A Secret to Keep (2 page)

“I beg your pardon,” she said, glancing into the eyes of a much older and less handsome version of Gates.

“Oh, you are beautiful, sweetheart. Such a sweet temptation with that smooth brown skin of yours. Exotic even. I can see why Gates is indulging, but you don’t have nearly the power or money to be a part of our world,” he added, letting his eyes stroll up and down her body and making her feel even more uneasy with each passing second. “Right now, you dating Gates is nothing more than a blip on his radar. When things go the way I’ve planned, Gates will be married to Allie and you will be out in the cold. I wouldn’t get too comfortable if I were you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You can get it out of your head that you are going to marry my son. And don’t even think about having any children with him. I won’t have you sullying the McCall name. Things are already in motion sweetheart and there’s not one thing you can do about it. Pretty soon he’ll realize you aren’t the woman for him.” His snake eyes gleamed with incandescent coolness and she guessed Victor had been waiting for an opportunity like this to inject insecurity into her mind.

“Gates loves me,” she added, twiddling with her engagement ring as she glanced across the room at her fiancé. His charisma and charm exuded out of every pore and he didn’t seem to mind the redhead’s overt advances, but Sloane wouldn’t let Victor see her squirm.

Chuckling, Victor followed her gaze across the room before leaning over to whisper in her ear. “I’m just so sure he does, dear. You keep telling yourself that. It would be in your best interests to make arrangements to head back to the cotton fields of Georgia where you came from. You are playing a game that’s way out of your league here.” He hissed and sauntered off to mingle amongst the throng of socialites as she stood trying her best not to falter. The threat of tears pinched at the corners of her eyes but she managed to keep them at bay and pull herself together as she continued to watch Gates laugh with the beautiful woman and a host of others who swarmed around him.

A few days later, she received even more confirmation of what she needed to do. She had decided not to tell Gates about his father’s threats. She knew it would do her no good with the way she and Gates were arguing as of late. He continuously made plans with her, only to cancel them at the last minute for some meeting or client matter. Many nights, he would come home late, take a shower and slip into bed without saying a word. Of course, Victor continued to do nothing but preempt their plans and make unreasonable demands on his son’s time. The final straw came when his father called demanding he accompany him and a potential client to play golf. Sloane begged Gates to stay with her; their plans for the night before had also been interrupted by his father’s need for him to attend a dinner with ‘clients.’ Once again, Gates defended his father’s motives, to her chagrin.

“Sweetheart, we’ve been through this over and over again. What do you want from me?” He stood with the most exasperated look on his face.

“I want things to be the way they were. You never used to ignore me or cancel on me. It seems like everything else is so much more important to you.”

“Sloane, you know nothing is more important to me than you, but I have to do this. The old man’s not going to be around forever and if I’m going to be the CEO of McCall International then I have to build relationships with these clients so it’ll be a smooth transition. It’s not going to be like this always. I promise,” he reminded her.

“What about the wedding and us starting a family and-”

“You can go ahead and plan the wedding. I’m fine with whatever you choose. As for starting a family, well, I don’t know about that right now. Things are too busy now, and besides, we’ve got a lifetime to think about that.” He kissed her forehead and winked at her before turning to head to the shower.

As soon as he entered the shower, his phone buzzed and she picked it up to see the message that pretty much drove the nail in the coffin.
“Gates, it was so good seeing you last night. Looking forward to seeing you soon – Allie”
Placing the phone down, she silently sat on the bed contemplating her next move. When he emerged from the shower, she watched him get dressed and head out of the penthouse before making the hardest decision of her life. Gathering her nerve and forgetting about the consequences, she got up, took a shower and packed her bags. She only made one stop; to see Gates’ best friend, Evan, before she left New York for good.

“Liyah, what am I going to do?”

“We are going to do our presentation for him and win this contract.”

