Page 61 of Dirty Money
“She is lying and I swear that to you, Aulora. I swear it!” He was desperately trying to hold on to his composure but it was getting harder and harder to do.
“She has no reason to lie but you do,” Aullie told him.
“She does. She wants me back and she thinks if I don’t have you then I’ll go back to her. But I won’t be going back to her. Not ever. And really not now that she’s done this. Please, Aulora. Let me come to you, where ever you are now. Please, you will believe me if I can tell you everything face to face. I know you will.”
“You’re right, I probably would believe you if we were face to face. You know why? Because I’d see that gorgeous face and you’d touch me just right and I’d want to believe you. But that would be stupid and I’m anything but stupid,” she said.
A man’s voice in the background had the hairs on the back of Weston’s neck standing at full attention.
“Who are you with?”
“Never mind that. It’s none of your concern. I let you know that I’m okay. I’m more than okay if you’d like to know. Money isn’t an issue. I’m not a poor, little, starving artist any longer. I’m not in need of being rescued. And I think that would have you finding me not quite your cup of tea any longer. Along with believing your ex, I think you’d lose interest in me very quickly. I don’t need a thing anymore.”
“And how the fuck did this happen in one day, Aulora?” he asked her in astonishment. “You quit your job, moved, and left your car behind. Who came and spirited you away so damn quickly?”
“Not your business anymore, Weston. Hayley Stiller is your business. Maybe, if the pregnancy test comes back negative in a couple of months, I might think about talking to you as friends. Nothing more than that. If it comes back positive then I don’t want to speak to you again.”
“What the hell does that mean?” he asked her in complete confusion.
“Hayley said she’d give me a call in a couple of months when she could take a pregnancy test. She wants to let me know if you’re going to be a daddy again or not. If I may say so, I think that was cowardly of you to screw her when you knew she wanted to get pregnant with your baby and then tell her that you wouldn’t be staying with her. I didn’t think you were like that.”
“I’m not like that!” he shouted at her. “She’s lying! She wants me to call her to bitch her out for it. I told her I wasn’t going to talk to her anymore. If you’d let me come see you, I could tell you everything. Every last detail. I was going to be completely open with you. You have to believe me!”
She was silent and he took that as a sign that she was thinking about giving him a chance to explain. But then a man’s voice was in his ear, “She’s crying. I don’t know you but I don’t like the fact that she’s crying over you. When I found her earlier she was crying and refused to tell me why. I think I’ve figured that out now. Leave her alone or you will have me to deal with.”
“And you are?” Weston asked.
“Charles Wohrl. And you are?”
“Weston Calloway.”
“Great. Weston Calloway, stay away from Aulora.” And then the call was ended.
When Weston tried to call right back he found he’d been blocked. Anger and frustration ruled him. He slammed his fist against the seat and cursed.
She was with another man!
Aulora went to bed that night with a glass of wine and a headache that could kill a horse. She’d never cried so much in her entire life. When she got the call from Hayley, she knew, without a doubt, she and Weston were over. They had to be.
Her father had made sure she was settled into her new bedroom before he left her. He’d promised to send his driver for her around noon the next day, so she could come to his place in upstate New York and meet her new stepmother. It wasn’t anything she was looking forward to. But then again, she wasn’t looking forward to waking up ever again, either.
Her new home was magnificent. Her mother had lent a hand in it. Her secrecy was more than a bit disturbing about the matter with her father. But her help in picking out things that would make Aullie feel at home in the place had helped.
One of the living areas had been made into her art studio, complete with canvases of many sizes and every paint and brush in existence. She supposed any other person would be over the moon with what she had just been given. And she knew it was her birthright to have the things. But the loss of Weston overwhelmed her.
Love sucked ass, she’d decided.
Anything that could hurt that damn bad was best left the hell alone!
When her phone rang at midnight, she jumped and saw it was Brittany. “Hello,” she answered.
“Okay, what gives, Aullie? You quit. You moved. You dumped Weston.”
“I know. I was kind of taken,” she mumbled.
“Taken?” Britt shouted. “Like kidnapped?”
“Um, no. Not exactly. I was just taken back to a life I had before. I wasn’t always dirt poor,” she said then sipped her wine.
