Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 291

(Aurora’s POV)

The officer’s voice came back low and clipped. “Copy. We’re behind you. What’s the new location?”

Martha read it out. An abandoned warehouse, through a stretch of woodland. No road access.

“We can’t get support in there in time,” the officer said. “You’ll need to proceed on foot. We’ll work around the perimeter.”

I looked at the tree line. Dark, dense, no light coming through.

“I want to hear Leo’s voice before we move,” I said into the phone.

Martha relayed the request. A pause. Then the reply came back – a single photo. Leo, bound at the wrists, sitting against a concrete wall. His eyes were closed.

Martha made a sound like something breaking.

“He’s alive,” I said. “That’s what matters right now.” I got out of the car. “Grab your bag.”

The walk through the woods took about fifteen minutes. Martha stumbled twice. I didn’t slow down for her. The warehouse appeared through the trees – low, corrugated metal roof, a rusted roll door hanging half open.

Inside, it smelled like oil and damp concrete. The ransom drop was simple: two bags, set down in the center of the floor, then we walk away. That was the instruction that came through on Martha’s phone the moment we stepped inside.

“Where is he?” I said aloud, knowing the phone was live.

The voice on the other end was male, unhurried, faintly amused. “The boy isn’t here. But he’ll find his way home. Put the money down and leave.”

“That’s not what we agreed to.”

“Put the money down.” A pause. “Or don’t. Your choice.”

Martha grabbed my arm. “Aurora, just do it. Please. Just put it down and go.”

“We’re not leaving without confirmation that-”

Something hit me from behind.

A cloth, pressed hard over my nose and mouth. An arm locked around my shoulders. The smell was sharp and chemical and immediate, and my legs went soft under me before I could get a breath in. I felt myself pushed forward, the ground coming up fast, and then I was down.

The last thing I heard before the dark took me was Martha’s voice, very close, no longer crying.

“You brought this on yourself,” she said.

Then: “I’ll tell Leo you died saving him.”

I lay still.

I counted to five. Then I opened my eyes.

Then the door opened again, and Phineas walked in.

He crossed the floor and put his arms around me without saying anything first. I let him. I pressed my face against his shoulder and just stood there for a moment, not moving.

“Leo’s home,” he said quietly, against my hair. “He’s fine. They sedated him and moved him around, but he’s not hurt. He’s at the apartment now.”

I exhaled slowly. “Okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated.

I pulled back and looked toward the door, toward the direction the police car had gone. Something cold sat in my chest that I couldn’t quite name. I thought about a dream I’d had once – or maybe not a dream, maybe just a memory of a kitchen that smelled like warm bread, of Leo laughing at something stupid on TV, of a version of things that felt almost whole.

Greed had a way of making rubble out of almost anything.

My phone rang.

Leo’s name was on the screen. I picked up.

“Are you okay?” His voice was hoarse, like he’d been sick.

“I’m fine. Are you-”