadable.

“Sure,” he said. “Let’s do that.”

The four of them arranged themselves in front of the camera. Phineas settled his hand at Aurora’s waist, and she leaned into him slightly, and the two of them looked like they belonged exactly where they were. Sienna kept her smile in place. Jasper kept his eyes forward.

The shutter clicked.

Late 98 The Morning of the Wedding

Afterward, Jasper said something polite to Aurora – congratulations, just the word, nothing attached to it and steered Sienna away toward the far side of the room.

Phineas watched them go.

“I should tell you,” he said to Aurora, his voice easy, “that I suggested the photo on purpose.”

Aurora turned to look at him. “That’s petty.”

“Completely.”

She laughed. The photographer, still nearby, caught it without thinking – the two of them facing each other, the laughter still on her face, his expression open in a way it almost never was.

Sienna held herself together until she turned her back.

Then the smile dropped.

She stood very still beside Jasper, facing the room, and kept her breathing even. Around her, two guests were talking in low voices nearby – something about a helicopter, something about police

cars heading toward the north district this morning.

The words landed in her stomach like stones.

*Police. North district.*

Martha. If Martha talked-

“Don’t let it bother you,” Jasper said quietly, misreading her entirely. “The photo was nothing. Just

ignore it.”

Sienna turned to him with a tight smile. “I’m fine. I just need to use the restroom.”

She walked away before he could respond.

She found an emergency exit corridor near the back of the building, tucked behind a service door. She pulled out her phone and dialed.

It rang twice before the line connected.

“Listen to me carefully,” she said, her voice low and clipped. “Destroy everything. Every message, every record, every number. Burn it all. If they find a single thread that leads back to either of us-” She paused. “We’re both finished. Do you understand me? There’s no version of this where only one of us goes down.”

She hung up.

She pressed her back against the wall and exhaled slowly, and her heartbeat began, reluctantly, to

settle.

Footsteps came from the stairwell above her.

Chapter 27 The Mudang of the Wedding

+25 Pointe

Sebastian appeared on the landing, his expression carrying the particular look of someone who had seen something they weren’t supposed to see.

“Were you just on the phone?” he asked.

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