The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance

"Yes! Aurora is amazing-she plays violin, she's great at all kinds of extreme sports, and she can even race cars... She looks so cool behind the wheel!"

Rachel latched onto that detail, her voice suddenly stern. "Keen, you're not well. You can't be doing strenuous things like that-especially racing. It's dangerous."

Keen shook his head. "Aurora never asks me to do any of that. I haven't even been in the car with her. She just lets me watch and says I can try when I'm healthy again."

Determined to be as remarkable as Aurora, Keen made up his mind: he would get better, no matter what, and learn from her.

Rachel's smile faltered.

Children's affections are fleeting by nature. The moment someone more exciting comes along, everything they loved before is forgotten.

Aurora was dazzling-far more so than she'd ever been—and stealing Keen's attention was effortless.

If Rachel had hoped to use Keen to get closer to Haynie, that window was rapidly closing.

She cast a fleeting glance at Joshua, who was driving.

At least she still had Joshua in her corner.

But he was unpredictable—a live wire. He might be helping her now, but he did everything on his own terms.

In some ways, even harder to manage than Jasper.

A few cars back, Haynes was driving, following Stella's car through the narrow country roads.

Foreman lounged in the back seat, glancing up from his phone. “Haynie, why didn't you invite Ms. Pearce to ride with us? I even left the front seat open for her."

Something about the question made Haynes bristle. "I'm not her personal chauffeur. Why should she have to ride in my car?"noveldrama

Foreman's eyes narrowed slightly. "Haynie, are you and Ms. Pearce fighting? You never used to act like this."

Haynes kept his gaze on the road. "How did I used to act?"

Foreman thought for a moment. "You always put Ms. Pearce first. Even Stella and Keen had to take a back seat to her."

Haynes's voice was suddenly quiet, as if the realization had just occurred to him. "Did I... really go too far before?"

The question caught Foreman off guard. In all this time, Haynes had never once asked him that. Truthfully, Haynes had never seemed to think he'd done anything wrong.

Foreman schooled his features.

"Well... maybe a little. Most things were understandable, but giving up your wedding with Stella so Ms Pearce could have that was a bit much.

But Ms. Pearce is terminally ill. She did save both your and Jasper's lives. It's not

hard to see why you'd be generous."

Haynes's tone was low and flat. "She saved Jasper's life."

Foreman caught the implication instantly.

Haynes was drawing a line-distancing himself from Rachel.

If he let Rachel go, he'd do everything he could to win Stella back.

Haynes had already hurt Stella once; Foreman wouldn't let it happen again.

Thinking of this, Foreman leaned

forward. "I heard Jasper's run afoul of Sellers, Word is, Sellers is trying to block The Wilkinson Group's

Contracts. Haynte, maybe you

should step in. The Burton family is way out of The Wilkinson Group's league.

Rumor has it, Mr. Wilkinson is already dissatisfied with Jasper, and might even strip him of his heir status.

If we don't intervene, Jasper's not exactly equipped to handle someone like

Sellers on his own."

Haynes was silent for a moment,

eyes fixed on the passing scenery. "Foreman, every time something goes wrong, you ask me to bail him out. That's exactly why Jaspers

thinks he can get

Jothe

anything."