A Secret to Keep (21 page)

“She had a meeting today so maybe that’s where she is. I’m glad you guys could come over. Hannah, again, I’m so sorry. I never should have pulled Chase into this at all.” Sloane apologized yet again to Hannah for the trouble she’d caused them both. She knew Hannah was a great person from the times they had all hung out together. And she knew Chase really cared for her because he’d talked to Sloane on many occasions about her.

“It’s fine, Sloane. I understand. Chase explained a lot of it.” Hannah sat near Chase and Sloane could tell she really cared for him. It was nice to see their relationship seemed to be stronger than ever. “I did want to ask and you can tell me it’s none of my business if you want to, but why don’t you just tell Gates the truth? He has to understand why you did what you did.”

“My heart hopes you’re right, Hannah, but my mind isn’t betting on it. I know Gates could possibly be a good father, but at this point, I’m not sure how to go about it.” Sloane sat back and traced the wood grain on the arm of the chair thinking about Gates and her constant struggle with telling him the truth.

“Well, I still think you should tell him. Especially since you’re keeping in touch with him. He’s bound to find out one way or the other.” Chase added, looking over at Sloane.

“I know. Every time I feel like I’ve gathered the strength to tell him, something comes up. I-”

Just then the doorbell rang and she got up to answer the door. “It’s probably Liyah. Hannah, could you do me a favor and check on Brayden?” Chase followed her so he could get more drinks for them from the kitchen.

“Sure.” Hannah followed them into the house and went to check on the sleeping baby.

“Thanks.” She continued through the living room and opened the door; coming face to face with Gates. She could feel her lungs seize in her chest and her knees went weak. She tightened her grip on the doorknob to keep her steady as she looked in his smoldering eyes.

“Gates. What…what’re you doing here?”

“You and I need to talk.” She could tell he was none too pleased and she couldn’t figure out what was going on or how he’d found her.

“This is a surprise.” She stumbled aside to let him enter the house. She closed the door slowly and turned to face him, offering up a timid smile.

“I’m sure it is, like this was quite a surprise to me,” he held up a picture of her and Brayden so she could see it. “Imagine my surprise to see this. Care to explain?” His icy tone and grim expression sent a chill through her.

“Where did you get that?” Sloane stammered, taking the newspaper from his hands. She stared at the beautiful face of her little boy and lowered her head. She could feel the knot in her stomach that had formed weeks ago when Gates walked back into her life, twist even more and suddenly she felt sick.

“Don’t worry about where I got it. Great picture of you by the way. How old would you say Brayden is in this picture, Sloane? Hmm, the caption says nine months.”

“I can explain.” Sloane barely heard her own words escape her lips as she watched him pace back and forth. Clutching her hand to her chest, she searched for a heartbeat and wondered if all blood flow to it had stopped.

“Oh, I’m just sure you can. You know, my father always said people accuse you of the things they are guilty of. I never really knew what he meant until I saw that picture.” He stopped and glared at her and she felt if she could evaporate into thin air, things would be okay.

“What? What’re you talking about?” Before he could answer, Chase called out to her. She could see the recognition of the voice on Gates’ face and she closed her eyes and silently prayed to dissolve into the floor.

“Sloane, was that Liyah at the door?” Chase walked out of the kitchen and stopped upon seeing Gates standing in the middle of the living room. “Oh, Gates, uh, this is-”

“A surprise? Yeah, well, I’m very sorry to barge in on your lovely ‘family’ time, or whatever this is, but there are some questions I need dear old Sloane here to answer for me. Beginning with how long were you two involved before you left me,” he spun around, looking her dead in the face.

“Gates, wait a minute, Sloane and I-” She wanted to say something, anything, but she couldn’t find her voice. It was like her throat had closed up on the truth of the situation. She could hear Chase defending her and she wanted to add her own defense but the words wouldn’t come out.

