Chapter 34
AURELIA
I had been in more comfortable positions in my life than walking into Harlan and CC Westwood’s mansion unannounced. It was almost seven o’clock, and if they were anything like my own parents, they would be done with supper and retiring to their bedrooms at any moment.
Garvey didn’t even open the massive, double-wide front doors for us this time.
Instead, Harrison pushed the doors open, his shoulders square and his chin held high.
I tried not to let it show how attractive I found him in this moment, ready to stand up to his parents for us even though he’d barely told me two hours ago how he really felt.
The fact of the matter was that his family definitely underestimated him. His parents, at least. I wasn’t sure about his brothers yet, but it’d become abundantly clear to me how strong he was, how decisive and capable.
This guy didn’t back down for anyone or anything. He was smart and calculating, but he was also brave, and when he set his mind to something, it didn’t seem like there was anything that was going to stop him.
A secret smile spread my lips and I ducked my head to hide it.
Footsteps came from the other side of their cavernous foyer, and when I looked up, my heart started pounding.
Harlan Westwood was standing in the hallway that led to their living room, one hand clutching a tumbler of amber liquid and his phone in the other.
He was in a pair of sweats with fluffy socks on his feet, a washed-out, comfortable-looking hoodie with it. Those sharp blue eyes narrowed on us immediately, but a moment later, he broke into a wide, happy grin.
“Children! This is a surprise.” He waved us closer and called back over his shoulder. “CC, you’ll never believe who’s here. Harrison and Aurelia have popped in.”
Unsurprisingly, CC didn’t respond. I didn’t know where she was or what she was doing, but she didn’t rush out to greet us with a welcoming grin to match her husband’s. I felt Harrison tense at my side, but I tugged him forward, smiling at his dad as we approached.
“Hi, Mr. Westwood. I hope we’re not interrupting.”
“Not at all, my dear.” He swept me into a hug that was relatively awkward because Harrison still wouldn’t let go of my hand, but then he chuckled and clapped Harrison warmly on the shoulder.
“I’m glad you’re here, actually. What with Claire interrupting our dinner, it’ll be good to have the opportunity to sit down together.
Come. Let me get you something to drink. ”
“Dad, we’re not here to—”
“Oh, have a drink, son,” Harlan urged, sending him a grin as he led us down the hall. “It’s the holidays. We haven’t seen much of you lately.”
“Yeah, I wonder why that is,” Harrison muttered, sighing. He tightened his grip on my hand once we reached the living room.
CC sat in an armchair by the fire, dressed comfortably herself, but in a designer tracksuit with elegant, furry boot-type slippers instead of Harlan’s worn-out fluffy ones.
Her manicured fingers were wrapped around a glass of red wine, her gray-blonde hair still styled in that sharp bob after the day.
She didn’t say anything as we walked in, a deep scowl settling across her features before she turned her attention back to the flames dancing in the fireplace. Harrison scoffed, but the sound was drowned out by Harlan’s cheerful chatter.
“We’re so blessed that you’re going to be joining the family, Aurelia. Have you thought more about my offer for you to join W&S? We’re hoping you’ll be willing to start as soon as our offices open up for business in the new year.”
For just a moment, I wondered why this man seemed to love me so much already, but frankly, his obvious approval made me feel warmer and fuzzier inside than his slippers. I didn’t really care why he felt that way, only about the fact that he did.
“I’m so proud of the choice Harrison made when he proposed to you, and the Kingsley deal? I’ve taken a look at what you did and I’m even more impressed now than I was before. You two definitely make a formidable team.”
Harrison accepted the drink his father stuck into his hand, so I did the same, but neither of us sipped.
Harlan showed us to the pair of armchairs beside theirs.
We sat down, and for a second, I didn’t know if he’d changed his mind, but as soon as I glanced at my future husband, I realized he was as determined as ever to have this conversation.
One of his hands remained firmly in mine. He leaned back in the armchair, but his gaze was on his mother, his posture rigid and his expression hard. He stepped up immediately. “Alright, Mom. That’s enough. What’s the real reason why you’re so pissed about our arrangement?”
She glanced at him fleetingly before giving her head a soft shake. “You’re both just so young and you hardly know each other.”
“Bullshit.” He let out a deep breath and kept staring at her until she finally turned back to him. “The real reason, Mother. I know it’s not just because you don’t want your baby getting married.”
Harlan leaned closer to her from his armchair beside hers, reaching out to take one of her hands and cradling it between both of his. As she lifted her gaze to his, something unspoken seemed to pass between them, his expression gentle and hers becoming more resigned by the second.
“It’s time, Cecelia,” he said quietly, the words obviously meant for her. “Tell the story so they can understand.”
I risked a quick glance at Harrison, finding those bluish hazel eyes already locked on me. A five-o’clock shadow had appeared on his jaw over the last few hours, and as our eyes met, he gave me a slight, reassuring smile and squeezed my hand.
Leaning to his side in my chair, I let my gaze drift around the room, at least attempting to give Harlan and CC some privacy for their private exchange. The first thing that caught my eye was a gorgeous, heavily decorated, towering Christmas tree in one corner of the room.
A bar took up the other, a TV almost the size of a cinema screen against the wall to my left.
Scattered in front of it were leather couches that actually looked used and worn.
My own mother had never allowed us to frolic in their living room, preferring we used the kids’ pajama lounge upstairs, but it was clear that CC hadn’t had the same rules with her kids.
Dozens of photos lined the wall, her boys’ smiling faces in almost all of them.
While crystal chandeliers hung overhead and the furnishings were tasteful and expensive, this place felt like the heart of their home.
It was a room in which I could easily envision her erecting a playpen for baby Claire soon, teething toys littered all over her luxurious carpets.
