Lakeshore Secrets: The McAdams Sisters - Kate McAdams (By The Lake Series Book 1)

by Leah, Shannyn

  Chapter Thirty

  Marc texted Kate that night to meet him in the study. He feared she might sneak away in the night feeling unable to be honest with him. He planned a distraction to ease her mind and what better way to get a smile on her face than to make an ass of himself.

  He left the study door open and she walked in hesitantly. She was already dressed in her night attire, black yoga pants and an undershirt in which she threw over a hot pink, thin loose long sleeved shirt that hung low down one shoulder.

  “Sit,” he said pointing at the couch.

  She did as he instructed. “You’re not going to propose to me again?” Her tone was repulsive.

  He shook his head. “No. Can you stop trying to marry me for my money for one second?” A smile almost touched the corner of her lips. “It’s impossible to stay a bachelor in this place. First Melissa all over me every down moment I have and now you.” He winked at her but she crossed her arms defensively. “A little much?”

  “A little.”

  “Alright, so close your eyes.” She arched an eyebrow at him. “Come on.”

  Reluctantly her eyelashes swept down against her porcelain skin. He grabbed the plaid shirt he’d found in his closet slipping into it. It was a lot snugger than he when he was sixteen and the edge of the sleeves lifted above his wrist. He shrugged into the orange vest that left a little more room. Then he ran his hands through his hair, messing it up. He added his old round glasses as the finishing touch.

  On the coffee table in front of her was his laptop with all the “Back to the Future” movie series ready to watch.

  “Alright, open them.”

  Her eyes blinked open and ran up and down his outfit then to his hair and glasses. She smiled rising to her feet. “Where did you get that?” She touched his glasses. “Are these your old glasses?”

  He nodded and grabbed the bottom edge of his vest giving it a tug. “In the back of my closet.”

  Her eyes widened. “You kept it?”

  He nodded.

  “You know Caliendo, that’s a little bit strange.”

  “You think?” he asked innocently.

  She nodded. “I do.”

  “Tonight I’m just that awkward nerdy boy in love and you’re just that confident...” He ran his hands through her hair and tousled it.

  She caught his hands, “Hey.”

  He cupped her face. “Wild haired girl not realizing tonight’s the night I plan on kissing you.”

  “I knew you planned it.”

  “For weeks.”

  She smiled and reached up and kissed him.

  “Had to change the story, didn’t you?”

  “I’m just more spontaneous than you.”

  “Come on.” They settled together on the couch with popcorn and soda.

  “I thought maybe we were breaking into a kitchen.”

  “I own all the keys so it’s kinda lost its appeal.” Although he was sure she could make it appealing.

  ***

  Mark awoke stretched out on the sofa with Kate curled up beside him, her back pressed against his front. Her head was resting on his arm, her hair spilling every direction and her arms entwined around his.

  The blank screen on the laptop was glowing. He reached across and shut it, then wrapped his arm back around Kate and closed his eyes. Then he opened them again.

  Across the room edging the bottom of the wall was light glowing through a crack. What was that? He didn’t want to move away from the warmth of Kate. But he needed to know what was in there.

  Slowly, trying not to wake Kate, he knelt up and climbed over her, sliding off the couch.

  He bent down on the floor and examined the thin line of light about four feet wide underneath an ordinary plain paneled wall. He stood, stepped back and stared. A thought crossed his mind, but there was no way. They weren’t living in a castle with secret passages. However his dad had designed this living area. Feeling silly and still having to know, he walked over to the wall and started pushing. He had no idea what he was looking for and nothing moved. He stepped back. This was ridiculous. He glanced at Kate. What would she say if she saw him? She would likely push him away and dive into figure it out.

  He walked over to the edge of the light, settled his hand on the wall and pulled to see if it would slide open. It didn’t. He went to the other side and repeated the action and this time the wall wiggled beneath his hands, but still wouldn’t open. He ran his finger up the panelling to a picture. He pulled it down and found a latch behind it. That was it. This was where Robert’s life was, he knew it even before the door opened. A large wooden desk sat in the middle of a room lined with floor to ceiling cabinets full of files. He found it.

  He walked inside the room cautiously as though he was afraid of being caught. He ran his hand along the desk and touched the desk lamp.

  He remembered back to the day he’d found the study door locked and Carl had exited claiming a nap had overtaken him inside the room. Marc almost grinned. His parents already knew, and this was where those three files had departed for the brunch with his mother.

  He’d barely had time to relish in what felt like a conquest he had been working on for months. “Marc?”

  He turned to Kate. “I found it. This is everything my father was hiding.” He was happy and overwhelmed at the same time, even if his parents already knew about it. He wasn’t concerned about the work it was going to be to ready all these files, but he was nervous about what he would find written inside. The three files so far caused sadness deep within knowing Robert was responsible for all that heartache.

  Kate stepped into the room looking around. Exhaustion, surprise and confusion claimed her body all at the same time. That was exactly how he felt.

  “It’s probably generations of files.” Marc explained. His father’s and grandfather’s and if those files today were any indication, there were a lot of ruined lives in these walls.

