A Secret to Keep Read online

  “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 Sloane’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.

  “Liyah, hello. It’s been a while. Sloane.” Finally regain
ing her faculties Sloane pulled herself up to her full height of 5 feet 6 inches and smiled. The unmistakable maleness of him filled her senses as she looked into those familiar eyes. Prickly chills scampered up her spine as she stood face to face with the father of her baby boy.

  “Hi, Gates.” Liyah interjected, trying to break the obvious awkwardness.

  “Gates, it’s good to see you again.” Sloane stammered while inwardly cowering under his intense gaze.

  “Is it really?” Smirking, Gates continued past her to meet and shake hands with a few of the representatives from the various companies with bids on the table.

  Oookay, so that went well.” Both ladies turned to watch him weave through the crowd of people as he headed towards the front of the room before Liyah turned to Sloane. “You up for this?”

  “I don’t have much choice, do I? I guess he really does hate me.” Sloane swallowed the big lump of nerves in her throat and tried to pull herself together for what she knew was going to be the fight of her life. She and Liyah took their seats as the meeting got underway and she was never so glad to sit down. Her legs felt weak and her stomach was queasy. If it weren’t for the fact she hadn’t been with anyone since Gates, she would have sworn she was experiencing morning sickness all over again.

  “Maybe not so much hate, as maybe severe dislike.

  ”

  ###

  Sitting through the meeting was utter torture for Sloane. She tried her hardest to concentrate as Gates introduced himself to everyone. He was eloquent and commanded the room with his sheer presence. Each time he looked her way, she felt those same prickly chills run up and down her back.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Liyah mouthed at one point and Sloane nodded, turning her attention back to Gates. He was the ultimate businessman. He had a way of making each and every person in the room feel like he was talking to only them and no one else mattered. It was the way he used to make her feel. Like she was all that mattered to him.

  “So, what do you think?” Liyah’s voice shook Sloane from her reverie as the meeting adjourned and she watched Gates exit the room as quickly as he’d entered. “Again, I ask, are you okay?”

  “We have a lot of work to do.”

  “What do you mean? Our proposal is awesome if I do say so myself. It’s air tight, Sloane. Gates has to see that.”

  Willing her restless body to stand, Sloane clutched the edge of the table for support and stood on baby bird legs. “Liyah, do not get snowed by him. Gates is not going to let us slack off. You heard him. Over forty percent of the projects are going to be cut. And I could see him salivating at the thought of working with Dawson & Stein. You saw him talking to Tom before the meeting. He hardly even acknowledged me. This is so not good.” Sloane’s insides felt like a bowl of gelatin and she grew more and more unsure of everything as she and Liyah left the building and headed to Liyah’s car.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s not going to go easy on us. And it’s all because of me.” Sloane murmured, leaning her head against the window as Liyah pulled out of the parking lot. She was never so thankful for the cool glass against her temple as the intermittent lights of passing cars got lost in her blurred vision. “Everything is so complicated now.”

  “Okay look, life is complicated sometimes. But we’ll get through this.”

  “I know, it’s…I don’t know. Maybe I should ask Antony to take me off this project.” She had nearly rubbed the skin off of her hands with all of the twirling and fidgeting she was doing and no matter how hard she tried, her mind kept returning to Gates. If he still had any feelings for her, there was no way to tell because his gelid glare had nearly stopped the rhythmic pump of her heart. And if he felt this way about her, what would he do if he found out about Brayden?

  “Okay. Now you’re talking crazy.” Liyah stole a quick glance at Sloane.

  “I don’t want to be the reason this hospital doesn’t get built.”

  “Sloane, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.” Sloane lifted her head from the window and turned to see an awkward hesitancy in her friend’s eyes.

  “What really happened between you two? I pretty much thought you were perfect for each other and you seemed really happy.” Liyah bit her lip before asking the million-dollar question even Sloane wanted the answer to. “Why didn’t you tell him about Brayden?”

  “There were a lot of things. It all got so messed up.” Sighing, she stared into the evening sky. She was tired and she didn’t realize how much it took out of her to think about her past with Gates.

  “You guys knew each other for a while and then you were engaged and the next thing I know, you’re back here having a baby on your own. What gives?”

  Resolving herself to open up to her best friend about the situation, Sloane took a deep breath. “I loved Gates. He was everything to me. He filled so many voids in my life and I felt complete with him. But loving him wasn’t enough. There were people who didn’t want us to be together; namely his father. He hated me, and believe me, the feeling was mutual.”

