Two to Tango (Harlequin Kimani Romance)

by Yahrah St. John

  “I went to great lengths to keep you apart.”

  “How so?”

  “Ten years ago, I lied to you, Dante. Adrianna didn’t want to marry Phillip.”

  “She didn’t?”

  “No. I forced her to marry him.”

  “Why would do that?” Dante asked. “And more importantly, how could you force a grown woman to do something she didn’t want to do?”

  “Why? Because…” Howard starting coughing uncontrollably and Dante leaned over to the nightstand and poured him a glass of water. He placed the glass to Mr. Wright’s lips and helped him drink the water.

  After a short while, Howard spoke again. “Because I thought a lowly cook wasn’t worthy of my daughter. I was governor of New York for Christ’s sake. My daughter deserved to marry royalty, but fate turned against me. So I had to use some underhanded methods to get Adrianna to agree to do what I wanted.”

  Dante was horrified by what he was hearing. “What did you do? How did you get Adrianna to go along with your plan?”

  “Well…” Howard lowered his head.

  He was clearly ashamed of whatever he’d done, but the waiting was driving Dante mad. “Spit it out, Mr. Wright. You obviously want to clear your conscience before you leave this earth, so tell me what you did.”

  “Fate was on your side because imagine my surprise when my daughter turned up pregnant with your child.”

  “Excuse me!” Dante jumped off the bed. What was he talking about? Pregnant? Adrianna had never mentioned a child, not then and not now.

  “When I realized that my twenty-year-old daughter was unmarried and pregnant, I knew what I had to do,” Howard responded. “I told her in no uncertain terms that either she marry the man I’d chosen for her or I’d cut her and her bastard child off and they’d be penniless and on the streets.”

  The enormity of Howard’s words began to sink in, sending Dante back to the past and reminding him of how sudden Adrianna’s marriage to Phillip had felt. Back then, he’d been stunned when Howard had told him that Adrianna was seeing another man, but he’d believed him because Adrianna had steadfastly refused to accept his calls or speak with him. He’d wanted to confront her about her betrayal and lies, but had never gotten the chance. If he had, perhaps he would have realized the truth.

  Howard watched Dante’s expression. “I’m sure you’re remembering our conversation ten years ago, when I told you Adrianna didn’t love you. It was a lie. She loved you a great deal, but she was concerned for the welfare of her child. I convinced her that the two of you and a newborn child would never survive on your salary. I took advantage of the fact that she was young and naive. She believed me and did as I asked.”

  “So you blackmailed your own daughter into marrying another man while she was carrying my child?” Dante was horrified by the man’s actions. No wonder he wanted to clear his conscience before he died. “And now you want absolution for your sins?”

  “No.” Howard shook his head. “I don’t deserve that. I just felt I owed you the truth. I was wrong back then. You are undoubtedly the right man for my daughter. She’s lucky to have a man like you and I know that you’re going to take care of my baby girl when I’m gone and she’s all alone.”

  Dante ran his hands over his head, trying to absorb the humongous load the old man had just dropped on him. He walked over to the window and stared at the falling rain. That’s when it hit him and he spun around. “And the baby?” Dante yelled. “What about the baby? What happened to my baby?”

  “Father, don’t!” Adrianna screamed from behind Dante.

  Dante spun on his heel and came face-to-face with Adrianna who was trembling in the doorway.

  “Please let me tell him,” she cried. “He deserves to hear the rest from me.”

  Howard Wright nodded. He was exhausted from the effort and sank down into the bed.

  Dante stared back at Adrianna, trying to find the woman he loved, but maybe didn’t know at all. Not if she could keep something this huge from him. “Well, I’m waiting for an answer. What happened to my child?”

  Tears trickled down Adrianna’s cheeks as the moment she’d dreaded since Dante had burst into her office at Foodies magazine came to pass. “I lost the baby.” Although it hurt, saying the words aloud felt like a giant weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

  Dante nodded. “You lost our baby?”

