Becoming My Ex’s Mother in Law by Aurora Starling

Chapter 19 

Mr. Vanderbilt seemed moved by my declaration. Tears gathered at the edges of his eyes. 

“You would really do all that for Eliza and me?” 

It broke my heart that he was so unaccustomed to kindness now that he would be so taken aback by my offer. At the same time, it warmed me that I could be the one to bring such kindness back into his life. I just wished that I could do more. 

“Of course, I will.” 

He smiled broadly, revealing a missing tooth. Somehow, it made him even more charming. I had to smile back. 

Suddenly, his smile disappeared, and he took on a serious expression. He grabbed one of my wrists, and I worried that something might have upset him. 

“Is something wrong, Mr. Vanderbilt?” I asked. 

“No, no. I was just thinking about that dress that you showed me. There are others like it that were destroyed, 

correct?” 

Reluctantly, I nodded. 

“Yes, an entire rack. Some of them were custom–made, just like the one I showed you, but not as expensive.” A light seemed to go off in Mr. Vanderbilt’s mind. 

“I will fix them for you, all of them.” 

My eyes widened. 

“All of them?” 

He smiled again. 

“For a reasonable price, of course, 

I nodded. 

“Of course, of course. And the Alpha King’s daughter’s dress will be top priority, right?” 

He laughed. 

“Yes, of course.” 

“Thank you, Mr. Vanderbilt. Thank you!” 

I couldn’t help but hug the elderly man. He hesitated, but he eventually wrapped his arms around me and returned the hug. When I pulled away, we were both blushing fiercely. 

“I am so sorry about that, Mr. Vanderbilt.” 

“No need to be. And please, Crystal, call me Nikolas. 

Our eyes met, 

“Eighty–five percent,” Susan said, almost smugly. 

I grinned like a fool. This had definitely been one of my hardest–earned conversions. 

I felt bad leaving Mr. Vanderbilt–Nikolas–with his son, but Nikolas had assured me that he would get out as soon as possible, probably even that night. I really hoped that he would hold true that. 

As I walked back to my hotel, I couldn’t wait to share the news about Nikolas and the dress with Andrew. He would be so happy to learn that I not only solved that problem but also helped out that sweet elderly man. I was so excited that I decided to leave him a message explaining everything that happened. 

I had already left him a couple before talking to Nikolas, updating him on what I was planning on doing, but this was just too enticing to not let him know about. 

Then I remembered something that Lily had once told me. 

People always want to share everything with their loved ones first. 

There was no denying it at this point. I was in love with Andrew. Not that I would be telling anyone but myself and Susan that 

As soon as I entered my hotel room, I checked my messages. There were none, not even from Andrew. 

Maybe I had been too proactive. He was probably busy–why wouldn’t he be?-and didn’t have time to waste on me and my petty needs. He probably thought I was a bother. 

I sighed and plopped down on the bed. I knew that I shouldn’t let something as silly as this dampen my mood after such a tremendous victory, but I couldn’t help it. I missed Andrew, and I worried what he thought of me. Suddenly, my phone vibrated, When I looked at the screen, it was Andrew trying to video call me. 

I scrambled to answer it. 

“Hello?” 

“Hi, Crystal. I just got your message about the dressmaker. Fantastic job!” 

I had to conceal the girly squeal my b*dy instinctually wanted to emit at his praise. 

“Thank you, Andrew,” I said instead, trying my best to remain composed. 

“You’re doing such a great job, especially considering the fire,” he continued. “I couldn’t have picked a better wedding planner.” 

I knew I practically glowed at his praise and encouragement, and a part of me felt a bit pathetic for pegging so much of my self–esteem on a man’s opinion. The other part of me reminded myself that this wasn’t just any man showering me with compliments; this was the Alpha King himself. His opinion meant more than 

most 

“Thank you so much,” was all I could say. 

“I’m glad that you at least had a good day at work.” 

I tilted my head. 

“Did something happen at yours?” 

“No. Well, nothing too bad, that is. More just annoying.” 

I hesitated. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“I’m sure that you don’t want to hear about an assistant spilling his coffee all over a petition for a new werewolf clinic in the outskirts of the city.” 

My hand flung over my mouth as I suppressed a laugh. 

“Oh my goddess, that I had to be so horrible for them,” I said when I finally lowered my 

Andrew shrugged. 

hand. 

“Not really. Fortunately, we had already photocopied all the signatures just in case something like that happened.” 

“Well, you seem to be all on top of things. 

He grinned. 

“You’d think so, but not always. Just the other day, I was supposed to give a speech in front of the human United Nations, and I forgot my speech in my hotel room.” 

This time, I couldn’t help but laugh. 

“What did you do?” 

“What could I do? I pieced together what I had memorized and then winged the rest of it. You know, the usual “humans and werewolves need to work together against the vampiric threat‘ bullshit and something about. brotherhood spanning across species.” 

“And how did that work out?” 

“Everyone loved it, naturally.” 

I laughed again, this time at the slightly smug smile that Andrew wore on his face. 

“Naturally,” I echoed. Then I shook my head. “I can’t believe you ‘winged” part of your speech to the UN.” 

I 

“Hey, sometimes in life, you just have to wing things. I mean, did you rehearse every part of your encounter with Nikolas?” 

“Well, no, but the part that I did, you can bet that I rehearsed it to death.” 

Andrew laughed. 

“I bet that you did.” 

I chewed on my lower l*p. Our conversation had entered a lull, but I didn’t want it to come to an end yet. 

As though he had read my mind, Andrew said, “You know, I once got into an arm–wrestling competition with the President of the United States.” 

My jaw dropped. 

“You did not.” 

“Yeah. The fool thought it was a myth that werewolves are naturally stronger than humans even in their human form, so we decided to have an arm–wrestling competition to see which one of us was stronger.” 

I waited to see if he would finish that story, but he didn’t. 

“Well, who won?” 

“I did, of course! The poor fellow never stood a chance.” 

“I’m assuming that this was never made public. 

“No, no. This was all during a private dinner. I think he would’ve died of embarrassment if it had been public.” 

I giggled. Maybe his job wasn’t always so serious and boring. Maybe, sometimes, Andrew loosened up a bit 

there, too. 

Andrew laughed along with me. A moment of silence followed, then Andrew sighed. 

“Well, I would love to talk to you all night, but I need to get going,” he said. 

“I understand. Goodnight, Andrew.” 

“Goodnight, Crystal.” 

As soon as we hung up, my heart felt heavy from missing Andrew again. I couldn’t wait until I was able to see him in person again. Even though a romantic relationship wasn’t an option for us, maybe we could still have a friendship.