  “Okay, yeah, I remember you telling me how his dad didn’t like you, because you are black right?”

  “You know, I thought that at first too. Truth be told, it was more about status. I didn’t come from a family with the kind of money and connections to make the two of us a more powerfully connected union. Victor was such a materialistic man.” Sloane added, thinking about all of the evil things he had said to her.

  “You’re kidding me, right? That sounds like some old-fashioned arranged marriage kind of crap.”

  Shrugging her shoulders, Sloane sat quietly, staring out of the window. “I wish.” Sloane proceeded to fill Liyah in on how she and Gates seemed to argue more and more and how Victor continuously came in between them.

  “Okay, but Gates wasn’t like that, so…”

  “No. He wasn’t, at least, not at first. Gates didn’t care about how much money I had or didn’t have. He didn’t even seem to care about how much money he had,” she paused, thinking of their romance before Victor had intervened. “We were in love and it was all that mattered. He put me before everything. At least, that’s how it started, but things changed when he got more involved in the business. Gates turned into Victor and there was nothing I could do to stop it. He was money and power hungry and it wasn’t the Gates I knew, or even remotely liked. Then the rumors started. He said there weren’t any other women in his life, but I saw the papers.” Sloane cringed as she recalled her memories of the tabloids and the late nights; and that last text message. Not long after she left, she saw a photo of Gates with the gorgeous redhead who appeared at every party she had attended with him. It was none other than Allison Gentry, the woman who’d been after Gates from day one. “I tried to ignore it. I tried to believe him when he said women were just jealous, but how long can you believe that?”

  “Oh wow, Sloane. I had no idea. I guess I figured he should know about his son. I mean he is his father.”

  Sloane shrugged and continued. “I didn’t even know I was pregnant until after I left. But it wouldn’t have mattered. Gates didn’t want kids. His business didn’t allow for it. That wasn’t in his plan, no matter how much I wanted a family with him. His father seemed to love the over-exposure he was getting in the papers. It was free advertising for him, but it was killing me. I had this notion in my head that since we were engaged I was the only one he wanted.” Tears pierced the corners of her eyes like cattle prods and she wanted to kick herself for still caring. “I was wrong.”

  “I never thought Gates was that kind of guy. He seemed so honest and down to earth, and so into you. I’m sorry I opened up old wounds.” Liyah added, pulling into the driveway and putting the car in park. She watched Sloane carefully, knowing she was fighting with her past and trying not to succumb to the pain of the memories.

  “Don’t worry about it. I was a fool to think we wanted the same things. We came from two different worlds
. I know Brayden has a right to know his father and Gates has a right to know he has a son. I know I have to tell him, but after today, I really don’t know how to do that. I’ve always been afraid that Gates will reject Brayden, like his own father did to him when he was young.”

  “The only way you’re going to know is to just do it. Look, I’m sure it’ll work out.” Liyah reached over and squeezed Sloane’s hand.

  “Maybe.” Gathering her things, Sloane gave Liyah a half-hearted smile as she exited the car and trudged to her front door.

  Chapter 2

  “Are you sure you want to go through with this?” Evan stood in the middle of the hotel room watching Gates remove his jacket and tie.

  “What’s there to debate, Evan? This project will make money. Isn’t that what we do? What’s the problem?” Gates knew he would never hear the end of it when he told his best friend he was buying the development company working on Sloane’s project. Truth be told, Evan was actually the reason he had even met Sloane in the first place.

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe the fact that the only reason you’re doing this is because of Sloane?” Evan countered; raising an eyebrow at his friend who’d removed his platinum cufflinks and was in the middle of rolling up his sleeves. “I’ve been around you long enough. I know the history and I’ve watched you practically kill yourself with work since Sloane left. You’ve been using it to try and replace a woman that’s, let’s face it, simply irreplaceable.”

  “You know me too well.” Striding across the room, Gates unbuttoned his collar as he poured himself a glass of water at the bar. He would admit; he didn’t realize it was going to be so hard to face her again. He was somewhat shocked when his throat tightened while meeting her gaze earlier that night. She was still as beautiful as ever. She had straightened her naturally curly locks and it shone like the sun bouncing off of a newly polished plate glass window. When he walked past her, he’d caught a whiff of the glorious perfume she’d always worn. Lavender. It made it even harder for him to concentrate while he introduced himself to the representatives. Everything in him fought the desire to clear the room and take her right there on the boardroom table.