Page 55 of Dirty Money
Unexpected Wealth – Dirty Money Part 6
Weston and Hayley watched the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean while they sipped on coffee. The steam flowed around the brims of their cream colored, tall cups as they stood, in silence, remembering the baby they’d shared and how much they’d loved him and each other ten years earlier.
“If she was out of the picture, then would you consider giving us another chance, Weston?” Hayley asked him as she continued to stare out at the brightening sky.
“I’m not sure, Hayley. You see, it’s not that I don’t forgive you for leaving me, it’s just that I can’t forget it. I was left all alone to grieve. My father was a thorn in my side at that time. Anytime he saw me looking even the slightest bit sad, he’d say that I was much better off and that God made no mistakes. It was meant to ease my sorrow but it did exactly the opposite of that.”
“I bet it did,” she agreed then turned to face him. “I am sorry. I can’t say that enough.”
“And I know you are. But I was at my lowest, a time when a person needs the person they love to be there for them. You left me at my weakest moment. I loved you. I never saw it coming. While I can forgive you, I cannot forget about it.”
She nodded and sipped her hot beverage. “Shall we go to his grave?”
He took her hand and led her to the car he’d rented. Slipping into the driver’s seat, he couldn’t help but look at his cell that he’d left on the console. Even though it was nine in the morning in New York, Aulora had still not responded to the urgent text he’d left her the night before. He’d tried calling and she didn’t answer, which he’d figured she’d do. Then he left her a text, reminding her how they were in a committed relationship and simply ending things by shutting him out was not an option.
But his silent phone let him know Aulora might not follow that cardinal rule. He tapped the screen and checked his social media to see if she’d been on any of that and found it was void of her dry humor style jokes she’d post each day.
“She hasn’t responded to you, huh?” Hayley asked when he sat his phone down. “If I’d have known her name, I would’ve never told her all I did, Weston. You should’ve told me about her and what her name was and where she worked.”
He pulled away from the curb and headed to the cemetery. “Ironically, I thought if you knew about her and where she worked or went to school that you’d go to her and tell her exactly what you did.”
“That is ironic,” she mumbled. “And sad. I wouldn’t have done that to you. I feel bad that you think I would. I’m not some sneaky, underhanded bitch, Weston.”
“I don’t know you anymore, Hayley. How was I to know what kind of person you’ve turned into in the last ten years? Hell, you told me you’d been thinking about me for the last three years of your marriage. I had no idea what you would be capable of.”
Sadness spread over her face, making him feel bad for doing that to her. “I don’t think you’ll ever fully trust me again.”
“I can’t,” he said, even though he knew that too was hurting her. He had to be truthful.
As he slowed the car to turn into the cemetery, his heart froze. It always did when he came to see his son on the anniversary of the day he died. He went back in time. He was the nineteen-year-old kid, there to bury his baby.
The tears had already begun to sting the backs of his eyes as he followed the narrow road around the many graves until they were near the back of the huge place. When he parked the car, he looked over and found Hayley was already crying.
Getting out of the car, he came around and let her out, helping her out of the car. She leaned into his side as he ran his arm around her. So much like the day they had to lay their two-month-old down to rest in this place. A place that was never meant for babies or children.
“Do you think he really went to Heaven, Weston?”
“I know he did. Never doubt that. He was an innocent child. God welcomed him right back.” He gave her shoulders a squeeze and kissed the side of her head to comfort her.
She was shaking as they approached the grave and she saw the tombstone. “It’s been about five years since I’ve come here,” she confessed. “I never came here with my husband.”
“Did you tell him about our son?”
“I did. But I didn’t elaborate on us or how much we loved one another. I was still blaming you, so I left out things like that. I only hated you back then. But I still should’ve come and left flowers on his grave. It was wrong of me not to.”
“He’s not here,” Weston said in an attempt to absolve some of her guilt. “You probably thought about him now and then. He knows that.”
“I have to admit that I pretty much blocked him out of my mind. Up until three years ago, when he entered it quite suddenly. And that’s when I started thinking about you again. And how great you were to me.”
“I was pretty great, wasn’t I?” he asked with a light chuckle.
“You were,” she said then turned her head and before he knew what was happening their eyes locked and their lips soon followed.
Staring at her cell with the text from Weston on it, letting her know their relationship trumped her running away from him or shutting him out, Aullie blinked back the tears. Tears had flowed from her burning eyes several times throughout the long and nearly sleepless night.
Weston was in Los Angeles with the mother of his dead baby. His ex-wife. And he never felt the need to tell her a thing about either of them. She was numb and felt lost for the first time.
Love hurt like hell and she finally understood the angst in some people’s art. The blackness of hell made sense to her in that moment. She felt like an empty abyss. And she hated it. She hated it so much more than she’d ever hated what her father had done to her and her mother.
