Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Missed–1

Chapter 8: Missed

(Aurora’s POV)

The words had barely left my mouth when I heard it – a low, powerful engine rolling up the

drive.

The black Rolls–Royce Phantom. Jasper.

I stood, brushed the ash from my palms, and kept my face blank. I had nothing left to feel

about his arrival.

Rosalind heard it too. She went from sullen statue to sprinting child in about half a second, bolting across the garden toward the gate. As she passed me, she threw her shoulder into mine, hard, trying to knock me sideways.

I’d already seen it coming. I stepped aside, shifted my weight, and let her stumble past. She nearly went down on her own momentum. She shot me a furious look over her shoulder, then

kept running.

A moment later I heard her voice go bright and breathless. “Daddy! Daddy, is Auntie Sienna okay? What did the doctor say? Can we go visit her?”

I walked toward the gate at my own pace.

Jasper was crouching to Rosalind’s level, one hand resting on top of her head, his voice soft in a way it never was with me. “She’s going to be fine, sweetheart. We’ll go see her soon, I promise.”

Then he straightened up, and his eyes found mine.

The warmth drained out of them like water through a crack.

He stepped forward, planting himself directly in my path. “You’re coming with me to the hospital. Tonight. You’re going to walk into that room and apologize to Sienna.”

“No,” I said.

“Aurora.” His voice dropped. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“I didn’t push her, Jasper. I’m not apologizing for something I didn’t do.”

He was quiet for a beat. Then his expression shifted – not to anger, but to something colder. More calculated.

1/3

Chapter 8 Missed 1

Claim

“Leo’s next treatment cycle is in six weeks,” he said. “The bone marrow protocol. The billing department at the clinic has been very patient, but patience has limits. I’d hate for a payment dispute to delay his care.”

I went very still.

Leo. Nineteen years old. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Two years of treatment, one transplant, and a medical bill that would have buried us both if I hadn’t signed that patent license over to Aether Life Sciences. I had handed Jasper’s company the exclusive rights to three years of my research. Not because I wanted to. Because my brother was dying and there was no other way.

And now he was using that against me.

I crossed my arms and looked straight at him.

“That patent was worth every cent of Leo’s treatment, Jasper. You got a deal that should have cost you ten times more, and you know it.” My voice stayed level. “You’re standing in your own driveway, threatening a dying boy’s medical care, to force me into apologizing to your mistress. You are so much worse than I thought.”

Something moved across his face. Not shame. Just irritation.

“Don’t be dramatic. You’ve been Mrs. Everett for three years. You’ve had the house, the accounts, the name. Enjoying the perks of marrying into money and then acting like you owe nothing – that’s not principle, Aurora. That’s entitlement.”

His gaze shifted past me to the fire pit, where a thin thread of smoke still curled upward.

He frowned. “What are you burning?”

“Old memories,” I said, and turned to leave.

The dizziness hit me without warning.

The garden tilted. My knees softened. I put one hand out on instinct, grabbing nothing, and then Jasper’s arm was around my waist.

He pulled me upright, and I could feel him looking down at me with that familiar crease between his brows – the one that meant he was annoyed rather than concerned.

“Stop playing the victim,” he said. “You think these mind games actually work on me?”

My stomach turned. Genuinely, physically turned. The smell of his cologne, the pressure of his arm, the sound of his voice – all of it hit me at once.

2/3

Chapter 8: Missed–1

“Play hard to get?” I pressed my hands against his chest and pushed. “Jasper, looking at you makes me want to vomit. Literally.”

He didn’t let go. Instead he looked at me – really looked and something shifted in his

expression.

“You’ve lost weight,” he said, quieter. “You weren’t this thin before.”

I didn’t answer.

He ignored my hands against his chest and picked me up. I was too dizzy to fight it properly. He carried me across the terrace and into the dining room, set me down in one of the high–backed chairs, and told Mrs. Potts to bring something hot.

Then he sat down beside me, and his voice lost some of its edge.

“I’ll rearrange my schedule tomorrow. We’ll go to the OB together, get the checkup done, and then afterward you’ll come with me to the hospital.” He paused. “Sienna’s wrist is fractured. She needs surgery. If I hadn’t stepped in, Sebastian and the Rathbone legal team would have filed charges already. I bought you time, Aurora. Don’t waste it.”

Comments

LUCK DRAW >

Vote

201

3/3

Chapter 8: Missed

Chapter 8: Missed–2

I looked at him.

“Don’t bother with the schedule,” I said.

He frowned. “What?”

“There’s no heartbeat to check anymore.”

“What are you babbling about again? What exactly do you want?” His face showed impatience.

Just then,his phone lit up on the table between us.

*Dear S.*

Claim

He looked at the screen. Then he picked it up, stood, and walked toward the stairs without a word. I heard the study door close above me.

Mrs. Potts came in with a bowl of soup. I picked up the spoon and took a few mouthfuls because my body needed it, not because I wanted it. The soup was warm and tasted like

nothing.

I set the spoon down, pushed back the chair, and walked out.

No one stopped me.

Olivia’s red coupe was still at the curb where she’d promised to wait. She had the window down, one arm resting on the door, and the moment she saw my face she reached for the

handle.

“That’s it,” she said, already getting out. “I’m going in there-”

“Livvy.” I caught her hand. “Don’t.”

“Aurora, you look like you’ve been wrung out and hung up to dry. Whatever he said to you-”

“It doesn’t matter what he said.” I got into the passenger seat and waited until she came around and got in beside me. “I’m done screaming at that wall. I’m saving my energy for something that actually works.”

She looked at me. Her jaw was tight. “Like what?”

I turned to face her, “I’m going to bleed him dry in court.”

1/3

Chapter 8: Missed /

(Author’s POV)

Claim

Neither of them noticed the black Bentley parked in the shadows down the road, its hazard lights blinking in a slow, steady pulse. Behind the tinted window, a pair of grey eyes watched the red coupe pull away from the curb and disappear around the corner.

Upstairs in the study, Jasper stood at the window with his phone pressed to his ear.

Sienna’s voice came through soft and unsteady, the kind of soft she knew he couldn’t resist. “I don’t want to stay here alone, Jasper. This room, the smell of it – it reminds me of the hospital where your brother-” She stopped. A small, controlled breath. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify