Chapter 25

"I'm so sorry, Graham." I sighed. "She needs me. She was staying at a friend's house with a few other girls. I'm guessing there was some drama. Mean girls are no joke."

"Is everything okay?" he asked with genuine concern. "We can just go straight there."

His offer warmed my heart, but it couldn't happen. The weight of my secret pressed down on me like a heavy burden, freaking me out.

"No," I replied hastily, my mind racing with panicked thoughts. "Sloane would be embarrassed if I did that. And… she doesn't know about us. I'll call a driver."

"Okay," Graham said, nodding but looking confused. It was clear that he was beginning to sense that something was amiss.

He instructed his driver to take us back to my place. I texted a car service to meet me at the building. I couldn't shake the feeling that the moment of truth was looming ever closer. I wasn't ready to confront it.

When we arrived at my building, I turned to Graham with a heavy heart, knowing that I had to end our evening prematurely. "I'm sorry to rush off like this," I murmured, my voice barely above a whisper. I leaned in to press a quick kiss against his lips. "Thank you for the pizza. It was a nice night. I had a really good time."

"It's fine." He smiled. "You have a daughter who needs you. I admire that. Take care of Sloane. Call me when you can."

"I will."

He gave me another quick kiss. I hurried into the waiting car, hating that I had to leave Graham with no real explanation. I couldn't help but feel dread. Life was about to get complicated. I could feel it coming.

The time had come to face the music. I couldn't keep Graham in the dark any longer. Yet the thought of revealing my secret filled me with fear and uncertainty. I just got him back and now I was going to lose him again.

It wasn't fair.

I couldn't really blame anyone but myself, though. I was the one that made the choice to keep the baby from him. And then I chose not to tell him every single day since I knew she was growing in my belly.

I shifted my thoughts from Graham to Sloane. What could possibly be wrong? My mind raced with a multitude of possibilities. I could hear the stress in her voice. I really hoped it wasn't anything serious. I hated to think of her being sad. It caused me physical pain to think of her hurting in any way. If the girls were mean to her, it was going to be very hard not to want to whoop their asses.

I reached for my phone to text Sloane. "Is everything okay?" I typed. "What happened?"

Sloane's response was swift, yet cryptic. "I'll tell you when you get here," she replied. "Are you close?"

With a heavy sigh, I typed out a quick response, assuring her that I was on my way.

When the car pulled onto the street, I spotted Sloane waiting for me outside. From a distance, she appeared fine, but as the car drew closer, I could see the anger simmering beneath the surface. I knew my daughter well and she was pissed. Clearly, there had been an argument with one or all of the girls. I had to tamp down the mama bear to keep myself from going in swinging.

She opened the car door, got in, and slammed it behind her.

"Hey, sweetie," I murmured, my voice gentle as I reached out to touch her arm. "What's going on?"

Sloane's gaze met mine. I saw the anger. "Who's my father?" she demanded.

I recoiled in shock, my heart stuttering in my chest at her unexpected question. "What? Where is this coming from?" I stammered, my mind racing to figure out the right answer.

Sloane thrust her phone into my hands. "I Googled your boss, Mom," she snapped.

I stared at the image displayed on the screen, and my heart plummeted with realization. There, staring back at me, was a picture of Graham. Dread washed over me like a tidal wave as I struggled to come to terms with the implications of Sloane's discovery. I could deny it. That was my initial reaction.

In that moment, the weight of my secret threatened to suffocate me, the truth looming ominously on the horizon. I knew that I couldn't keep the truth from Sloane any longer, yet the thought of revealing the truth filled me with fear unlike anything I had ever known.

Everything fell into slow motion.

Did she know or was she just testing me?

I calmly handed the phone back to her. "Yes, that's my boss," I answered calmly. "Graham."

"I've been suspicious of you, Mom," she said, her anger evident in every word. "You suddenly found a job with someone you went to high school with, and it just seemed too convenient. You're not an assistant. You were going to run Grandpa's company, and now suddenly, you're an executive assistant. That's who you were with last night."

"Sloane," I said.

"I did more research. I can't explain what it was, but something told me you were lying."

"I didn't lie!"

"When I saw that picture of him, I thought he looked a bit like me. So, I kept digging, and I found out that you didn't just go to high school together. His dad worked for Grandpa."

I could barely breathe. Holly's warnings flashed through my mind. She told me this was going to happen. I had thought I could outrun my past, but Sloane was too smart for her own good.

"Sloane." I didn't know what else to say. She was pissed. Nothing I said in that moment was going to matter. She wasn't going to hear me and anything I did say would be a lie. I never wanted to lie to her.

"I found old pictures online," Sloane continued, her voice breaking with emotion. "And then I saw pictures of him with his family. I look just like his mother, and him. He's my father, isn't he?"