  “Wouldn’t your uncle know about this?” Her words cut into his thoughts.

  He was ready to dive in but he looked over at Kate and saw how exhausted she was and how adorably sexy. He would enjoy taking her back to the couch and making love to her. He grabbed her hand shedding the thought. She wasn’t ready. “Come on, let’s go back to sleep.” Back on the couch he pulled a blanket over them. She lay against him, this time her body facing his chest and their feet entwined. Just as he was beginning to drift off he heard her whisper. “I love you too Marc.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Marcus hadn’t been able to locate Kate all day. When he’d awoken at five, she’d vanished from the study and wasn’t in his suite. She hadn’t shown up for breakfast or lunch. He had attended both in case she was there. But nothing. She had just simply vanished. No one had seen her and she wasn’t answering her cell. He had texted Peyton who texted the rest of their sisters but they hadn’t heard from her all day either.

  Maybe she was devising a way to talk to him, needing her space. Maybe she had run away. He hoped the latter was incorrect but it still nagged him all day. The day hadn’t been an office day for him. Melissa had greeted him with a list of people needing him throughout the resort. From the Snowflake Ball to the sprinkler in the water park and he had a meeting in the ski wing. It was well into the evening before he had ticked off the last item on the list.

  On his way back to his suite, he stepped into Robert’s study hoping when he got to the suite Kate would be back from wherever she had been all day and hopefully ready to tell him the truth...the whole truth.

  His laptop was sitting on the coffee table where he had left it. As he reached for it, he heard a sound from behind the wall. In Robert’s secret room. Normally he might have shrugged the noise off, more than likely one of his parents had been in that room at some point when he was in the study. Busted.

  He was planning on telling them he found it−it wasn’t a huge secret anymore−but he’d been too busy to do it today. Now, he grinned as he pushed the hiding wall open and wa
s surprised at who was behind it.

  Kate threw a file she had been flipping through into a massive disaster across the entire length of the floor. She was sitting encircled by closed files and opened files spewed around her like petals of a flower and she was the center. She was already deep into another file and didn’t even notice him.

  He stepped into the room. She was still in her pajamas. Her hair was strewn everywhere, frizzy like she had raked her hands through the locks hundreds of times. Shadowy circles stole her eyes that were bugging out at the papers she was reading. She looked exhausted. She looked terrible.

  Had she been in here all day?

  “Kate,” he said her name softly as not to startle her.

  Her head snapped up so quickly it startled him. She didn’t look startled by the interruption or guilty for sneaking around in Robert’s secret room. She looked strung out staring at him, but not really seeing him.

  “These are coded,” she said finally. “They are coded,” she spat the words out with distaste. “Did you know they were coded?” The words almost came out like an accusation and she didn’t wait for him to answer. She stood up, trudged her sockless feet across the strewn papers, not even caring he was going to have one hell of a mess to clean up later and made her way to one of the many filing cabinets that had doors pulled open, half shut or shut completely. She had made one hell of a mess. When he finally got her calmed down he didn’t know how they were going to clean this mess up. He did know they were coded, which meant filing through them now was going to be a massive challenge. He might very well pass this on to Carl after he got Kate out of here.

  “Kate, what are you doing?”

  She didn’t look up at him, but she had heard him. She rambled on without a pause, “You won’t understand and I’m not dragging you into this. It will make you sad. I’m sad. I’m sad all the time. No matter how much I push it down, it just pops right up. Do you want to be sad?” He didn’t know whether she was being rhetorical or wanted an answer.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “I’m sure. It was the right thing to do. I think about it and think about it and now, now it’s worse being here because I look at you and I know you don’t know and I know and Carl knows.” Her ramblings were hard to understand but he would be even more confused had he not read the file she was searching for. “I think about how different it could have been but I know it could never turn out that way.” She stopped and glanced around. “But it’s here Marc. The file is here. It’s somewhere. I know it is. He wouldn’t have thrown it away.” No, he certainly hadn’t.

  “Kate, talk to me.”

  “You won’t understand.”

  “Help me to understand.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “You think you can forgive me Marc, but you will hate me. I hate me.”

  He should have looked for her earlier and maybe she wouldn’t have ended up so distraught. “Kate.”

  “I just need to know Marc,” she said loudly, firmly. She looked up. “I’m sorry. This will change everything. I know that. I will leave. I promise and I won’t come back this time. Not ever.” Leave? He just asked her to marry him. Why was running her first instinct? Because of Robert, that’s why.

  He tried to talk but she continued overtaking him. “I know what I am risking. I know I’m risking my sisters business, I know. But, it’s right here at my fingertips. Somewhere.” The last word came out exasperated and her hands flew in the air. “You know I tried on my own, to look it up, but he’s good. Your dad is good.”

  “Kate, my dad...Robert’s not here.”

  “Of course he’s not here. If he was here I certainly wouldn’t be. He made sure to that.”

  He was beginning to get frustrated talking in circles with her and getting nowhere. She knew, he knew and all she had to do was say it.

  He crossed the room and gently touched her arm, stroking slowly to her hands and taking the file away. “Kate.” He held both her hands in his, so to keep her focused on him. “I will help you find the file you are looking for. We can read it together, but first you have to tell me what happened. I don’t want the version file.” Again. “I want your version.”

