A Secret to Keep (22 page)

“Yeah, and I didn’t want that for me, or our son.”

“So, tell me this. Were you going to keep it a secret for the rest of his life? What were you going to tell him about me? Or were you going to let him believe Chase was his father?”

“No. I had every intention of telling you. When I was in New York this last time I was going to tell you. I almost told you after the awards ceremony, but Allie interrupted us.” She stood hugging her arms to her chest and watching him and the emotions he was usually so good at hiding travel across his face.

“Seems like so many things get in the way of you telling the truth. Dammit, Sloane, he’s my son. I had a right to know about him. How could you do this? How could you keep him from me all of this time?” Her guilt wouldn’t let her look him in the eye. Every moment she’d worried about, every agonizing minute she’d thought about telling him about his son had culminated in this one moment and she was flailing worse than she ever thought possible.

“Gates, you didn’t want to be a dad.”

“How the hell do you know what I wanted? You never gave me the chance. You left and made the decision that I wouldn’t be Brayden’s father. You passed him off as someone else’s. You made me believe you found the family you always wanted.”

“I want you in his life more than anything.” Sloane walked closer to him and looked him in the eye. She wanted him to believe her and know she never meant to hurt him.

“Oh, now you do because I found out about him. If I had never seen the picture in the paper, then you would’ve never told me. So now, you want me to be in his life because you can’t keep the secret anymore?”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh, but isn’t it? You can’t lie about this anymore, so now, you want me to be a part of Brayden’s life.”

“No. That’s not…I just didn’t know how to tell you.” She cried, shaking her head, knowing she had hurt him and that he may never forgive her. And she couldn’t blame him. All of this was her fault.

“Whatever, Sloane. Come up with whatever excuses you want to and whatever makes you feel better about this, but the fact remains, you kept my son from me.
You
did this.” His eyes bored into her soul and she felt like curling up and crying in the middle of the floor. “How am I supposed to deal with that?”

“Gates, I’m sorry.”

“That doesn’t really make up for time lost now does it, and the fact that you had me believing he was someone else’s.” Shaking his head, Gates watched Brayden play and he grew quiet. At that moment, Sloane realized the magnitude of what she’d done and she could see the hurt and anger on Gates’ handsomely chiseled face. “You deprived me of knowing my own son. Of being there when he was born and missing out on nine months of his life.” He turned to face her with the coldest eyes she’d ever seen. “My father knew I was his and he chose not to be in my life. He sent me away so he didn’t have to deal with me, but you never even let me know I had a son. I didn’t get a choice in the matter.” She could see the disgust in his eyes before he strode past her to the front door.

“Gates, please, don’t go like this.” Tears flowed wildly down her face as she followed him to the door. “Please say something? Please?”

She stopped and watched him as he paused in the doorway with his back to her. Placing his sunglasses on his eyes, he refused to look at her and she wished she’d never asked him to say anything as she listened to his next words. “Get a lawyer.” With that, he walked out without so much as a glance back at his son or her.

###

“Sloane, you have to come out of there.” Hannah banged on the bathroom door. Liyah had arrived shortly after the confrontation and Sloane dissolved into tears and locked herself in her bathroom. She was so upset with the confrontation with Gates that she got sick to her stomach. He was so mad at her and she knew it would take an act of God to get him to forgive her. “She’s going to get dehydrated. I told Chase we should’ve stayed in there.”

“Sloane, sweetie, come on, you have to open the door.” Liyah stood next to Hannah, pounding on the door and trying to persuade their friend to come out. She’d left the office as soon as she listened to the voicemail from Evan and rushed over to Sloane’s only to cross paths with Gates in the driveway. “Sloane?” The muffled cries had stopped and they couldn’t hear any movement behind the door. As Liyah was about to knock on the door again, the knob turned and Sloane emerged from the room. Her eyes were red and puffy and she looked like she had been crying for days.

“Mi dulce, it’s going to be okay.”