I felt as though the ground had been ripped out from beneath me, leaving me teetering on the edge of a precipice. I was suddenly sick to my stomach. That ham and pineapple was coming back to bite me.

As we pulled up to our apartment, I turned to Sloane with a heavy heart, my voice barely above a whisper. "Let's go upstairs and talk about it," I suggested, my heart heavy with regret.

Sloane refused to budge. "You always told me my dad left us," she said, her voice tinged with bitterness. "But I never stopped wondering about him, Mom. Answer me, is Graham Russell my father?"

My mouth was suddenly very dry. "Sloane, let's go upstairs."

"Not until you promise to tell me the truth."

"I will tell you the truth." I nodded.

She shot me a dirty look before throwing open the car door and storming inside.

"I'm sorry," I said to the driver.

I slipped him a fifty, hoping he would never mention a word of what he overheard, and I had no doubt he overheard every last word.

"Have a nice night," he replied.

I rushed inside but she had already taken the elevator up. I rolled my eyes and was forced to wait for the elevator to come back.

When the elevator doors finally opened on our floor, I stepped out into the dimly lit foyer, my nerves in tatters. I approached the door, knowing that behind it awaited a confrontation I had long feared. With a trembling hand, I pushed open the door.

Sloane was sitting on the couch, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She glared at me with a mix of anger and hurt in her eyes. I took a deep breath, mustering all the courage I had left as I sat down beside her.

There was no turning back now. Sloane deserved the truth, no matter how painful it may be for both of us.

"Graham is your father," I finally confessed, my voice barely above a whisper.

Tears welled up in Sloane's eyes as she processed my words, the truth hitting her hard. The silence that followed was deafening, the air heavy with unspoken emotions.

"Why did you lie to me?" Sloane's voice was a whisper, barely concealing the hurt and betrayal she felt. I hung my head. The weight of my deception crushed me, the consequences of my choices laid bare before me. I reached out to touch Sloane's hand, but she pulled away, recoiling as if my touch burned.

"I thought I was protecting you," I began, my voice cracking with emotion. "I thought if I could shield you from the truth, I could spare you pain."

Sloane's eyes bored into mine. "And what about the pain of being lied to by the one person I trusted most in this world?" she asked. "Why are you with him if he walked away from us?"

"Sloane, things were really complicated."

"Uncomplicate them," she snapped.

I took a deep breath. "Graham never knew I was pregnant. He didn't know about you. He still doesn't."

She looked at me with horror. "He doesn't even know I exist!"

My heart ached at Sloane's words, her pain palpable in the air around us. I struggled to find the right words to explain, to make her understand the tangled web of lies and secrets that had brought us to this moment.

"Sloane, it's not that simple," I started, my voice trembling with emotion. "I never meant for things to turn out this way. Graham was young and ambitious. I was scared, too. I made mistakes in trying to shield you from the truth. But now that you know, we can decide together what steps to take next."

Sloane wiped away a tear, her eyes still glistening. "I don't even know where to begin," she admitted softly.

I took her hand in mine, the silence between us heavy with all that was left unsaid. "We can start by taking things one step at a time," I suggested gently.

"Are you with him?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's the man you're seeing, right?"

"We did meet at the benefit last night." I nodded.

"And you work for him?"

"Yes."

"And you still haven't told him about me?"

"It's complicated." I sighed. "I know that sounds bad, but it's true. I don't know how to tell him he has a daughter."

"So, you were just never going to tell him? Or me? What happens if you decide to get serious with him? Were you going to let us be around each other and never tell us? Are you out of your mind?"

Sloane deserved the truth, Graham deserved to know about his daughter, and I couldn't keep living in this tangled web of deceit.

"I know it may seem like that now, but I promise you, I never meant for things to get this far," I began, my voice filled with remorse. "I was young and scared, and I made a mistake by not telling him about you. But now that you know, we need to find a way to break the truth to him gently. It won't be easy, and there will be consequences, but we need to face this head on. I can't keep living a lie, and you deserve to have a relationship with your father, Sloane, if you want one."

"We need to face this head on?" She scoffed. "I didn't lie to him."

"You're right." I nodded. "I have to talk to him. I have to tell him the truth."

"What if he doesn't want anything to do with me?" she whispered, her voice breaking with emotion. "After what you did?"

"That would never happen," I said, hoping I wasn't telling her another lie.

She looked at me with so much anger and pain. It killed me. It felt like she was actually squeezing my heart.

"I can't talk to you right now," she said and got to her feet. "I'm so mad at you I can't even look at you."

She walked to her bedroom and slammed the door. I sat there in the silence that followed, shaken. The truth had finally been made bare, and it stung like an open wound. I couldn't blame her for her anger, for her pain. I had kept this secret for far too long.

I hurt. She hurt. And now I had to hurt Graham.