“Chase, I was talking to Sloane. I really don’t need to hear anything from you.” Gates narrowed his eyes at Chase, who had walked to Sloane’s side. “So, how long were you cheating on me before you got pregnant and decided to leave?”

“It wasn’t like that, Gates.” Finally regaining her equilibrium and her ability to speak, she could still feel the room spin; and it felt like a weight was pressing down on her chest. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“Oh really, well this picture says differently, Sloane. Do you really think I’m that stupid that I can’t count? You accused me of cheating on you with women I could not care less about when you were sleeping around with this guy the whole time. Tell me, do you sit around and laugh about how much of a fool you made of me?” His glare was enough to freeze the entire Atlantic Ocean and she felt a shudder flow through her body.

“Now wait a minute, Sloane didn’t cheat on you, Gates.”

“I told you to stay out of this.” Gates stood with his chest heaving and his hands tightened into fists as Chase stood protectively in front of Sloane.

“Oh, are you going to make me?” Sloane watched Chase take a step towards Gates with his chest puffing up as equally as Gates’. “You claim you know Sloane, but you don’t know anything about her. If you did, you would understand how hard she fights for the things and the people she loves.”

“I wouldn’t be so loyal to her, Chase. She wore my ring for about a year and you see how that ended.” She felt the heat of Gates’ glare on her and felt like she’d combust on the spot. “Plus, it’s kind of funny; she doesn’t seem to be fighting too hard for you. Especially, since she’s talking to me just about every night of the week until the wee hours of the morning.”

“You know, I’ve had about enough of your snide comments.”

“Chase, I’m merely saying maybe you should be aware that Sloane has a tendency to walk away from the ‘things and the people she loves’. Don’t get too invested,” he quipped, turning his glare from Sloane towards Chase. “I mean, hell, she doesn’t even wear your ring, so what does that say about her and her ‘commitment’ to you?”

“You have no right to say anything like that about her. You don’t know her like I do.” Sloane was grateful for the continued defense Chase was providing for her but she knew this was no one’s fault but her own and she had to face up to the music.

“Oh, but I do know Sloane, in
all
ways. Even in the biblical sense, but I guess you know her that way as well, since you were lucky enough to get her pregnant.” His deadly stare made her feel about ten times smaller and the tears rolled silently out of her eyes.

“You son of a-”

“Stop, both of you. Just stop it.” Sloane stepped between the two. Every part of her was shaking and she knew she couldn’t let them continue on the path they were on or it was going to turn physical soon.

“Sloane-”

“No, Chase, this has to stop.”

“I’m not going to stand here and let him keep saying things about you that aren’t true,” Chase glared at Gates.

“Why, does the truth hurt, Chase?”

“No, but this is going to.”

“Stop, Chase.” Sloane pushed Chase in the chest to prevent his motion towards Gates before taking a deep breath and turning towards her son’s father. “Chase isn’t my fiancé or boyfriend. I didn’t even know him until I moved here.”

“Yeah, right.” Gates shook his head at Sloane’s confession.

“It’s true. He was a friend of Liyah’s and I met him through her.”

“Whatever, Sloane. You don’t have to lie anymore about this. I wanted to let you know that I know everything.” She watched helplessly as Gates headed towards the front door.

“No, you don’t.” Walking behind him, she stopped a few feet away. “Gates, if you knew everything, then you’d know Brayden is
your
son, not Chase’s.” Once the words were out, she stopped and hugged her arms to her sides waiting for the fallout from the truth she’d blurted. Like clockwork, Hannah emerged from the back carrying Brayden, who was awake from his nap, as Gates stopped in his tracks.

“Wow. Now you want me to believe-” Gates turned, stopping in mid-sentence and looked into the familiar eyes of the little boy that was undoubtedly his. The baby’s face lit up the room and Sloane watched Gates’ demeanor change in the realization she was finally telling the truth.

