Kept Secrets (Secret, Love & Betrayal Novel Book 2)

by Angel de'Amor

  “Is this garlic and herb?” she asked as she popped another into her mouth.

  She hadn’t noticed that Kalon had slithered out his chair and was now standing before her.

  She glanced up. “What’s wrong, babe?”

  He knelt down on one leg and opened a black box, revealing a stunning diamond ring. Taylor froze, the cracker halfway to her mouth. She stole a quick glance at Faith, and raised her hands up to her trembling lips.

  “I love you.” Kalon spoke with shaky hands and voice. “You’re the one who completes me and makes me a better person. What I’m about to ask you are not just empty words, where in a few weeks or few months it will be lost … what I’m about to ask you is a forever thing. I just need an answer to a few questions.” He licked his dry lips. “Will you grow old with me? Will you love me forever? And will you marry me?”

  Taylor’s eyes misted as she opened and then closed her mouth. Opening her mouth again … she screamed.

  “Oooouch!”

  The baby had sent a sharp kick to her mid-section, which made Taylor tumble over in pain, holding her stomach.

  “I think it’s time,” Taylor said as she winced again at the sharp pain pulsating through her back.

  “Can you stand?” Kalon asked.

  Taylor tried, but a gush of clear liquid ran down her leg. She stared at Kalon’s confused face.

  “My water just broke.”

  ***

  Kalon held on to Taylor’s hand as she was rushed through the hospital double doors, jogging on the side of the gurney. She huffed and puffed through her mouth, and he assumed she was trying to subside the pain. She squeezed his hand again, this time with too much force, and Kalon winced. He did the breathing techniques with her that they had learned at their four day Lamaze class.

  “Hee, hee, whoo,” he blew in out to keep her focused on breathing.

  “It’s too early for the baby to come,” Taylor kept repeating over and over again.

  “It’s okay, babe, the baby is strong enough to survive,” he said, stroking the side of her cheek.

  “The baby is coming fast,” the doctor announced.

  A nurse flew to the doctor’s side and helped her into her scrubs. Then, the doctor ran over to the sink and scrubbed her hands down. Kalon was spun around by another nurse. “Here, sir, put this on.”

  He worked his arms into the too-little gown and grabbed Taylor’s hand at the same time she reached out for him. He was nervous and scared all at once. This was a new challenge for him, and he hoped he could be a great father.

  “Are you ready to push?” the doctor asked as the bottom of the bed was broken a loose.

  Kalon looked on in amazement as Taylor nodded.

  “Wait … wait,” Taylor shouted. She turned her head toward Kalon. “I do! I do,” she blurted.

  He smiled and kissed her forehead. Suddenly, another contraction hit Taylor and she yelled.

  “Okay, push,” the doctor announced.

  After four pushes, Kalon heard a sound of joy. He peeked down in between Taylor’s legs and saw the doctor pull out a tiny tot with a head full of straight sandy-reddish hair. The baby squealed.

  “It’s a boy,” the doctor announced.

  “Do you want to hold your son?” the nurse asked.

  Kalon nervously nodded.

  As the doctor went back to working on Taylor, the nurse took the baby over to a table and cleaned the mucus out his mouth. Finally, she wiped him down a few times and handed him over to a trembling Kalon.

  “He’s so handsome! Everyone lock up your little girls,” the nurse joked.

  Taylor looked up and smiled.

  “What’s his name?” The nurse asked.

  Taylor whispered, “Kaleb Tariq Knight.”

  Kalon placed the baby in Taylor’s waiting arms. She kissed the baby on the forehead and wiggled his chubby cheeks.

  “Oh my! You’re definitely going to be a heart breaker,” Taylor confessed.

  He batted his almond-shaped, sea-green eyes. Kalon laughed and rubbed his neck to work out the kinks. He raised his head toward the ceiling.

  “Oh boy, here we go!”

  EPILOGUE

  One year later …

  Taylor’s eyes flitted around the room in astonishment. Kalon sat to her left, engrossed in a conversation with Ephraim, and to her right sat Toni, Libby, and Pam. Taylor couldn’t make up her mind on who would be her maid of honor, so she asked all three ladies to share this special day with her.

  Someone from the back of the room started to tap their glasses and chant, “Kiss … kiss … kiss.”

