Page 69 of Dirty Money
“When you know, you know,” her father said as he came up behind them, putting his arm around his wife. “Do you think you can have this nursery up and ready in only a couple of months?”
“Sure. Anything for New Aulora,” she said with a smile she didn’t really feel. “For now, I’ll go back home and work on the whole idea. I’ll sketch it all out and maybe use map colors to fill in the shades. How would that work for you two?”
“Great,” her father said.
“Would it be too much to ask for me to have some input into this?” Clara asked. “She is my first child after all.”
“It’s not a problem at all,” Aulora said. “It wasn’t me who asked to do this after all.”
The tiniest of twitches moved Clara’s brow. “I know that. Your father and I can’t seem to agree on a single thing to do with this room. That’s why I said you’d be the tie breaker. Only, I thought you’d see things my way. You know, being women and all. I was mistaken.”
“Dad, let her design this room,” Aulora said as she exhaled. She had no interest in being a tie breaker.
He ducked his head and said, “Clara, of course, you can design the nursery.”
The grin that moved over her stepmother’s face let Aulora know it was all a ploy. A ploy to let Clara know how far she could push them both. “I’d love your help on it, though,” she told Aulora. “The Old Aulora’s stamp on the New Aulora’s nursery would be appreciated.”
“I could paint a mural on one of the walls if you’d like. But I’m much more of an abstract painter. I could send you some photos of what I’ve done.”
“But you are an artist, so that means you can paint anything I want, doesn’t it?” Clara asked with a sweet smile. The kind of smile the super-rich have that lets other people know they’re not really asking you for something, they’re telling you that you will do it their way.
“Send me pictures of what you want, Clara.”
“Mom,” she reminded her, still wearing that sinisterly sweet smile.
“Mom,” she said then sighed. “So, I’m going to take off now. You have my cell number. You can text me the pics. Later, guys.”
Aulora left the room with expectations that had become a lot lower. When she got to the door of her old bedroom, she pushed it open to find it wasn’t a bedroom at all but an office.
Closing the door, she went down the stairs with her head hanging. She wasn’t getting her father back. He was replacing her and her mother with newer versions of them. Right down to the new baby’s name.
Making her way to the front door, she found the butler jumping to open it for her. She let him. “Good day, Miss.”
“Yeah, whatever,” she said as she left the home she had high hopes of making hers again. But that dream was history. She knew she’d love her baby sister but the idea of being one, big, happy family was gone.
Dustin opened the door of the car for her.
“You don’t look nearly as happy as you did when I let you out of this car.”
“Reality set in. Bummer, huh?” she said as she got in.
He nodded and closed the door without adding to her words. She figured he knew more about Clara than he’d ever say. The fact was, Clara nor her father, were anything Aulora should be worried about.
Aulora had to find herself. She’d been a poor art student who moonlighted as a waitress. Now she was a rich woman with a rich boyfriend and a couple of walls to fill with new artwork in a gallery. If she wanted to. She didn’t have to do a damn thing if she didn’t want to.
The drive back to New York was long and she found her head falling back on the headrest and her eyes closing. The exhaustion had finally caught up with her and she fell asleep.
Weston rolled over and then over again, it became clear he was alone in the large bed. “Aulora?”
He sat up in the bed and looked around the room that was dimly lit by the outside sunlight.
She was gone!
His heart stopped and his mind went blank. They’d made up. Why would she leave?
Getting out of the bed, he got dressed and looked around for a note or something that would tell him where she’d gone. He went to the bathroom to clean up a bit and laughed at himself when he heard the bedroom door open. “West?”
Stepping out of the bathroom, he found Aulora and scooped her up. “I was afraid you’d left me.”