The woman might not like me, but I felt a fresh wave of respect for her surging up in me. Despite her status, her upbringing, and all the money in the world, she’d created a loving home for her kids, a place where they could come for advice or comfort.
The mere thought of being responsible for coming between her and one of her kids suddenly brought tears to my eyes, but I quickly blinked them away. That was what we were here to avoid.
Finally, I looked back at them when the air in the room shifted. When my gaze landed on her, CC was glancing between Harrison and me, but it was him she finally spoke to. She sniffled indignantly and gracefully folded her legs, but it was clear that she was embarrassed about this.
“Regina and I were the best of friends back in high school,” she started quietly, occasionally glancing at the fire with her spine so straight, it might as well have been a broomstick. “I trusted her with everything. My secrets. My wallet. Even my boyfriend.”
She sniffled again, sighing as her gaze flickered to mine. “It turned out that she wasn’t as trustworthy as I thought.”
For a moment, she fell silent, then glanced at Harlan, who nodded kindly for her to continue. Weirdly, there was a smile on his lips, like he was amused by all this but was trying to hide it.
“I found out one day that she’d been stabbing me in the back for weeks. She stole my boyfriend and she didn’t even have the decency to tell me to my face.”
Harlan was chuckling, but my brow furrowed, and when I looked at Harrison, I saw that he was frowning too. Thankfully, CC elaborated, cringing and bringing one hand to her forehead for a moment as she shook her head.
“It was awful. Regina embarrassed me terribly, and to this very day, she’s never apologized. It also caused a huge rift in our friend group. A group that’s still suffering from her deception. Some people still feel guilty when they come to one of our parties or get invited to hers.”
She let out a long sigh before she lifted her head again, tears shimmering in her eyes in the firelight. She reached for Harlan’s hand again and peeked up at him with the most loving, beautiful smile I’d ever seen on the face of a woman like her.
“In retrospect, it all worked out for the best. I love your father with my whole heart and I wouldn’t have wanted a future with anyone else, but there are some people who still only think of that when they see me. This town has a long memory and I’ve never lived the humiliation down.”
Harrison opened his mouth, but I didn’t want him making excuses for my mother.
The worst part was that it never even crossed my mind to try and defend her.
I believed what CC had said, and while I didn’t quite understand why she was pissed with me over my mother’s betrayal long before either Harrison or I had even been born, I totally got why she would still feel embarrassed about it sometimes.
“I’m sorry about what my mother did to you,” I said pointblank, meeting CC’s gaze directly when the sound of my voice drew her attention from her son and her husband to me.
“God knows, Regina can be a real bitch sometimes. I’m the last one who will ever deny it, but this happened over thirty years ago. ”
CC opened her mouth, but I wasn’t done yet. “Right now, today, Harrison and I want to get married. We are going to get married, and neither of us will let something that happened so long ago, something that has nothing to do with either of us, stand in our way.”
“What she’s trying to say is that this is petty drama and it’s cutting into our plans to get married for no good reason,” Harrison said, seamlessly picking up where I’d left off.
“I love you, Mom. You know that. I’m sorry that any of this happened at all and I’m definitely sorry that it’s followed you the way it has, but you’re CC freaking Westwood. ”
Harlan’s lips quirked into a smile and he brought her hand to his lips, brushing a kiss to her knuckles in the sweetest, warmest way. Harrison let out a soft sigh.
“The reality is that no one looks at you and only thinks about that, Mom. Sure, maybe it caused some drama years ago and people remember it, but shit. You’re their queen and we’re not asking you to forgive Regina. All we’re asking, like Aurelia said, is that you don’t stand in our way.”
“Heavens, no.” She sucked in a surprised gasp. “I would never stand in your way, darling. Is that what you thought?”
“Yes,” he said unapologetically. “We wanted to find out what happened from you, so that we could determine if you would ever let it go or if you were going to try to keep us apart.”
CC slumped back in her chair for a moment, which I assumed was seriously out of character for her, considering the surprise on both Harlan and Harrison’s faces. She inhaled a deep breath, letting her head drop back for a moment as she closed her eyes.
When they opened again, she focused on Harrison, tears shining brightly in her eyes. She rose and strode over to him. “I’m sorry, my baby.”
He blinked hard, like an apology from her was unheard of. Bending over, she took his face between her palms, but she didn’t squeeze or make it look like some kind of babying gesture. Instead, she just seemed entirely genuine and imploring.
“I would never stand in the way of something that makes you happy, Harrison,” she said, her voice quiet and sincere.
“I am sorry if this has caused any tension between you two. I never meant to be the source of any discord. I know that you want to move forward with your life and that you’re not my baby anymore.
I also realize that you shouldn’t have to be managing your mother’s feelings while you’re trying to plan a wedding, and I am so, so sorry. ”
She sighed. “I appreciate you both coming here to speak to me. I know it couldn’t have been easy.
” She straightened up as she said it and went back to her chair, then looked at me, but her expression was no less sincere.
“I owe you an apology as well, Aurelia. Clearly, you’re not your mother.
She never would’ve sat us down like this to air things out.
I’m sorry if my distrust of her has made you feel unwelcome. ”
Her gaze flickered back to her son’s. “I’m proud of you, Harrison. I hope you know that. I’m so, so proud of you. If it’s my blessing you want, you two have it, but the rest? I’m just not sure the Van Alens will ever be family to me.”
I smiled as I looked between them, some of the tension in my chest easing. CC was probably never going to love me as much as she did her other three daughters-in-law, but at least it felt like we’d taken a few steps in the right direction for now.
Most of all, I was absolutely certain that she wasn’t going to try anything to detonate my relationship with her son, and that? That made absolutely everything else worth it.