Broken Truth (36 page)

 “God, I’ve missed you so much,” he growled possessively against her mouth as his hand firmly grasped at her.

Charlie parted her lips marginally as a soft whimper escaped the back of her throat. She was completely tuned into him and aware of everything that he was doing to her body. She could feel the hardness of her nipples as they rubbed excruciatingly against the fabric of her dress.

Callum pulled away from the kiss. “I just checked into a hotel not too far from here,” he rasped as he stroked his nose along the soft skin of her cheek. He waited patiently for her reaction as she slowly digested his words.

She tensed instantaneously as alarm bells sounded in her brain. She knew that there was no way in hell she was going back with him to his hotel room without hearing answers first.

“No,” she replied, taking Callum by surprise. Placing her hands on his chest, Charlie pushed Callum back. “No,” she repeated. “I’m not doing this Callum. I’m not falling back into the same trap as last time. I haven’t spoken to you in nearly seven weeks, so I need answers from you first before we decide anything.”

It was the one ploy she knew Callum would exploit at his earliest opportunity and the reason she had been avoiding him for so long. Although his sexual desire was appealing and intense and something she had been craving, Charlie knew that she would be on thin ice if she didn’t put a stop to this now. If she didn’t, she knew that she would end up ruining any chance of reconciliation they still had.

A pained expressed flashed across Callum’s face as he anxiously ran a hand through his hair. “Tomorrow,” he proposed.

Charlie wrinkled her brow. “Tomorrow? What about tomorrow?”

“Meet me at my hotel tomorrow morning for breakfast. We can’t let this charade go on any longer without getting the answers we both need.”

Her lip twitched in annoyance. “What else are you hiding from me, Callum?”

“Not now,” he tried to reason. “Please, let us do this somewhere private.” Pulling his wallet from his back pocket, Callum thumbed through the various business cards until he found the number for a hotel in the area. He passed the card to Charlie with a nod. “I will arrange for a car to pick you up outside of your apartment at eight,” he confirmed.

“I have work.”

“I’ll sort it.”

“No,” Charlie shook her head. “I have work, Callum. It will be my first proper day on the job. I can’t miss it to go on a jolly with you.”

Callum’s eyes hardened as his lips lifted into a smirk.

“I believe you are
my
employee, Charlie, and
I
am the boss. I’m telling you to be in that car at eight tomorrow morning. I will handle everything else,” he assured.

Thirty Three

Charlie felt her stomach fill with nervous, apprehensive butterflies as the driver Callum sent pulled the sleek European saloon car outside of the expensive looking hotel. Unclipping her seatbelt, she shifted awkwardly in her seat until the car came to a complete stop and a member of the hotel’s staff opened her door.

“
Grazie
,” she thanked, collecting her bag from the seat beside her and exiting onto the pavement in front of the hotel.

A warm early morning breeze blew gently across Charlie’s face as she looked up at the stunning architecture of the building before her. She chuckled to herself knowing how Callum would have fussily picked this specific hotel for that reason alone.

Walking through into the marbled lobby, Charlie gasped as her eyes took in the breathtaking scenery and decor all around. Multiple stone pillars surrounded a large water fountain that formed the focal point of the area along with multiple oil paintings and sculptures that adorned the surrounding walls and corners.

“Beautiful,” she murmured.

“I’d say so.”

Charlie spun around on the spot and found herself nose to chest with Callum. Before she had chance to react, the reassuring smell of his usual aftershave wafted through her sinuses. Immediately she felt her heart kick up a notch as the familiar scent continued its assault on her senses.

“Good morning,” Callum chuckled, bending his head to place a gentle kiss against her forehead. “I’m glad you decided to get in the car,” she heard his pleased voice.

Charlie inhaled a long breath as Callum placed his arms around her waist. “I didn’t have much choice did I,” she replied.

He chuckled again as he embraced her warmly. “No, you didn’t.”

Feeling the warmth of his arms around her, Charlie found herself sighing with blissful contentment. Out of all the places in the world, this was the one place she found herself most protected and safe. 

