As she pulled the door open, she mumbled, “I’m sorry. I have the money…” Aulora stopped talking and rubbed her eyes. Her vision was kind of blurry but she could swear she was looking at…
“Aulora, we’ve been calling and calling,” her mother said.
“And it looks like you’ve been crying,” her father said.
“Dad?” she asked, not sure she was really seeing him.
“Can we come in?” he asked.
She stepped back, feeling even more numb, somehow. “Why are you here?”
“Aulora!” her mother’s firm word came, quickly. “Your father has something to tell you. Please, hear him out.”
“Why?” she asked, stunned.
When he took her hand and led her to sit on her tiny sofa, he said, “Because I was a fool, sweetheart. I’m here to right the wrongs I’ve done to you both.”
“But…,” she managed to get out but her mother stopped her.
“Aulora, let him talk.”
She sat quietly, waiting to hear what the man who’d dumped them had to say. But she didn’t want to. If she hadn’t just been put through the ringer and at her weakest moment ever, she’d have slammed the door in his face.
“Honey, I married a woman a couple of years ago, and we’re having a baby,” her father said.
“Congratulations?” she asked as she rubbed her tear swollen eyes.
“Yes, that’s the appropriate thing to say,” her mother said as she sat next to her and put her arm around her. “Do you want to tell us why you’ve been crying?”
“No,” came her quick answer. “I’d like to find out why either of you think I would care about this news. And I’m wondering why you care, Mom.”
“Your father came to make amends, Aulora. Give him a chance. He’s your blood, you know.”
Aullie looked at her father. He was all smiles and looking almost just like she remembered. She’d inherited his light blue eyes. His firm jaw was another thing she had like him. He was her father but not in the spirit of being an actual father.
“Blood? What about the fact you left us, Dad? Am I just supposed to forgive and forget and move on? And just why would I do that?”
“I don’t expect you to forgive me right away,” he said. “I know it’ll take some time. But I’m not going to leave you out of my life anymore. You’re going to be a big sister, Aulora. I want you to be in your sister’s life.”
“You’re having another girl?” she asked as she settled into her mother’s side.
“We are. You see, the woman I married has a huge heart. It was she who told me I should make amends with you and your mother. When I looked back at what I’d done to you both, it made me sick. And I know you can’t be expected to just accept me back into your life. But, honey, I don’t want you or your new baby sister to miss out on knowing each other because of what I did to you.”
Her brain was in a spiral. Life was knocking her one way and then the other and she was feeling punch drunk. She was going to be a big sister at twenty-two-years-old. That felt weird, to say the least.
“Dad, I don’t know what you expect out of me,” she said as she got up to go grab her a bottle of water out of her small fridge.
“I expect you to let me do right by you. I expect you to feel welcome in my home with your stepmother, Clara. I expect you to enjoy your baby sister. And I expect you to accept my love for you and one day, I hope you can return that love. But I won’t press you about that,” he told her as he followed her into the kitchenette area. “First things, first.” He held out a keychain with three keys on it. One of them went to a car, she could tell as it was one of those chip like things. And the Mercedes emblem on the key fob was staring her in the face.
“You brought me a car?” she asked, stunned.
“I did. A brand new one. Your mother said you love bright colors, so I got you an electric blue one. I had to special order it. I hope you like it. If you don’t then we can always exchange it for something you do like. Not a problem, honey,” came his answer.
She took the keys and held up the one that resembled a house key. “Is this to your home?”
“Not that one. The other one is. I want you to come and go as you please in my home. It’s in upstate New York. Clara is dying to meet you. She’s hoping you’ll do a mural in your baby sister’s room for her. What do you say to that?”
“I say, what’s this key for, Dad?” she asked him as she tried to grasp the reality of what the hell was happening to her.
“That’s to your penthouse on Fifth Avenue, honey. Nothing too huge. Only five bedrooms and three living areas with a couple of dining areas too. And a full staff, of course,” he said with a huge grin.
“Dad, I can’t afford…”
His finger landed on her lips. “You can. You see, I owe you a shit-ton of child support. Which I asked a lawyer about and he came up with what I owe you and your mother. I’ve made accounts with that money for you both.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a bank card. “You’ll need to go by the bank at your earliest convenience to sign a couple of papers for them and the money will instantly be accessible.”
“Isn’t this fantastic, sweetie?” her mother asked her as she came to them. “He bought me a penthouse in the same building yours is in. I’m just a brisk walk away from where you’ll live.”
“I suppose you got a car too,” Aullie said with a frown.
Her mother nodded and smiled. “Yes, your father has been very generous. You should try to, at the very least, act happy.”
“What if I don’t want any of this?” Aullie asked them both.
“This is all yours, by rights, Aulora,” her father told her as he pulled her in for a hug. “I’m sorry I did you so wrong. But that’s over now. You are my daughter. My first-born child. Not only have I given you all I should’ve been doling out to you all along, you will be my heir as well. You are a Wohrl. That means something.”
“I stopped using that name. I go by Mom’s last name now.”
“Not legally,” her mother reminded her.
“Legally, you’re my daughter, Aulora. Now, come with us. I want you to throw on some clothes and get out of this ratty robe you have on. There’s so much I want to show you. You won’t be staying tonight in this dump. Your closets in the new penthouse have already been filled by a stylist your mother gave your sizes and style interests to.”
“You’re going to love the clothes and shoes, the handbags, and jewelry!” her mother gushed.
“This isn’t what I wanted,” Aullie said but her parents were having none of that.
