Lakeshore Secrets: The McAdams Sisters - Kate McAdams (By The Lake Series Book 1) (21 page)

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 was 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 Mom, 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.

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.

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. Her 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.