“Shall we get some breakfast then?” Callum unwound his arms from around her body much to her dislike. Charlie didn’t want to break away from their embrace too soon because she didn’t know what the next few hours would have in store for her. She didn’t want to know whether Callum would be walking out of her life for good. It was a thought she’d rather not have.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Callum placed two fingers under Charlie’s chin and tilted her face up to his worried eyes. “Talk to me,” he whispered, searching her face for some sort of answer.

She closed her eyes.

She didn’t want to look at him.

“I meant what I said,” Callum told her.

Charlie slowly opened her eyes.

“I will do anything for you,” he promised.

A sudden tightening in her chest caught Charlie off guard. She gasped aloud at the feel of her heart pounding furiously in her chest.

She knew that her heart was still beating with love for him.

 “I still love you,” she whispered.

Callum’s forehead creased as he tried to contain his happiness. “I love you too... Always,” he replied, dipping his mouth to claim her lips tenderly.

He kept the kiss brief and pulled away after a couple of seconds. “We need to talk,” he urged, leading her towards the hotel’s restaurant.

Charlie moved her legs compliantly and remained silent as Callum spoke and directed them towards a booth he had already reserved out of the way from prying eyes.

“Thank you,” she smiled as he took her hand and helped her into her seat.

Placing her bag next to her, Charlie threaded her fingers together and placed them neatly on the table in front. “It’s nice here,” she nodded as Callum slid into his seat opposite her.

His eyes ignited with sudden humour. “Be honest, you couldn’t care less about this place. It’s me that has your attention,” he grinned, reaching across the table to clasp her hand in his.

“Of course,” she teased. “What else could I possibly be thinking of right now?”

He pinched her hand lightly. “Watch it,” he joked.

 Charlie couldn’t help but smile as they continued to tease and mock each other. The banter between them flowed easily without any fault.

“Shall we order?” Callum lifted his neck and signalled a nearby waiter with his eyes.

“
Buongiorno
,” the waiter greeted as he flipped up his notepad in readiness.

She listened quietly as Callum conversed with the waiter. After ordering his own large cup of coffee, he proceeded to order Charlie a cup of strong tea with extra emphasis on the strong and a bowl of fruit to be shared.

“Thank you,” she nodded after the waiter disappeared.

“Don’t be silly, Baby,” he stated simply with a dismissing wave of his hand.

Unknowingly, Charlie started to bite down on her bottom lip. She was dreading the conversation they were about to have, but knew that out of the both of them, she should be the one to initiate the topic.

“So...” she started, flicking a glance at their entwined fingers. “Shall we just get this over with?”

Callum narrowed his eyes. “If you start off this conversation negatively like that then we aren’t going to get anywhere are we?”  

“No,” she answered quietly.

“Where would you like to start?”

Charlie noticed that Callum was now softly caressing her fingers with his thumb. The gesture was simple yet extremely distracting to her.

“Why?” She asked the question with a sudden harshness that caused Callum to flinch. “Why did you do it, Callum? Why did you lie to me?”

She saw him visibly swallow a few times before he cleared his throat to reply.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen like it did,” Callum confessed. “God,” he sighed. “You weren’t supposed to get hurt this way, Charlie. I didn’t tell you so that I could protect you or so I thought.”

“You were sleeping with me while you were a married man, Callum,” Charlie replied, shaking her head. “It is fair enough that you married her for the reasons you did and that you didn’t love her, but you have a daughter for God’s sake. How could you think that keeping that from me wasn’t a big deal?” She could hear her own voice starting to shake as the floodgate to her emotions crumbled.

Callum tightened his grip on Charlie’s hand to the point where she could feel significant pain. Rather than pull away, she watched on with unnerving fascination as the darkness within his eyes turned practically black with regret.

She had never seen him like this before.

She felt as though he was truly opening up his now damaged soul to her.

They remained silent, staring into each other’s eyes until the waiter arrived to disrupt the quietness. As he placed the cups and bowls in front of them, they both took turns to mumble their thanks, their eyes never breaking contact once.

Eventually, Callum broke the silence between them. “She isn’t mine...”

Charlie’s eyes widened. “What do you mean she isn’t yours?”

He shook his head as a sad expression crossed over his features.

“Tell me,” she pressed, squeezing their already tightly grasped hands. She could see the pain reflected across his face and how hard this was for him, but she needed to know. She needed him to explain this further to her.