Her mother took her over, leading her to the bathroom and tossing her inside. “I’ll grab something from your closet. Shower!”
Aullie stood in the bathroom, the set of keys still in her hand.
What the hell just happened?
Chapter 5
Rain had delayed the private jet from taking off for four hours. When they arrived at JFK airport in New York, it was ten at night. Hayley had been eerily quiet all that time. Weston didn’t seem to care, though.
“Care to share a cab, Weston?” she asked him as they walked out of the sliding glass doors.
“No, I’m taking one to Aulora’s. Like I said before, I’m sorry about things and how they’ve gone but I’m done with you, Hayley. I do hope you have a nice life.” He opened the door of a waiting cab and she got into it. Then he closed the door as her mouth opened to say something else. He didn’t want to hear it anyway.
Getting into the cab that was waiting right behind it, he gave the driver Aulora’s address and was headed that way. Pulling out his cell, he gave her a call. A call she didn’t answer. But he’d expected that.
He sent her a text.
-On my way to you.-
Looking at the phone’s screen, he waited for a reply but got none. When they pulled up at the apartment building, he saw her Accord in its usual spot and grabbed his small overnight bag and got out of the cab. Quick steps took him to
her apartment.
Her door was slightly ajar. He pushed it open and found an older woman cleaning it. “Do you happen to know where the owner of this apartment is?” he asked her.
She merely shrugged and said one word, “Moved.”
“She moved?” he asked with shock reverberating the words he’d spoken.
She nodded. “Moved.”
“But her car is here,” he said as he leaned against the door frame.
The woman shrugged again and he turned to leave as it was pretty obvious he’d get nowhere with her. A call to the cab company had another car coming for him. He caught the cab and headed to the bar she worked at.
It was cold and rainy and Tackleman’s was packed for some reason. He headed inside and asked the hostess if Aullie was working to which he found out she’d quit earlier that same day.
He left, stunned and stricken. Instead of calling another cab, he called her as he stood under the flimsy canvas roof that covered only part of the entrance. She didn’t answer and he ended his search for her for that night.
A long ride back to his home left him wondering what the hell had happened to her. But that night wasn’t going to see him getting to talk to her, that much was obvious.
-You moved. You quit your job. You left without your car. I need to know you’re okay. Please let me know that. I won’t be able to sleep until I know you’re alive and okay, Aulora. Please.- He texted her then waited for a reply.
A beep let him know someone had texted him and he crossed his fingers before he looked at the phone.
-She’s fine. She doesn’t wish to speak with you.-
It was from her number but someone else was talking for her. That had him feeling a bit jittery. So, he texted back.
-I want to talk to her. If I don’t hear her voice, then I’m going to call the cops and report her as abducted!!!-
He hoped like hell that would get her to call him and when his phone rang, he answered it before it could make an entire ring, “Aulora!”
“I’m fine. Leave me alone, Weston,” came her sweet voice. Yes, it was heavily laced with anger but it was her voice and to his ears, it was sweet.
“Aulora, wait. I need to talk to you. You swore to me you’d allow that. We had a deal. I will hold you to it. You and I need to talk.”
“No,” she said. “And I’m blocking your number. I talked to your ex-wife. She told me everything. She told me that you were going to lie to me. She told me you and she had sex. There may be a baby in your future. I’m not about to get in the way of that.”
“She’s lying,” he managed to get in.
“She said you’d say that. She said you had sex then you felt guilty and told her you couldn’t be with her because you love me. But the fact is she could be pregnant and I’m not getting in the middle of that. You screwed someone else, that’s a deal breaker and this is over. You’ve had your say. I don’t owe you anything else.”
“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!
Chapter 6
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.
“What the hell does that even mean?” Brit
t asked.
“I’m the daughter of a rich man. He showed up and wanted to make amends. He gave me what his lawyer said I was due. He bought me a home and a car and gave me a bank account that’s much too big to justify me working and taking money away from those who need it.”
“You’re rich now?” Britt asked. “I mean, what the hell, girl? You wouldn’t take what Weston offered you but you’ll take what a father who’s all but forgotten you has given you? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t really understand, either. I’m numb and more than a bit fucked up by what Weston did,” Aullie said, igniting Britt’s curiosity.
“What did Weston do?”
“It’s a long story with a crappy ending. No one wants to hear it.” She drank the rest of her wine then poured more into the glass from the bottle she’d brought to bed with her. “I could use a real bar in this place. Dad only stocked it with wines.”
“I could come over and bring you something,” Brittany offered. “We could talk. You sound like you need a friend right now.”
Aullie looked at the ceiling. The ornate ceiling that topped ornate walls, decorated with things that cost tons of money. She was lying under expensive sheets and blankets. Her head rested on expensive pillows. Much the same as she had experienced at Weston’s mansion.
She closed her eyes. “Not tonight. I’m too weepy. Terrible company. I wouldn’t force myself on anyone I care about right now. I’m more than a mess.”
“At least tell me you think you’ll live through this,” Britt said with a light laugh.
“The way my heart hurts, it’s iffy,” she said and really meant it.
“That bad, huh?”
“Worse,” she replied. “Has anyone ever literally died from a broken heart?”
“No,” Britt told her. “Well, I don’t think so. There was that one couple. But they were really old and had spent something like ninety years together. But no one could prove the last one went only thirty minutes later, from a broken heart.”
“So, it could happen is what you’re saying.” Aullie took another long drink of the wine. “Great!”
“No, Aullie. You should really let me come over. You sound half drunk and half insane.”
His Beautiful Revenge: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 108