  Kalon cocked his head to the side and said, “Give me some of them luscious lips.” Taylor grinned and gave him a sweet, passionate kiss.

  The crowd applauded.

  Today Taylor and Kalon made the front page of the New York Times newspaper. The headline read: “Kalon Knight, the CEO of Angel Kids, and Taylor Briggs, the CEO of Dynasty Magazine tie the knot in a lavish, upscale wedding with an estimated cost of five hundred thousand. Kalon’s mother, the well-known fashion designer Faith Flare,is one of the attendees.” The paper went on to say:“Taylor Briggs is the daughter of Mayor John Briggs of Chicago, Illinois, and the mayor of New York is said to be amongst the guest list.”

  The wedding was leaked to the media three weeks before the event. Taylor wanted to have something more private and intimate, but with her and Kalon being influential people in the community they were watched constantly.

  Libby tapped the mic and said, “We’re going to have the first husband and wife dance.”

  Kalon held his hand out, and Taylor laid her slender, manicured hand in his. He led her to the dance floor and spun her around in a circle. As she placed her head on his chest, it felt right; she had no qualms and he felt like home. The onlookers cooed as Kaleb wobbled out on the floor. He walked with a wide gait, dressed in his miniature black tuxedo and bow tie. He fell right at Kalon legs.

  “Da-da!” He held up his tiny arms.

  Kalon picked him up and kissed his forehead as Taylor kissed his chubby cheeks. He beamed back at her with his sea-green eyes. Kaleb eyes must have come from her Irish descent, and he already knew how to bat those long eyelashes to get exactly what he wanted.

  Tyler took the mic and announced, “Next, we will have the father and daughter dance.”

  Taylor frowned in Tyler’s direction. She hadn’t spoken to her parent’s in a year, but she sent them an invitation because Kalon said it was only right to do so. She didn’t expect them to come; her mother had reached out to her only one time since her departure from Chicago, and Taylor never returned the phone call. She peered around the room, and when her eyes landed on her father, she froze in the center of the white marble floor.

  Don’t cry, she said to herself to keep it together. She felt Kalon wrap his arm around her waist while he held Kaleb in his left arm. Mayor Briggs strolled up to them, and extended his hand to Kalon.

  Kalon gave him a firm handshake, but her father gave Taylor his full attention. “I was wrong. I can’t allow another day to go by on this earth and you not talk to me. Your mother cries her eyes out every night for getting involved in your life. You are your own person, and you have made me proud. I love you.”

  Taylor couldn’t hold back the water works any longer. As the tears rolled down the side of her cheeks, they began to stain her white wedding gown.

  Falling into her father arms, she held on to him tight. He kissed the crown of her head and said, “Can I have this dance?”

  They twirled around the floor a few times … until her mother walked onto the floor. Taylor had forgiven her and knew that sometimes people could lose sight of what’s important. She snatched her mother up in a hug, and they cried and laughed. All three of them joined hands on the floor.

  Finally, Toni and Tyler came and joined the circle. Taylor glanced around at her family standing in a group with their hands adjoined, and thought, this is what I wanted, and this was what life wa
s all about: Family. Taylor waved over Libby, Pam, Faith, Ephraim, and Renee to join the reunion.

  Kalon joined the circle with his father, Ray, in tow. Kaleb crawled into the middle, stood up, and shook his butt to the music. The guests stood on their feet, whistling and laughing at the show. They all went in for a group hug.

  Taylor, Pam, Libby, Renee, and Toni danced to the cubic shuffle, sliding back and forth on the dance floor. The music came to a sudden screech, and Ephraim’s voice boomed through the speakers. “Can we have everyone to exit the floor?”

  Taylor’s smile dipped into a frown as Ephraim ushered everyone off the dance floor.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  Ephraim grinned and sent her wink.

  “Mrs. Knight, that means you, too.”

  Taylor reluctantly left the floor after she saw she was the only one standing there with her arms folded and with a pout displayed on her face. The room went dark and the white spotlight from the ceiling shone down on the middle of the marble dance floor. Ephraim’s voice bellowed through the speakers again. “Now introducing the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha: Kalon, Matt, Cal, Josh, and yours truly.”