“She isn’t my daughter.”

“That’s ludicrous,” Charlie replied, “If you aren’t the father then who is?”

Upon asking the question, she saw Callum’s jaw abruptly clench as the darkness within his eyes instantly lit into fury and aggression.

“Jared is Paige’s father...”

Her heartbeat sped up as she shook her head in denial. “No,” she answered. “That is impossible.”

Callum scoffed. “It really isn’t,” he replied. “It turns out Jared was fucking Claire a few weeks after we originally got together.”

“But... You were working with Jared before you met Claire right?”

“Yes. The bastard didn’t say anything to me while I was dating Claire. He was fucking my girlfriend behind my back and then got her pregnant,” Callum explained.

“How did you find out?”

“I went to pick up Paige one night after work a few weeks before you left me. I think Claire had forgotten that I was picking her up that evening because I ended up walking into the living room to find Jared nailing her on the sofa.”

“Oh my God,” she breathed, unable to hide the surprise in her voice. “Paige wasn’t home right?”

“God no,” Callum said, shaking his head. “She wouldn’t do that in the living room with Paige around the house. She knows better than that.”

“So how did you find out that she wasn’t yours?”

“Obviously I wasn’t upset that she was sleeping with someone else. Christ, we were married nearly four years and I barely slept with her,” – Charlie winced awkwardly – “Sorry, I just meant that I was surprised rather than angry. I couldn’t believe out of all the people she could have picked, she picked Jared?” He pulled his face in confusion before continuing. “But anyway, I casually questioned how long it had been going on for just thinking a couple of weeks or something. Well... Claire started reeling off some defensive shit about never being loved and what was she supposed to do etc... Whereas Jared just shrugged and told me straight that it had been going on for years.”

“What happened next?” 

Callum grinned. “I told her I was getting a paternity test and then I knocked that fucker out cold. I think the count is at three knockouts now.”

“So Claire didn’t know who the father was?”

“Not a fucking clue. She was fucking both of us and didn’t know who had fathered the child. She made out to Jared that it was mine and he believed her. I mean, I fucking believed her. Then I married her for the sake of the baby.” Callum banged his free hand hard against the table making Charlie jump. “I married her thinking that baby was mine. I wanted my child to grow up with a family and not a nanny. It is so hard, Charlie. I’ve watched that little girl grow up for almost three years thinking she was my baby, when all along I wasn’t even her biological father.”

Charlie noticed the sadness starting to creep back into Callum’s eyes. Their discussions of Paige clearly triggered a deep vault of emotions somewhere within him.

“When did you find out?” Charlie asked the question although she knew the subject was distressing him. She needed to make sure she had all of the answers to her questions.

“I got the call the night you showed up in London,” he admitted as a small tear leaked from the corner of his eye. “I was out with Paige when the call came through. As soon as I heard those results my heart just broke. I had this little girl with me that thought I was her Daddy when in reality I was nothing to her.”

“Don’t even say that you are nothing to her,” Charlie choked as her own tears started to fall. “You were that little girl’s Daddy for the first three years of her life. She looked up to you and she loves you.”

“I know she loves me just like I love her with all of my heart. That little girl has been my life, Charlie. It was when I got that phone call about the test results that I decided I needed to do something. I knew I needed to get that divorce in place and quick. I had already made the call to my solicitor to set the ball in motion when I was on my way back to drop Paige off with Claire. Although I was sad at what I had discovered, I was also feeling happy for the prospects of our future.”

Charlie clamped her mouth closed as she let Callum continue.

“You see, Charlie. I had everything in place all along. I knew eventually I was going to divorce Claire so that I could propose to you, but I needed to make sure plans were in place for Paige first and that she was old enough to understand. Before I even found out about Jared, I was already having the Saturday conference calls with my solicitor so that we could setup a trust fund for Paige for when she turns eighteen. Whilst I have ensured that will remain in place as decided, my solicitor has managed to get the annulment with not too much damage on my part and without a court trial. Claire has walked away with nothing but the money she was siphoning off from my accounts and the knowledge that Paige’s trust fund is safe for when she is older.”