  She stared down at their hands.

  “Kate, look at me.”

  She shook her head.

  “Kate.”

  He saw tears stream down her cheeks. Her hands trembled beneath his touch. She licked her lips before speaking. “I just want to know what it was.” She sounded defeated. “A girl or a boy and I want to make sure he or she is alright.” She sucked in a breath. “I need to know your dad didn’t lie to me and that the baby was put in a safe home.”

  There it was−the truth from the file his mom had slipped across the table. He’d read it. He knew.

  “Our baby,” she finally clarified and if he hadn’t already read the file that would have knocked him off his feet. He’d hardly been able to stay in his seat at the restaurant and his mother had went from her sweet and strong combination to strong and solid, demanding he sit down instead of chasing Kate down like his first instinct. How could Robert ever do something so cruel to either of them...to Kate? A woman who did nothing wrong and was dragged through a six year hell because of him. It was his family that ripped her from her family and chased her away with threats, and tore away her child. Their child.

  “The file is not here.” The familiar woman’s voice was not that of the lady in front of him. But, instead came from behind. He turned to find his parents standing in the wide door he had have left open...both looking guilty.

  He felt Kate’s hands grip the back of his shirt tightly and he glanced back to find her hiding behind him.

  “It’s a girl, Katherine.” His mother’s soft voice followed through the room and whirled around them like a comforting blanket. “Her name is Rosemary and she is safe.” Kate’s grip loosened and he felt her forehead lie against his back.

  “Robert did not lie to you. She lives in the Maritimes with an older lady and she calls her Grandma.”

  He felt dampness through the back of his shirt before he realized she was crying.

  “Her grandmother is sick and we are in the beginning steps of arranging they both move here.”

  He felt stillness behind him and then as he felt her grip slide his mother called, “Marcus catch her!”

  ***

  They called the onsite medic to Robert’s study after Kate had passed out and they’d informed Marc that she’d had a panic attack. Marc was thankful it was nothing more. When she’d slid behind him he’d just caught her as her body hit the floor. That had been one of the scariest moments of his life.

  The ruckus in the suites alerted Izzy, who immediately texted Abby who in return informed all her sister. And in exactly a half hour his suite was filled with every Caliendo and McAdams concerned about her.

  Her sister’s were in the room with Kate and he gave them space, already knowing the reasons she had passed out.

  He stood there through all the commotion thinking about a scared young pregnant girl forced on the run by Robert. And, not just any girl, this was Kate. His girl, his woman. He would have never let anything happen to her or to her family. She must have known that and still she left him.

  He stayed tucked away in the corner of the kitchen by himself watching his sisters pace and sit, then stand and pace again, worried about Kate and clueless to the events that had taken place in the secret room. He watched his mom steal the distance between them to stand by his side.

  “Marcus.”

  He held his hand up. “Not right now.”

  “Sweetheart...”

  “I’m very upset mother. This should have never went this far.” He knew she agreed, but he said it anyway. “He should have never been allowed to get away with the things he did and especially not when it came to Kate.”

  “Marc I didn’t know.”

  “Did you suspect?”

  She nodded.

  He pushed himself away from the counter. “Damn it M
om, I have a daughter,” he snarled a little louder than anticipated because all the women looked over at them and stared.

  He rolled his eyes inwardly, shook his head and leaned back against the counter crossing his arms.

  “Kate’s pregnant?” Of course it would be Izzy to press the issue. “She doesn’t look pregnant. How would you know it’s a girl so soon?”

  Why did everything in his life have to turn into a dramatic family event? Sometimes he missed the quiet life he’d created living south where he only answered to himself.

  Violet elbowed her. She understood.

  Izzy rubbed her side and hugged her stomach. “What?”

  “We should go,” Violet suggested and Izzy sent her a questioning look. At that point he couldn’t thank his sister enough until she grabbed Izzy’s arm and pulled her reluctantly from the room with Emma lagging behind. “Filter Isabelle, seriously.” She scolded leaving him with his mother and Carl.

  “I’m sorry Marc. All I can do is try to fix it.”

  “I hope this can be fixed because she didn’t take it well.”

  He excused himself and went to his bedroom. The light from the hallway cast a glow across his bed where the sisters had all somehow managed to fit into his bed. Kate was asleep.

  He heard his suite door shut and knew his parents had left. He quietly closed the door and made his way back into the living room.

  Pulling a blanket from the couch he lay down and hoped the morning sunlight would bring a new glow to their lives. Hopefully they could sit down and begin to pick up the pieces Robert had carelessly thrown from a mountain top.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Kate’s head felt heavy as her eyes fluttered opened. She had a deep darkening feeling inside her mixed with relief.

  Rosemary, she thought with a partial smile.

  Marcus. Her stomach knotted.

  Humiliation, disgust and shame poured through her like running water. She could only imagine what he felt. She knew from the soft sheets and smell of Marc, she was in his bed. He wasn’t beside her anymore, but three sisters were. Oh Lord, they would know. She had to leave.