The clock on the nightstand read past three in the morning. She quickly scrambled out of the bed and dressed. Marc would be furious with all the lies and secrets. She didn’t want to face his sad eyes.
She didn’t turn the lights on. She knew the way to the door and down the hall. She slipped her shoes and as she reached for the handle, the light above her turned on trapping her like a criminal trying to escape.
Her stomach tightened. There was two ways this was going to go. The person behind her was going to either be his parents assigned to watching her...or Marc. She would much rather face his parents.
She turned. It was the latter. He was sitting in the overstuffed chair, wide awake. His eyes weren’t sleepy or foggy like her own. He stared at her. Hard. She stared back because she didn’t do know what else to do and they stared at one another for a long period before he asked, “Are you sneaking out?”
Her eyes fell. That was exactly what she was doing. How could she deny it? “It’s best I do.”
“Best for who?”
“For you.”
“How is that best for me? Enlighten me with your rationality on this subject. It certainly isn’t best for you. For all you know you could have a concussion.” He sat back awaiting her reply.
“I don’t have a concussion.”
“How do you know?”
“I guess I don’t, but I don’t care either way.”
“I care.” That’s what he always said.
“Why are we talking about this?” She was so frustrated.
“Why wouldn’t we?”
“Why do you care?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Marcus stop!” she yelled. Why was he sitting in here waiting for her to sneak out and why didn’t he just let her go? Forever.
“There she is,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” she asked annoyed.
“Stop cowering behind your fear. Stop letting the past control your actions today. You were planning on sneaking out of here instead of facing me.”
“You don’t need me to face you. I’m sure you don’t need for me to tell you anything.”
He stood up and folded his arms across his chest as if guarding himself from her. That was exactly what he needed to do with her. She was nothing but the enemy. “Stop telling me what you think I want or need. Stop giving me half-truths that don’t allow me to judge fairly. My life is my decision and I want you to tell me the truth. All of it from beginning to end.”
“I’m sure your parents already have.”
“I want to hear it from you Kate. I want you to tell me everything.”
Everything? Had he gone mad, they would be here until the sun rose and set again. “I don’t want to.”
“Because you are cowering.”
“I’m not cowering. I am accepting what I have done and...”
“Sneaking away.”
Yes. Exactly. “If I stand here and pour my heart out what does it solve? Nothing.”
“In the last three days everything in my life has changed and I’m standing here with a woman who left with my baby and got rid of her.” It hurt the way he said it even if he wasn’t intending it that way. “And never told me about her. So now I have to hear it from you.” When she didn’t speak he rubbed his hands across his face. “Honestly Kate, I’m trying to so hard not to lose it here, but don’t think I won’t.”
She stared at him. He was there, only feet away in front of her. She had longed for this moment since the day she walked out of his life. A confrontation, but as the days turned to years, that emotion had left and now as she stood here she wished she could remember just one of the practised scenarios that had played out in her head.
“I hit a guy in the face because you left me and it shattered my hand so my dream of being a surgeon was gone in an instant, as were you.” That didn’t help. “We have a lot of secrets. Your turn.”
She took a deep breath. “When I came here to tell you I was...” Another deep breath. This was so hard. “...pregnant, I was scared. I was a little excited but mostly I was scared and you hadn’t arrived home yet. But Robert greeted me and he knew. I don’t know how since I hardly knew.” Another deep breath. Her lungs were definitely going to be clear by the end of this, an easy trail for air.
She wanted to race through the rest but if she was going to tell the story, she might as well tell him the entire truth. That was what he thought he wanted. “He asked me into his study and told me, not suggested, that I was leaving and I would get rid of the baby and never come back. Robert terrified me and at the same time I wasn’t about to back down to him.” She crossed her hands over her middle. “He threatened my family. All of them. Gran, Dad, Peyton, Sydney, Abby and Avery. Especially my dad. But he said if I left, he would set up trust funds for all my sisters for college as long as I promised never to return or contact you.” She looked back up at him. “Your turn.”
“I went south and worked at a resort to spite my, at the time, dad. Continue.”
That was an easy copout but who was she to decide which lie or deceit was worse. “I would have never left if he hadn’t threatened my family. But he did so I felt I had no other alternative. And I could just get rid of the baby, our baby. I was so far away that I thought I could just keep the baby and he would never know. But before the baby was due, he had sent a nurse or doctor, I’m not sure, to my house and when it...she was born, they took her. I didn’t even get to see her and I was left there alone with a nurse. No family. Only a full bank account, so I started a new life. Your turn.” Maybe if it had something to do with hurting her or lying or deceiving her that would make her feel less guilty.