“It’s true, Gates. I didn’t know Sloane until Liyah introduced her to me when she moved here.” Walking over to Sloane, Hannah handed her Brayden; who was reaching for her. “We’ll just let you guys talk.” Chase moved to usher Hannah out of the room.

“Wait a minute, what’d I miss? That’s Gates?” Hannah murmured, lingering to watch the ensuing confrontation. “What’s he doing here?”

“Let’s go.” Chase turned Hannah by the shoulders and steered her from the room; retreating to the deck. Waiting until they closed the sliding glass door behind them, Sloane turned to look at Gates; who hadn’t removed his eyes from the sight of Brayden.

“He’s mine?” His voice trembled and Sloane felt a simultaneous sense of relief and guilt.

“Yes.” She knelt down to place the baby in his activity bouncer. Gates kneeled beside Brayden as the little boy looked up at him and Sloane felt the tremendous weight of guilt from keeping the two apart.

“I don’t believe this. Why? Why didn’t you tell me?” Gates timidly reached out and stroked the soft curls on Brayden’s head. Sloane watched as father and son recognized their blood bond in one another’s gaze.

“I was scared.”

“Scared. What do you mean you were scared? Sloane if he’s my child, why didn’t you tell me? You knew when you left you were pregnant?” His expression darkened as he stood and shifted his focus from his son to her. “You weren’t ever going to tell me, were you?”

“I didn’t know I was pregnant until after I left. I was going to tell you, but I…” Tears coursed down her face and she quickly wiped them away as she watched him. “I was going to tell you at your father’s funeral, but-”

“You left. You didn’t even speak to me at the funeral, Sloane. You came to my father’s funeral, with my child growing inside of you and you didn’t tell me.” With every word his voice became more even and cool and it scared her to see how even keeled he was. She knew him and she knew enough about him to know when he was like this, he was truly angry. She would have rather he yelled at her than speak in such an even tone.

“I couldn’t. When I looked up…you were staring at me as if you wanted me dead and I froze. I figured you didn’t want anything more to do with me and I chickened out. Gates, you were so busy with work and you always said you liked the way we were. We did nothing but argue all the time, and I, I didn’t want to live like that. And when I found out about Brayden, I didn’t want him to have to grow up surrounded by that, or worse. I was afraid you would want to ship him off like your father did with you and Bailey.”

He walked towards the window and looked out on the front yard. “You didn’t love me or trust me enough to tell me the truth about my son? How could you, Sloane?”

“You were Victor McCall incarnate. You have no idea how hard it was for me to watch you go from the man I loved, to a man I barely knew. Your father was a tyrant and he hated me. I couldn’t subject Brayden to that.”

“So
this
is all my father’s fault? Is that what you are so desperately trying to tell me?” She stood helpless under his glare. It was like a floodlight and she wanted to find somewhere to hide from the exposure.

“N, no. I…” She stammered trying to fend off his attack. “I know your father didn’t like me at all, and he didn’t want me ‘sullying’ the McCall-”

“Wait. Whoa, wait a minute. Are you seriously saying you left me because of my father? You listened to him instead of talking to me?”

“There was no talking to you. You were gone all of the time. You were always in meetings and always cancelling on me. Always in the papers with other women; namely Allie. I never got a moment with you. What was I supposed to do?”

“You were supposed to trust me.” He pointed at her with eyes ablaze. “I never wanted anyone else but you. You knew none of those pictures or stories were true.”

“I made a decision that I thought was best for our son.”

“No, you made a decision for
you
.” He cut her off and stared through her with eyes that shone so dark from his anger that she barely recognized him. “You decided what was best for you, no matter who got hurt.”

It wasn’t right. She made grave decisions that affected them all, but she thought she was doing it for the right reasons. Why couldn’t he understand that? “Gates I wanted a life with you. The one we planned. Everything else seemed so much more important than our relationship, so I left. Then, when I found out I was having him, I panicked. I didn’t want Brayden to be put last.” She watched him shake his head before answering her.

“I told you why I did the things I did, Sloane.”