Page 50 of Dirty Money
Aullie’s head was telling her Weston was not a cousin to this woman. “A man from your past?”
“Well, Weston is more than just a man from my past.”
Aullie’s entire body went tense the moment she said his name. Now she knew they weren’t cousins. “What is he?”
“He and I were married once. And we had a baby.”
Aullie’s heart stopped. Weston had been married to the gorgeous, rich woman who sat across from her and they had a baby together. “And where is the child now?”
“He was killed in a car wreck we had when he was just two months old,” she told Aullie, making her heart pound.
She reached across the table and took her hand that was nervously tapping the top of her short glass. “My, God! I’m so sorry to hear that. That must haunt you.”
“It does. Like one can’t realize. You see, Weston and I fought so badly after that happened. He was driving. We lived in Los Angeles at that time. I blamed him at the time. Even though he wasn’t really to blame. The car in front of us stopped, suddenly and he hit the back of them and a truck plowed into the back of us. The baby was in his car seat in the middle of the back seat, the safest place in a car, but he was injured anyway. They kept him on life support for a week before we decided to let him go. He left us on tomorrow’s date. That’s why he and I are flying to L.A. we’ve never gone to his grave together since we buried him, ten years ago.”
“And why is that?” Aullie asked.
“Weston and I were high school sweethearts. Though unintentional, we found ourselves pregnant only one month after graduation. He married me and we were pretty happy up until our son’s death. Like I said, I blamed him and only a couple of months after we buried our baby, I left him and asked for a divorce which he granted me without a problem. I was paid a hefty sum by him as a settlement, making me a rich woman.”
“How fortunate for you,” Aullie said, trying to keep the anger that was building inside her controlled.
“Yes, well, Weston is a wonderful man. He always has been. I lost sight of that when I got so angry about losing our son. I went off and met another man and married him within that year. And Weston and I didn’t talk at all. Until my husband was killed a few weeks ago.”
“And why did you contact him?” Aullie asked as she was confused about how the woman actually felt about Weston.
“I’ve missed him for the last few years. I realized I was wrong for blaming him and I was wrong for leaving him to deal with his grief over the loss of our son. I wanted to not only make amends, I wanted him back. And when my husband was killed, I suddenly found myself in a position to get back into his life.”
“So, you asked him for his help in finding your husband’s killer or something like that?”
Hayley nodded. “Yes. I used that to get to him. You see, there really is no need to try to find who killed my husband. He was in the mafia.”
“Oh, shit!” Aullie said with a hushed tone.
“Yes,” Hayley said. “I knew it could happen to him. And I used that to get Weston to talk to me. He’s a good man. Like I said. And I thought since he was still single that we could pick up where we left off. More than anything else, I wanted us to have another baby. I long to see that little face again. A perfect mixture of he and I.”
Aullie felt a lump in her stomach and it moved clear up to her throat. She swallowed it back and said, “And he’s not into it?”
When Hayley shook her head, sadly, Aullie felt the tiniest bit of relief.Weston had turned her down!
“I am hoping that when we visit our son’s grave together that he’ll reconsider my offer. You see, I’ve told him I want him back and I want us to have a child right away.”
“And he’s said?” Aullie asked with terror flowing through her.
“Well, he told me this morning that he’d think about it.”
Aullie nearly fell out of the booth and onto the floor. She wanted to run and hide and cry her eyes out but something told her to ask a bit more. “This morning? And up until this morning, he’s said no to you?”
She nodded. “I asked him yesterday evening when we went out to dinner if we could go to L.A. tonight. I asked him to give us that closure if he wanted closure. Then, if he really didn’t want to go back to what we had, I’d leave him alone.”
“Would you really be able to do that?” Aullie asked as she could see the woman was desperate to have him back and have a child with him again.
“I would. He’s too good of a man to continue to harass. But I want him back so desperately, I’m afraid of what I’ll do if he doesn’t take me back. Not that I’m suicidal or anything. Just that I’d make a damn fool out of myself. So, that’s why I’m asking you, a person who has no stake in this at all, what should I do? My friends tell me to keep up the pressure and he’ll cave, eventually. But my mind is telling me he may have someone else that he’s not telling me about.”
“And if he did have someone else, why wouldn’t he tell you about her?”
“For fear of hurting me. He’s a good man. And on the anniversary of our son’s death, that’s the last thing he’d do is hurt me. But I might be delusional. I might be spinning my wheels and getting my hopes up. If they’re dashed, it might hurt nearly as bad as the day we lost Weston Junior.”
Aullie bit her lower lip. How could she answer the woman who now she felt terrible for? She wasn’t a third party with no stake in anything to do with Hayley or Weston. Aullie was at a crossroads she never saw herself coming to.