“You know what I mean.” Sloane sank into the chair again and thought about the son she’d kept from Gates. “Gates has a son that I never told him about. Just exactly how do you think he’s going to react when he finds out?” It wasn’t like she had wanted to keep him a secret, but she felt she had no choice. The constant arguing they did over him putting work before her and the rumored affairs were too much for her to handle. Coupled with his father’s constant maneuverings, she just couldn’t take it. She didn’t find out she was pregnant until weeks after she’d left and she never could work up the nerve to tell him. Plus, Gates had been so focused on ‘building his empire’ she felt a baby would get in his way. Victor had ignored both Gates and his sister during their entire childhood. Sloane didn’t want the same for her baby. She wanted them to be a family. Something she wasn’t able to have growing up. With the way he’d changed, she knew it wasn’t possible. And Victor was so hell bent on her never having the McCall name; she wasn’t sure what he would do. So, she had decided not to tell him. Now with Gates suddenly appearing, she feared how the situation would play out if he knew the truth.

“Honestly, I can’t understand why you never told him in the first place. It’s not like he couldn’t provide anything Brayden needed.”

“I know Gates could give Brayden the world if he wanted it, but it wasn’t that. There was too much there to deal with. Plus, I didn’t want my son to feel the same disappointment I did.” Sloane felt a stab of pain in her heart at the thoughts of how she and Gates drifted apart. She didn’t want Brayden to be put last by the man who was supposed to love him and teach him all the things he needed. Or worse, ignored completely.

Liyah nodded her head before noticing a new email pop into her inbox. “Well, regardless of what happened between you two, we have to get ready for Wednesday.”

“Wednesday?” Sloane sat up from her sprawled position in the chair, feeling a dull ache forming in the base of her brain. “What’s Wednesday?”

Liyah continued scanning through the email. “Looks like that’s when Gates has called a meeting for all of the companies who were working with Boston Developers.”

“You’re kidding?” Sloane jerked forward, white knuckling the arms of the chair as the heart palpitations increased again. She was sure her heart was going to beat right out of her chest and she felt lightheaded. There was no way she could face him so soon.

“Nope, he’s not wasting any time and if we want to keep our spot, we’ve got to be ready for anything.”

“Oh, I’m so not ready for this.” Sloane stood and started towards the door to head to her own office. She could feel a headache starting at the base of her neck and her stomach churned with more anxiety than she’d ever known.

“Hey, it’s going to be fine. You’ll see.” Liyah pushed her chair back from her desk and followed Sloane down the corridor.

“I don’t know, Liyah. I’ve worked my tail off trying to provide a life for Brayden, built my own identity and career without Gates so I could take care of my baby. Now in a matter of seconds, Gates has come in and taken over the one thing I could control in my life. Granted, he did give me a beautiful son and I even learned some great project management stuff from him, but what am I going to do?” Sloane wrung her sweat-laced hands wondering how she could go back and stop today, or any other day going forward, from happening.

“Sloane…” Liyah stopped as Sloane turned on her heel to face her. There was true terror painted across her face and Liyah waited for her to say something.

“Liyah, Brayden is my world. What have I done?” She squeaked before she turned to push the door open to her own office. Reaching her desk, she withered into the black leather chair. Chewing on her bottom lip, she wiped at the tears finally escaping the corners of her eyes and swiveled to glance at the photo of the cute smiling face of her most precious possession on the credenza behind her desk. A wave of nausea like the day after a raging frat party hit her and she felt a cool sweat seep through her clothes and bead up at her crown.

“Look, it’s going to be fine. We’ll get through the meeting, the hospital will get built, he won’t find out about Brayden and he’ll head back to New York with no problems, okay?” Liyah stood on the opposite side of the desk watching for any reaction from Sloane. “It’ll work out.”

“I hope you’re right.” Sloane had wondered many times how Gates would react if he ever found out about Brayden and now it looked like those fears may be realized sooner than she imagined. “My precious angel.” Picking up the frame she smiled at the tiny cherub who was a perfect blend of them. “I pray your father won’t hate me for this.”