“I never stopped loving you.” Was he kidding? That didn’t help at all.
“I never stopped loving you,” she said back.
“I agreed to your sister’s ridiculous plan in hopes to get close to you.”
“Your uncle agreed to let me pay off my debt if I could keep you distracted...the day at the cabin.”
“You have a lot more secrets.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I know.”
He closed the distance between them and she felt his warm hands wrap around hers. She stared down at the floor unable to look up at him. She didn’t understand what was going on between them. “If Robert were alive now I would put him in the ground, for you. For us. For Rosemary.”
She looked up.
“Here we stand again in a room full of lies and all I can think about is how to keep you here. I understand all the reasons. It doesn’t hurt less inside.” She looked down. Of course she had hurt him. He lifted her chin up to look at him. “I’m here Kate. I love you. I am just waiting to see if you want to stay here with me or sneak away.”
He loved her so much, she could see it, she had known all along. But now he loved her through her lies and deception. It was all out on the table like a card game and he was waiting for her to make her move. “I never want to sneak away from you again.”
He kissed her lips then her forehead and hugged her. She never wanted him to let her go.
“Do you have a picture?” she asked. “In that file? Of her.”
He nodded. Together on the couch, snuggled beneath a blanket, he passed her a manila file, the same as the ones she had seen in Robert’s study.
She looked up at him before opening it. “I never thought this day would come. I never let myself dream of you understanding. Not now after all the years that has passed.” He kissed the side of her head and nudged her to open the file. It wasn’t a file anything like the ones in his office. It was pictures after pictures of their tiny baby as the years passed her by.
“Rosemary’s grandmother has been sending these to my mother for us,” he told her. “It’s her life.”
“I have to tell my sisters. I have to tell them everything.”
***
And she did. As the sun rose, they looked through hundreds of pictures that summed of the life of their daughter to the present. He
r sisters emerged from his bedroom together and looking like sleep had eluded them during the night. They saw the pictures and Kate told them everything.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Marc would have enjoyed skipping the Snowflake Ball to curl up with his fiancée in his suite...alone. But Kate had insisted, with all the bustling excitement throughout the resort, that he was required to make an appearance. He was surprised after everything between them that she didn’t want a break from his family, from the resort. He knew he sure did.
He smiled, making his rounds to the staff doing a little chit-chat with everyone, losing sight of Kate popping in and out of the crowds. The manager of the ski hill talked about the spike in younger kids they were having with the new bear hill and that they might need to hire on some extra help the following year. That was always a plus. More people equalled more enjoyable which equalled more money.
The twinkle lights draped above the room weaved through sparkling hanging organza with large plastic snowflakes and spinning icicles suspending down across the length of the ceiling. The glittering spinning mirror ball seemed to enlighten and transform the room around him into the magical ball his sister intended to create as he caught sight of his wife-to-be. For the first time he experienced what the guest experienced when they entered an event planned by Violet.
Kate was beautiful. The long shimmering blue dress hugged her slim body and showed off every curve. He wanted to run his hand along ever one. The dress just graced the floor and flowed elegantly behind her as she walked...directly towards him. Her magnificent eyes captured his with sparkling specks of green, blue and brown soaked in desire. And love. After the battle they fought since she came back to Willow Valley, he finally uncovered her secret and her love for him. The neckline dipped low and his eyes couldn’t help but travel to the see-through lace that extended across her arms.
“You look beautiful.”
She smiled. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”
He touched his designer tux. “Oh, this old thing,” he brushed off and she laughed against his lips. He turned serious. “Has it been too much tonight? Should we go?” His mother and Violet had opened the adjoining ballroom and shared the staff party with their engagement party, so it was a huge gala.
She touched his hand softly. “Dance with me.”
His anxious being slowed as he led her across the floor and to where he’d found her straddling the 7’ ladder only days earlier. Images of them in his suite with her straddling him flashed in his head. He mentally shook the thoughts away, but not so far away because he fully intended on ending the evening with that scenario. He pulled her close in his arms and began slowly moving her across the dance floor. He’d wanted to attend this party with Kate as his real fiancée and here she was in his arms, forever. He was never letting her go again. There would be no more secrets between them.