“No it’s not. He wouldn’t even look at me.” She walked to the sofa with Hannah and Liyah flanked on each side. “I’m going to lose my son.”

“It’s going to be okay, I promise you it will.”

“Sloane I’m sure Liyah’s right. Brayden won’t have to go with him, I’m sure of it.” Hannah added, trying to give some kind of comfort to her. She glanced at Chase, who was comforting Brayden. The little boy had burst into tears as soon as he’d seen his mother cry.

“Thanks guys, but what Gates wants, Gates gets. It’s been that way his entire life.” She pushed herself up from the sofa and walked into the kitchen.

“Sloane, you have to be positive about this.” Liyah watched her friend absentmindedly pick up a dishtowel and clean the already clean counter. “He’s just mad right now. Once he gets a chance to cool down, things will look different to him and you can work it out, you’ll see.”

“I wish I could believe that, Liyah, but I’ve never seen him that angry before. He’ll never forgive me.” And she couldn’t blame him. He was right. She did this and she was going to have to pay the price for it.

“Look, Liyah’s right, he’ll calm down and it’ll be okay.” Chase walked over and handed a now quiet Brayden to his mom.

Kissing the little boy on the head and hugging him close to her chest, she smiled weakly, closing her eyes. “I wish I could believe that Chase. I really wish I could.”

###

“So wait a minute, let me get this straight.” Angelica stood in Gates’ office as he sat looking at the picture of his son. “She gets pregnant with your kid, leaves, passes it off as someone else’s child and lies to you about being in a relationship to keep you from your son. And now, she expects you not to do something about it?”

“Gel, you don’t know the whole situation.” Gates still had not said a word. He could hear Evan and Angelica talking back and forth about the situation above his head.

“Evan, I know enough. How could she do this to Gates, and then think he wouldn’t fight for custody of him? That’s crazy. I can’t believe she did this. What woman in her right mind does something like that?”

“She had her reasons Gel. Look Gates, I know you’re mad. Hell, I would be too, but let’s be reasonable about this whole thing. Is it really a good idea to sue her for full custody of Brayden? She’s all he’s ever known. She’s his mother for crying out loud. Is it right to take him from her?”

Breaking his silence, Gates slowly shifted his cool level eyes to meet Evan’s. “How would you feel if Kelsie did something like this to you, Evan? Would you be so willing to look the other way?”

Angelica huffed as Evan ignored her and focused in on Gates.

“Look, I don’t know exactly what you’re going through Gates, but you have to look at this in the long run. What will Brayden think about you if you go in with guns blazing and you take him away from his mother? What happens once he grows up and finds out the truth?”

“What truth, Evan? The truth that his mother kept him from his father for the first nine months of his life, led him to believe he belonged to another man and that she was never going to tell him,” Angelica snorted like a Brahma bull waiting to charge.

“Gel, you don’t know that. I mean according to Gates, she said she tried, right?” Evan snapped at Angelica. The room filled with tension as thick as mud and the situation was about as clear. Gates didn’t need a good angel and bad angel on his shoulders. He had Evan and Angelica for that with the way the two kept going back and forth. He could clearly see both of his friends were concerned, but the infighting wasn’t helping at all.

“Gates, Jax is fully prepared to take this on for you and make sure you get full custody of Brayden,” Angelica offered proudly, smirking at Evan.

“What!” Evan looked at Angelica with his mouth gaped open.

“You heard me; Jax is taking his case.”

“Gates come on, really? Jax is a shark and you know he’ll stop at nothing to win. He’s a little brash for something this delicate.” Gates looked up to see Evan peering at him in disbelief.

“Evan, do you want Gates to get custody of his son or not?”

“Gel, I want the best solution for all of them,” Evan refuted, narrowing his eyes at Angelica.

“Then I suggest you get on board with Jax and support Gates.”

“This is a mistake, Gates.”

