Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 292

(Aurora’s POV)

“I’m fine.” A pause. “Aurora.” Another pause, longer. “I want her to go to prison.”

I didn’t say anything.

“I know she’s my mother.” His voice cracked on the word. “I know that. But I can’t – I can’t forgive this. I’m not going to pretend I can.”

“You don’t have to,” I said.

“You’re not going to try to talk me out of it?”

“No.”

He went quiet for a moment. Then: “Okay.” Just that. “Okay.”

I hung up and stood there, not quite present, not quite anywhere.

“Aurora.”

Phineas’s voice pulled me back. I looked up.

He was standing near the warehouse door, and behind him, through the gap, I could see a patch of pale morning sky. Something else, too – rotors, slowing to a stop. A helicopter, sitting on the flat ground outside.

He tilted his head toward it. The corner of his mouth moved.

“It’s not even seven o’clock,” he said. “We have time.”

I looked at the helicopter. I looked at him.

“You planned for this,” I said.

“I planned for several things.” He held out his hand. “Come on. We’re getting married today.”

(Author’s POV)

Sienna had been watching her phone since four in the morning.

She hadn’t expected Martha to actually succeed. Martha was impulsive and greedy and not particularly intelligent – she’d known that going in. But disruption had been enough. Chaos had been enough. All she’d needed was for the wedding to fall apart at the edges, for Aurora to be too shaken or too exhausted or too consumed by her brother’s situation to show up.

Jasper walked into the bedroom at six-thirty.

“The wedding is still on,” he said, straightening his tie in the mirror. His voice was completely flat.

“You should get ready.”

Sienna stared at the back of his head.

She felt something cold move through her – not quite fear, not quite anger. Something that didn’t have a clean name.

She turned toward the bathroom. She kept her face still. She closed the door behind her and

picked up her phone from the vanity.

The screen lit up with a new message.

**[Failed. Remember what you promised me.]**

(Author’s POV)

“It’s the only one you’re getting right now.”

Gavin walked up to Phineas and stood beside him, watching the helicopter’s rotors slow to a stop.

“I have to say,” Gavin said, “that is an entrance.”

Phineas gave a short, dismissive sound.

“When you got married,” Phineas said, “did you want the same arrangement? I can make a call.”

Gavin took a step back. “My cardiologist would never forgive me. Better to keep the heart rate manageable when I’m saying ‘I do.””

(Aurora’s POV)

The backstage prep area smelled like hairspray and fresh flowers. Two people worked on me simultaneously – the stylist pinning sections of my hair with practiced efficiency while the makeup artist moved a brush along my cheekbone and made a soft, satisfied sound.

“You have extraordinary skin,” she said, tilting my chin up slightly. “Honestly, I barely need to do anything. The foundation is just a formality at this point.”

“That’s generous of you.”

“It’s accurate.” She stepped back and assessed. “The dress is going to do most of the work anyway.”

The gown was ivory satin, cut close through the bodice and waist, with a skirt that moved when I walked. Small diamonds were scattered across the hem – not clustered, just scattered, like something dropped and left where it fell. When the light caught them, they shifted.

I looked at myself in the mirror for a moment.

Then I walked out.

Phineas was standing just outside the door, head bent over his phone, his thumb moving across the screen. He didn’t hear me at first. I watched him for a second – the set of his shoulders, the slight furrow between his brows as he read something.