  “Yes. And I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you, Dante.” Her eyes were clouded with tears. “I wanted to so many times and then when you told me you loved me and vowed to leave the past in the past… I…”

  “You thought you were off the hook. It allowed you to keep your dirty little secret in the dark.”

  “That’s not true,” Adrianna cried.

  “No?” Dante laughed bitterly. “You were so afraid of your father cutting off your inheritance that you agreed to marry a man you didn’t love all in the name of money. My God, have you no shame, woman?”

  “It wasn’t like that, Dante,” Adrianna murmured. “I admit I was young and stupid, but I did it for the right reasons. I did it for our child. To make sure he or she would have the best possible start in life.”

  “Unlike me, the poor orphan,” Dante spat. “You chose money over me.”

  “I know it seems that way, but I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Oh, you had a choice,” Dante responded, pointing a finger at her. “You could have told me, but you didn’t. You were prepared to live a lie. Had the child lived, you would have kept him or her from me. You would have denied me my child. To know that you would have never told me the truth, it’s like you’ve plunged a knife into my heart and twisted it.”

  “Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done had the baby lived. Maybe I would have changed my mind.” Adrianna bunched her shoulders. “But what I can tell you is that losing our child after carrying it for five months was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through in my life outside of losing my mother and now my father.” Adrianna pointed to her father in the bed.

  “Well, here’s what I know now.” Dante headed toward the bedroom door. “You’re a liar. Even after we’ve pledged our undying love for each other you still couldn’t come clean with me.” Dante reached for the door handle. “You’re incapable of being honest.”

  “Please, Dante.” Adrianna grabbed his arm. “Please don’t leave like this. Please let me try to explain.”

  Dante snatched his hand away as if he’d been burned, which he had—for a second time. “You already did. And what you did is unforgivable.” And with those words, he walked out the door.

  “Ohmigod!” Adrianna slumped to the floor in a heap. “I’ve lost him for good.”

  Chapter 12

  “Wow!” Quentin was shocked when Dante summoned them to his condo later the following evening and revealed the secret Adrianna had been keeping for the past decade.

  Dante had spent the previous evening alone, trying to process the shocking information he’d received and still couldn’t make sense of it. He needed his family more than ever.

  “That lying, deceitful witch.” Sage couldn’t believe her ears. “She kept the truth from you this entire time?” It was unfathomable that Adrianna would keep something so fundamental from Dante. She could only imagine what the news was doing to Dante.

  “And would have kept on lying,” Dante returned, plopping down on his leather couch, but he immediately sat up. “Even after I told her I loved her, she kept the truth from me. Had her father on his deathbed not had a conscience and felt the need to unload, I would have never known.”

  “I am so sorry, man.” Malik was sympathetic as he sat in the armchair across from him. He knew how much Dante loved Adrianna and it broke his heart to see him in such pain.

  “I knew she was hiding the fact that she was pregnant, but not this.” As soon as the words slipped out of her mouth, Sage regretted saying them.

  “Now is not the time to say I told you so,” Quentin whispered harshly. It was the last th
ing Dante wanted to hear.

  “What did you just say?” Dante asked, turning to glare at Sage.

  Sage immediately lowered her head. “Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”

  “You knew about this and didn’t tell me?”

  With Dante’s eyes peering into hers beseechingly, Sage caved. “Okay, okay. I had my private investigator do a background check on her a few weeks back.”

  “You had Adrianna investigated?” Dante was floored by the lengths Sage would go in order to protect him.

  “Well, I had good reason. Adrianna was so cagey. I knew something wasn’t right.” Sage defended herself. “My investigator found out she’d been pregnant when she was married, but Dante, I had no idea it was your child. I just assumed she’d been cheating with her ex-husband while with you. And when I found out she lost the baby, I just assumed she didn’t want you to know and it wasn’t my place to tell you. Trust me. I had no idea the depth of her lies.”