“I love you Marcus Caliendo,” she whispered. “I never dreamed a day like this could be possible.” He knew another dream she’d kept at bay and he was going to sweep her off her feet and fly her away.
“I love you Katherine McAdams,” he whispered back. “I always dreamed a day like this was possible.”
She laughed and peered up to look at him. “Thank you Marc. For understanding.”
He cupped her face and pulled her forehead against his. “No more secrets.”
She shook her head against him. “I will never hide anything from you again.”
“I will never let you go again.”
“You will never have too.”
He kissed her loving her warm wine flavor just as the sky opened up like Emma had promised and white thick flakes fell from the sky encircling around them in a winter wonderland.
Kate smiled and pulled away to look up. “This is amazing.”
He caught Emma’s eyes across the room and she raised her hands as if saying I told you so, and then winked.
He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her against him and picked her feet off the floor enough to twirl them.
As the ball was coming to an end Marc walked Kate toward their suite. He liked how that sounded. But before they made it that far he took her to the back door of her favorite restaurant−the only one that had ice cream−and pulled his card out.
“We don’t use keys anymore.”
She pouted, then snatched the card from him, knowing exactly what was to follow.
As they sat in the kitchen on the floor against the metal fridge sharing a bowl of ice cream he decided they had shared a lot of good moments in this kitchen and he wanted to add one more before they had to grow up and not act like teenagers.
“I was thinking we should take a couple weeks off and get away.”
“After Christmas?”
“I was actually thinking we could start tomorrow.”
She glanced up at him surprised. “Tomorrow? The month is just starting.”
He nodded. There were a lot of things happening, but he had already sat down and discussed it with his parents. “Yes, we are flying to the Maritimes.”
Her mid-mouth spoon of ice cream paused. “Are you serious?”
He nodded.
“Tomorrow?”
He nodded.
Her eyes turned into large round olive saucers and her hands flew around his neck, ice cream, spoon and everything.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kate sat hunched down behind the snow fort wall they had built and waited...waited...and then boom! The snowball came flying over the wall and landed at her feet. High pitched hysterical giggles followed from the other side of that wall and she stood up holding her own handful of snow.
“Which one of you was it?” she asked planting a gloved hand on her hip and threatening with her snowball.
Marc’s guilty eyes stared back her and even then the little mini them with her brunette curls halfway down her back and matching guilty blue eyes pointed at Marc.
“Hey!” he teased, ruffling her hat. She giggled again.
Kate lifted, aimed and threw the snowball at Marc who dodged it, then lifted Rosemary into the air flying her in a circle before calling, “Let’s get her!”
They were running toward Kate when Rosemary’s grandmother called them into the house. “Hot cocoa is ready! With mini marshmallows.” Rosemary cheered and started toward the house.
Marc grabbed Kate’s hand and gave her cheek a kiss before they followed the tiny footprints in the snow.
It had only been a week since she recalled parking in front of the small farmhouse with her nerves unraveling like a cat rolling a ball of yarn around the house.
“Are you ready?” Marc had asked her.
She shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
He sat back and she had stared at the little house knowing beyond those walls was the one person that had been in her head like the background noise of a radio. It had happened all so suddenly. She had just found out about Rosemary, finally after all these years, locked and sealed her relationship with Marc and here they were, together. She wasn’t alone. She would never be alone now that the truth was out and he had forgiven her. What an amazing man was by her side. But she had been worried before they knocked on that door. Would she like them? Would they bond? Would she ever grow to love them?”
“Aren’t you scared?” she had asked Marc.
“I’ve never been more scared in my life.”
“Me too.”
He squeezed her hand. “I’ve also never been happier.”
She smiled at him. “Me too.”
Now here they were and it hadn’t been nearly as scary as she had first anticipated. Soon they would all be returning to the resort...together. It was amazing what they had accomplished in the short time together...the three of them...as a family.
Rosemary stopped walking and turned her heart quenching grin at them. Her grandmother had done an amazing job raising a polite, sweet little angel. She waited for them to catch up then separated their hands replacing them with her own for the
walk back to the farmhouse.
Kate’s heart warmed and she looked up at Marc and almost laughed at his mushy grin. This little girl had him wrapped around her little finger and it was adorable.
The End
Coming Soon:
Lakeshore Legends
The McAdams Sisters
Book Two, Peyton McAdams
By The Lake Series
Shannyn Leah
Lakeshore Secrets: The McAdams Sisters - Kate McAdams (By The Lake Series Book 1) Page 21