“Look, both of you, stop it, okay.” Gates leaned over the desk and placed his head in his hands. He was tired of thinking. He was tired of the constant back and forth. He just needed to clear his head.

Evan scrubbed his face with his hands and continued to shift his eyes from Gates to Angelica. He finally threw up his hands in disgust and headed toward the office door. Grabbing the handle, he jerked the door open. “This has the potential to get real ugly and a lot of people could get hurt. Especially that little boy.”

###

“All right, Sloane, so I’ve laid all the cards on the table.” Kimberly looked at her client across the table. Sloane was nervous and no matter what her attorney said to make her feel comfortable, she was still afraid of losing custody of her child. “Any questions?”

“Can you make all of this go away?” Receiving the petition for sole custody, only a week after Gates’ surprise visit had been Sloane’s undoing. Since that day, she’d done nothing but stress and she’d lost more sleep than usual. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy and Kimberly had pretty much gone over how things would progress. It could either be short and sweet and both parents could meet with a mediator, or they could go to court and fight it out in front of a judge. Unfortunately, the mediator was out of the question because Gates’ attorney had made it clear to Kimberly that if the agreement wasn’t Gates getting full custody; then there was no reason to even speak to him about a mediator. Obviously, Liyah wasn’t right and Gates hadn’t calmed down. “Tell me, what are my chances?”

“Honestly? Fifty-fifty.”

“Okay.” Sloane stared at Kimberly with questions in her eyes. She was puzzled by the simple answer.

“No, what I’m saying is, Gates isn’t really giving you much choice. It’s all or nothing and basically it’s leaving you with full custody of Brayden or Gates will have full custody of him.”

“Great.” Sloane rose slowly from her spot and ambled over to the window. Wringing her hands, she continued hearing Gates’ voice reverberating in her head.
Get a lawyer.
She knew she was in for the fight of her life.

“Don’t lose focus Sloane. Remember our main goal is to show you’re the better parent for Brayden. The great thing about it is Brayden’s healthy, he’s happy, and he’s been with you all of his life. The only problem is you never really gave Gates a chance to be a parent, so that may be where our case is a little weak.”

“It wasn’t malicious.” Sloane turned to face Kimberly.

“Hey, I understand, but we have to prove it and I think you have a great case. You’re a hard worker, you’re a great mom and we’ll show that in court.”

“Gates still has a lot of pull.”

“He does, but this is family court and no matter how much pull he has, he still has to prove he’s the better parent for Brayden. And it may be hard for him. He is single and the owner and CEO of a major company, which means he travels a lot and is extremely busy. Not really a great environment for a baby in his developmental stages.”

“I see your point.” She was starting to feel a little better about her chances after hearing Kimberly’s explanation. “You seem to be pretty confident. Gates’ attorney has been a part of a lot of high profile cases. That doesn’t worry you?”

“Sloane, not to sound full of myself, but I know my way around a courtroom too. Mr. Jaxon may have a lot of high profile cases under his belt, but this is still family court. Regardless of how much he’s charging Gates, the law is the law and this is still about the best interests of your son.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry to doubt your abilities. Believe me, I don’t. You came highly recommended, but I’m so used to Gates getting his way because of who he is. I guess that’s all that keeps running through my head.”

“Well, try to relax and don’t worry. We’ll be ready and I’m going to put everything I have into representing you and your case, okay?” Kimberly said in an effort to reassure her and gathered her documents into her briefcase.

“Yeah, I’ll try. Thank you.”

“Okay, so things get underway tomorrow. I’ll meet with you about thirty minutes before.” Kimberly stood from her seat and moved to shake Sloane’s hand.

“I’ll see you then. Thank you for everything.”

“My pleasure. See you tomorrow.” Sloane returned Kimberly’s smile as she walked her to the front door. Shutting the door behind her attorney, Sloane leaned against the frame. She looked at Brayden who was happily playing and teetering his way around the table towards her in his walker. He stopped in front of her, grinning, eating
Cheerios
from the tray in front of him.