Chapter 34

As Jeff advised, Dusty waited until that night when she was alone in her apartment to read about her new wage increase. Working there on probationary terms, she'd made around $2,500 a month, which was just enough to rent her apartment and get by. She knew it was a good wage, but it wasn't life changing.

Carefully, she unfolded and began to read the terms of her now permanent employee status. She finished reading the terms and then read them again, just to be certain. Before tax, she would be earning $80,000 a year. That was an obscene amount of money to Dusty. She started to shake as she looked at the figures.

Then, she began crying. The money would change everything. She could finally help her mom out, get her out of the trailer, and stop her killing herself working two jobs. It was the sort of money that would enable her to put a down payment on a decent apartment in the city, or even a house back in West. She could think about getting a mortgage, of using her money towards her future.

As Dusty cried she thought of her father, of how immensely proud he'd have been if she could show him the bonus check, the letter about the wage increase. She imagined him telling her what an amazing daughter he had and how much he loved her. It was the same words he'd say whenever he saw her play the violin. The pain of missing her father and being hurt by Valentine started to burn through her with an intense ferocity, and she rolled back on her bed and let her tears take her.

They washed down her cheeks and tried to quash the fire of her despair. All the money, as wonderful as it was, it couldn't bring her father back. It couldn't change what happened that fateful day he was taken from her, nor could it alter things with Valentine. No amount of money could bring him back to her now. But the money could change things for her mother and Dust, the people who mattered most to her. And Ashley too. It excited Dusty to think she could now treat her friend to lavish gifts and go some way to repaying her for the kindness she'd shown her throughout college.

Taking out her iPad, Dusty began searching online for property in West. She knew that there was one thing her money could potentially buy that would right an awful lot of wrongs and restore her family to what they had once been.

****

"It's a lovely surprise to have you back home again, sweetheart." Kayla Black smiled at her daughter as she made pancakes on the stove in the trailer.

"Nice to be back." Dusty smiled.

"Is everything okay back in New York?" Kayla asked anxiously. It wasn't like Dusty to return back to West so swiftly. She'd spent years avoiding the place, and now here she was, back in the trailer while the year was only into its first month.

"Everything is fine," Dusty reassured her mother as Kayla passed her a plate of fresh pancakes, which Dusty gratefully accepted.

"I just thought it was too expensive to keep coming home," Kayla continued, determined to get to the root cause of her daughter's impromptu return. She anticipated that either work or girls were troubling her.

"I got a raise." Dusty shrugged, biting into a fluffy piece of pancake.

"Oh, well, that's good," Kayla said brightly, visibly surprised. "So your job is going well?" Dusty nodded, unable to speak with her mouth full.

"I do worry about you while you're off in the city," Kayla admitted. "Especially since you got mugged. Are you sure everything is all right?" Dusty saw the fear flecked in her mother's eyes and sighed, knowing she would have to relinquish the true intent behind her visit sooner than she'd have liked.

"Mom, I can promise you that everything in New York is great, amazing even. I'm currently busy finding a new apartment to live in."

"Because you got a raise?"

"Yeah, because I got a raise."

"Dusty, honey, don't go spending all your money on an apartment. I know you don't like where you live right now, but I don't want you wasting all your money just to be in a decent area."

"It's fine, Mom. Don't worry."

"But I do worry," Kayla implored. "Sometimes all I do is lie awake at night and worry about you."

Dusty frowned. It pained her to imagine her mother alone in the darkness of the trailer, eyes wide, unable to sleep, worrying about her children. Her mother deserved to be happy. "If I tell you why I'm really here, do you promise to start worrying less?" Dusty asked, eyeing her mother carefully.

"Why are you here?" Kayla immediately asked. "I knew something was wrong."

"Not until you promise to worry less." Dusty raised an eyebrow.

"Dusty, I'm a mother. It's my job to worry."

"Unless you promise to worry less, I cannot disclose the nature of my visit," Dusty said furtively, being sly like she was a secret service agent on a highly classified mission.

"Okay, fine, I'll try to worry less." Kayla sighed, desperate to hear what had brought Dusty back to West so swiftly. She wondered if it was a girl, maybe a woman from back home she had rekindled something with.

"I guess I'll have to accept try," Dusty quipped, smiling.

"So what is it? What's going on with you?" Kayla demanded.

"Well, like I said, I got a promotion at work."

"Which is great."

"And as such, I've got some more money. And I wanted to get you something."

"Honey, you shouldn't be wasting your money on me. You've got more important things to be buying," Kayla declared, her face falling.

"Mom! Please! Let me give you the gift first before you go telling me off for buying it!"

"But I don't need anything."

"Let me be the judge of that," Dusty countered.

"Okay, fine, what did you get me?" Kayla asked, not wanting to seem ungrateful but already fearful that her daughter was wasting money on her that she didn't have. She appreciated the sentiment, truly she did. But she'd been married to a man who was more generous than his means, and she didn't want her daughter to repeat his financial mistakes.

"I can't give it to you here. We have to go to it," Dusty said, her eyes sparkling with secretive mischief.

"Go where?" Kayla asked, surprised.

"You'll see," Dusty declared smugly, smiling to herself as she finished her pancakes.