  The mayor of New York flanked the side of the dance floor with other high-profile men of the community. Several congressmen and old college classmates fanned out around the square-shaped dance floor as well, their arms folded across their chest.

  The distinguished men were all dressed in black suits and resembled a Men in Black scene. The men were all members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. It was a well-known African American tradition for frats to perform their routine dance at social events. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Owens, and Justice Thurgood Marshall belonged to this brotherhood.

  A wooden box was rolled out on to the center of the floor with the words Ice Cold written on all four sides. The four men dressed in black pants and gold T-shirts stomped their way out into the middle of the marble floor and circled around the crate. Taylor scanned the floor for Kalon, but didn’t see him.

  Boom! The sound effect exploded from the loud speakers positioned around the corners of the room. Taylor’s head snapped back to the center of the floor from the noise.

  Kalon burst through the crate, shivering all over, and the other four men followed suit. The crowd applauded and looked on in amazement. All five men filed into a single line, and Kalon stepped aside, tilting his head backward. “How cold is it?” he shouted.

  The four men standing in formation tilted their heads backward and the distinguished men fanned out around the dance floor followed the same reaction, all of them blurting out in unison, “Ice cold.”

  The five frat brothers started stomping their feet in a standstill marching band drill and chanted, “Ice, ice, baby. Too cold, too cold. Ice, ice, baby. The black and gold.” The men made a shivering sound with their mouths and shook all over.

  The next thing Taylor saw sent a jolt to her body. The music blared from the speakers and they broke out into a dance routine. They all were on cue, and when Kalon and Ephraim stood on opposite sides of the dance floor, Taylor knew the crowd was in for a treat.

  They nodded at each other and did several backward flips into the center of the floor. The guests clapped and cheered, and Taylor made her way on to the floor when Kalon beckoned her with the motion of his index finger.

  He shuffled his feet from side to side in a dancing position, all the while pumping his fist in the air, and Taylor followed his lead. Before long, all of the party goers joined the floor and started the same two steps to the Joe Budden song “Pump it Up.”

  “Fellas, do your thing, let me do my thang. I mean, do your thing, let me do my thang. Shorties, move that thing, mami move that thing,” the lyrics boomed.

  Everybody screamed the ending to the song, “Please tell the DJ - pump, p-p-pump, pump it up.”

  Taylor held on to Kalon, wedging her head in between his neck and chest. “I didn’t know you could do all that.” She smiled up at him.

  Kalon gave her a peck on the lips. “Did you like it?”

  Taylor brought her finger up to her lips as if she was deep in thought, causing Kalon to chuckle.

  “I loved it, my dancing machine,” she said and gave him a peck on the neck.

  “There’s a lot about me you didn’t know I could do.” He twirled her around in a circle and brought her back to mold against his frame. “But I have a lifetime to show you.”

  Taylor became lost in his words, and she told him the one thing she been dying to say when she became his better half, “You’re my soul mate.”

  Kalon dipped his head to hers. “And you are mine.” He grinned as he captured her mouth in another long, hypnotic kiss.

  After three hours on the dance floor, Taylor sat down to rub her aching feet and took a breather. She started to chat with some of the New York and Chicago Dynasty magazine’s employees.

  “Excuse me, ladies and gents,” Kalon said.

  Kalon whisked her away into the bridal suite, which was located in the back of the banquet hall. He quickly captured her mouth in a kiss once he closed the door. Taylor moaned at the force he applied.

  “I love you,” he mumbled into her mouth. He lifted her puffy white dress. “I’ve been waiting all night to consummate our marriage.”

  “Is that right?” she said, licking the tip of his nose.

  “Yep.” Kalon moaned as he positioned one of her legs around his waist. “I’m glad all of our secrets are out,” Kalon confessed.

  “Hmmm.” Taylor teased him by nibbling on his lips. “What if I had one more secret?” she purred.

  Kalon leaned back from Taylor’s embrace. “You can’t spook me,” he said, chuckling.

  “I bet I can,” she teased, pulling the T-shirt up over his head.

  “Shoot.”

  Taylor whispered into his ear.

  “What?” Kalon shouted, and smashed his lips to hers again. “You’re pregnant? Hoo-hah!”

  Kalon molded their bodies together on the pastel wallpaper. “I’m about to take you to ecstasy, Mrs. Knight.”

  THE END