  Dante looked into Sage’s heart and knew she was telling the truth. “It’s okay.” Dante held up his hand to Sage’s protestations. “I believe you. I mean, wasn’t I the one who told you to back off Adrianna? I doubt I would have listened if you’d tried to tell me the truth.”

  “It’s what we told Sage,” Quentin replied. “It wasn’t her place or ours to tell you. It was Adrianna’s.”

  “And she failed miserably,” Dante replied. “And you know what hurts the most is that she knew how we grew up.” He pointed to the three of them. “She knew I would never abandon my child, so she knowingly decided to keep my child from me. If she had her way, my child would have grown up never knowing I existed.”

  “What she did was wrong,” Quentin responded, “but her father. To do that to his own child? What kind of man is he?” Even if he didn’t approve of her choices, Quentin couldn’t even imagine doing that to his baby girl, Bella.

  “The worst kind,” Malik said. “He may not have laid a hand on her, but it was emotional abuse. What he did was paramount to child abuse.” Abuse was hot-button for Malik and he was sickened by what Adrianna’s father had done. It was why he was in counseling, to make sure he was the best father he could be. He never wanted his past history of child abuse to ever come back and affect his unborn child.

  “That doesn’t make what she did right.” Dante refused to make excuses for her behavior. “She was old enough to know better, Malik. And you know what makes this so hard to swallow?”

  “What’s that?” Quentin asked.

  “That she duped me twice. I mean, c’mon. Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me. I was a sucker and played right into her hands. It makes everything she’s done since we reconnected suspect.”

  “Are you saying you don’t believe she truly fell for you again?” Sage asked, because even she would have to disagree. Despite her lies, Adrianna’s feelings for Dante did appear genuine.

  “What I believe is that she set this all in motion by giving me that good review. Guess she wanted a do-over and gullible Dante fell for her charms again.”

  “Don’t do that.” Sage fell to her knees and scooted next to Dante. “Your big and forgiving heart is what makes you you. It’s what we love about you. Don’t let Adrianna change that quality in you. It would be a travesty.”

  “I don’t have much choice but to carry on,” Dante replied. “We’re joined at the hip until these twelve episodes of Easy Entertaining are over. And I for one can’t wait for them to be done.”

  Adrianna had thought her father’s last days were near after his confession to Dante, but the old man had a tough constitution because he was still with them. Todd sent a lovely basket to their home in the Hamptons and called to see if she could come in and finish taping the last two episodes of Easy Entertaining that week so they could start airing the show. She hadn’t wanted to face Dante, but the show needed her and she didn’t want it delayed because of her, so she made the drive into Manhattan.

  Adrianna had no idea what the mood in the studio was going to be when she walked in on Friday. How would Dante treat her? She hadn’t seen him since he’d stormed out her home a few days ago and despite her urgent pleas for him to call her, he’d remained silent.

  When she arrived to the studio, Dante was already dressed in a pullover sweater and khaki pants and speaking with a member of the production team.

  A member of the production crew said, “Hi, Adrianna. Welcome back.”

  “Thanks, I’m happy to be back.” Dante had to have heard her, so she glanced in his direction for several long excruciating minutes, willing him to look at her, but he never did. It was as if he was refusing to acknowledge her presence.

  Adrianna swallowed hard as she walked to the dressing area. She’d known it was going to be difficult, but this was downright painful. She gave the makeup artist a small, shy smile as she took a seat.

  “How’s your dad, Adrianna?” the makeup artist asked.

  “He’s hanging in there, Sheila. Thanks for asking.”

  “I give you props for coming in,” Sheila replied. “Not so sure I could do the same.”

  “You’d be surprised,” Adrianna responded. “Sometimes what you need is to get away for a breather.”

  Sheila nodded and began to work on Adrianna’s face.

  From across the room, Dante was doing his best to ignore the beautiful woman in the director’s chair getting her hair and makeup done. He was livid with Adrianna for the huge secret she’d kept from him for over a decade that he could hardly see straight. She had denied him the right to be a father, hadn’t even told him that she was pregnant, that they’d created a child together.