###

“I think the best thing for us to do is to focus on how important this project really is to the community. Boston Developers were all for it before because of how much of an impact Mari made on the community and I really don’t see why McCall International won’t be behind it now.” Liyah whispered to Sloane as the two watched their competitors slowly file into the room. Wednesday had come a lot quicker than she wanted it to and Slo
ane’s mind was nowhere close to being focused on the meeting. To say she was a little nervous was an understatement. Thinking about Gates discovering her secret inhibited her ability to form complete sentences, let alone think of their project. She hadn’t been able to sleep since he’d shown up and she felt like running away. How could he still have such an effect on her? It had been more than a year since she last saw him and even then he had been cold towards her.

“His father’s funeral.” Sloane gazed out of the boardroom window into the most vibrant blue cloudless sky. It was amazing how peaceful and serene the sky was and how it had the ability to make someone feel so calm even when they had so much inner turmoil consuming them.

“What?” Liyah looked at Sloane, whose bottom lip trembled with the thoughts of the last time she’d seen Gates.

“His father’s funeral. That’s the last time I saw him.” Sloane whispered, remembering the day she had finally decided to tell Gates about their baby.

“Hon, you think of this now?”

“You asked me the other day when I saw him last. It was his father’s funeral, and I don’t know, but today feels a lot like that day.” She had struggled with whether she should even attend the service, but soon found herself standing in the back of the crowd at the gravesite. It was a warm and sunny day, which was ironic because Victor McCall was far from warm and sunny. He was the coldest, most callous man she’d ever met and he never made any bones about the fact that he didn’t care for her. He only saw people for what they were worth and not in the soulful kind of way. Everything about him had to do with money. Since Victor was gone and no longer a threat to her, Sloane figured she could pay her respects and reveal her truth to Gates.

However, she felt chills scuttle up and down her arms as her eyes met his. It felt like he would bore a hole through her soul. His eyes were cold and his lips pulled tight. As the minister conducted the service, Sloane fidgeted under Gates’ unwavering glare. She felt so uncomfortable that she slunk away from the group before the minister could finish and headed to her car. His icy stare had convinced her it was better for her to leave. It wasn’t more than a day later she received an email from Gates.
“Don’t pretend you ever cared about me or my family. The gesture was thoughtful, but unnecessary. I can’t grieve what I don’t miss, and I don’t mean my father.”
She knew he was angry with her for leaving him. No one left Gates McCall. In that one email, she could feel every part of the hatred and contempt he had for her in each keystroke.

“Hey, come back to the here and now. Sloane come on, we have to focus. Are you going to be able to do this?” Liyah snapped her fingers in front of Sloane to get her attention. “Sloane? Sloane?”

“Oh, Liyah, I’m sorry. What were you saying?” Just as Liyah was about to answer her, she quieted and Sloane followed her gaze toward the door where her unbelievably handsome ex-fiancé stood.

“Santo cielo.” Liyah breathed and stood straighter, adjusting her jacket.

“He’s just a man in a suit,” Sloane said, trying to convince herself more than Liyah that he
was
just a man in a suit. She busied herself by stacking and reorganizing an already organized stack of papers. She could feel one single bead of sweat slowly meander its way down her back. But Gates’ magnetic pull soon had her staring at his deep-set hazel orbs. She tried to look away, but there was something about this man who was able to suck her in like cake flour through a sieve.

“He
is so not
just a man in a suit.” Liyah swallowed hard, shaking her head at Sloane’s dismissal of him. “I’m beginning to understand why you’re so nervous about this. Wow. You know, I didn’t realize how much Brayden looks like him.”

“Shh, keep your voice down.” Sloane tried to move, to blink, to do anything, but her body betrayed her wishes and she could only stare as Gates mingled through the room before he stopped near the two of them. She felt the individual hairs on her neck called to attention as his deep voice rumbled over her.