  She’d used the fact that he’d wanted the past to remain in the past as an excuse not to tell him the truth. How could she keep something like that to herself after he’d told her he loved her? How could she look herself in the mirror knowing she was lying to him every day?

  It showed him that he didn’t really know Adrianna at all and clearly hadn’t ten years ago, either. If so, she would never have kept such a secret to herself. Considering he’d been abandoned, he would never have done that to his own child. And Adrianna knew that. She knew how important being a father was to him.

  Worst of all, he’d had to hear the truth from her father on his deathbed. If the old man hadn’t spoken up, would she have ever told him they’d lost a child?

  Dante was going to have to keep his distance as best he could until the last two episodes were taped because they very well might be his last.

  Ian walked in about half an hour later and came toward Dante on the set of Easy Entertaining. “Dante, good to see you.” He shook his hand.

  “You as well,” Dante replied. He’d just been reading through several of the cue cards to make sure he knew his mark and where to stand and when to face the camera.

  “Well, I’m here to watch the last couple of episodes and see magic in the making,” Ian returned. “The edits I have seen so far of the show have been great. So, I thought I’d check it out for myself firsthand.”

  Great, thought Dante, now he would have the boss looking over his shoulder. It was exactly what he didn’t need today.

  “All right, everyone,” the production editor yelled out. “Places, please.”

  Slowly, Adrianna walked over from hair and makeup to join Dante on set. When she took a step closer to him to make sure she was in the frame, he moved away.

  “Dante,” the director said. “I need the two of you closer.” He motioned for Dante to move closer to Adrianna.

  “All right.” Dante’s mouth formed into a thin line and Adrianna could sense he didn’t want to be next to her. Anger was emanating from his every pore.

  “Dante,” she whispered, desperately trying to connect with him.

  “Don’t say a word,” Dante hissed.

  “We’re taping in one, two, three…” The director threw down his hand.

  “Today, we’re going to be making herb-crusted pork tenderloin,” Dante read from
the cue cards as he looked into the camera dead-on.

  “Along with a smooth creamy parmesan risotto,” Adrianna added.

  “Let’s get started by gathering our ingredients.” Dante swiftly moved away from Adrianna and headed for the fridge and began piling his arms with an assortment of fresh herbs and spices.

  “While Dante is chopping the herbs,” Adrianna said, “I’m going to heat a saucepan with water to start my risotto.”

  Dante was continuing with the pork when he heard, “Stop!”

  “Is it me or are our hosts extremely tense?” Ian asked, turning to Todd at his side from the control room. “And lacking chemistry. What happened? The last time I was here they oozed it.”

  “It’s not just you,” Todd replied and stepped onto set. “Okay, you two.” He pulled Dante and Adrianna aside. “We’re not getting your usual enthusiasm and fire on screen. Adrianna, was this too soon for you to come back to work?”

  “No.” Adrianna shook her head. She was trying her best to put up a good front. Guess she wasn’t doing a good job of it. “I needed the distraction.”

  “All right.” Todd eyed her carefully, trying to determine if he could believe her, but she appeared to be telling the truth. “Okay. Let’s try another take.” Todd motioned for the director to cue taping again and stepped to the side.

  “Get it together, Adrianna,” Dante hissed from underneath his breath. “I won’t let you blow this.”

  “It’s not my fault you won’t talk to me.” Adrianna turned suddenly to face Dante.

  As soon as the cameras began rolling, Dante tried turning on the charm, while Adrianna struggled to feign a smile. Dante had just begun marinating the pork with a mixture of olive oil and spices when Todd yelled, “Cut!”

  Dante and Adrianne looked up. “This isn’t working,” Todd said. “Let’s take a ten-minute break and reconvene.”

  “Fine.” Dante stalked off set.

  “Is there a problem?” Todd asked Adrianna.