Tell Me No Secrets: Secret Baby Romance Collection

by Jamie Knight

  The whole thing is so bizarre, and makes no sense. Why would she leave after achieving such a victory? Was she just using me the whole time? And if so, why wouldn’t she have waited until afterwards to split?

  All of these questions are fresh on my mind as I walk into the office. I am half hoping to see her here, but I have a feeling I won’t.

  “Oh, hello Mr. Drive,” Kristy says from the reception desk. “How are doing this morning?”

  “I’m okay,” I tell her, trying not to snap at her out of my own frustration. I know that she and Mariah don’t really get along, but she’s been a good receptionist and it’s not her fault I’m such a sour mood.

  “Well, I just thought you might want to know something about our little Mariah dearest,” Kristy says, batting her eyes innocently. “For the good of the company, I thought I’d bring it up.”

  “Okay, Kristy,” I tell her with a sigh. “What is it?”

  “When she called to put in her personal time, HR asked me to make a note in her file. So I did, and I noticed something.”

  “Yes, Kristy?” I prod her. Out with it already. “What did you notice?”

  “She still has all her paychecks outstanding; none have been cashed. Don’t you think that’s a little odd, Mr. Drive? I wonder what she’s been doing working here, if she doesn’t really need the money. Also, when I was looking at her HR file I realized some details didn’t quite match up. I’m beginning to think she isn’t really who she says she is…”

  “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Kristy,” I tell her, cutting her off because I really think she is overstepping. None of this is any of her business. But is she onto something about Mariah? Something that would explain a lot of what has been going on and puzzling the fuck out of me?

  “You’re welcome,” she says, with a chipper tone in her voice and her fake smile plastered back on her face. “Here’s her file, if you want to look into it yourself. I know it’s not really my place, but I’m just worried about the company. I want all the best for it. And for you.”

  She’s looking at me like she wants to hit on me. I’m trying hard not to pay too much attention to what she’s saying, since it’s obvious she just wants Mariah’s job… and probably her entire life, too. Or at least, the life we did enjoy together before she disappeared. I’m sure that Kristy thinks she would make an easy replacement for that. But, no matter how mad I am at Mariah right now, I know it doesn’t work that way. I couldn’t just forget her cute laugh, her hot ass, her amazing work ethic.

  I take the file from Kristy and feel determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. I can’t stop thinking about why Mariah would say she was sick at her party. She ran off to the bathroom and then out of the office. And why wouldn’t she even take a sip of her celebratory champagne?

  Something is up and I’m going to figure out what it is. I hope that Mariah’s not out to pull some big scheme on me. Because I love the life we have together. And I want to do anything I can to save it.

  Chapter 35 - Mariah

  I show up for the closing at the last possible moment. It’s at our real estate offices. I don’t want to be late for it, but neither do I want to give Wesley or Kristy or anyone else the opportunity to talk to me beforehand and ask a bunch of questions.

  I’ve decided that after this closing, I’ll tell Wesley that I need to quit because I don’t want to jeopardize his business. I don’t want to break up with him, but nor do I see what other choice I have, because once he or anyone else finds out I’m carrying his child, my goal to preserve his well-being will fail. I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place – being with him and costing him his career, or leaving and breaking his heart.

  So, I can’t say I’ve decided what to do about Wesley, per se, except that clearly more time is still needed to see what happens between us. I can’t deny that I’m hoping for the best of both worlds – once I leave the firm and am no longer his subordinate, there will be nothing to stop us from being together. But he might feel too betrayed once he finds out who my father is and what my career plans have been all along, and I couldn’t blame him for that.

  Granted, I had no way to know that he and I would fall for each other when I so desperately applied for jobs on Craigslist, went to interview with his skeezy salesmen, or accepted the job. I didn’t know the coffee girl job would turn into a junior sales position. And I certainly didn’t know we’d fall for each other.

  If things had worked out differently, I would definitely change my plans for Wesley. I’d love to work here with him all the time. Or maybe, after I took my place as head of Harper Realty once my dad retired, Wesley and I could merge realty companies and rule the real estate world. But, I’m sure that things will be very different once he finds out who I am, and none of it will appear as it really is.

  Not to mention that I have no idea how he’d feel about the fact that I’m pregnant. I have no idea if he’d want to be a father or not. He’s spoken poorly about his relationship with his own father, and has mentioned when we’ve seen kids on TV or while out and about that he’s afraid to ever have kids because he thinks he’d fuck them up like his dad fucked him up.

  I can relate to that fear very well, but I still want to have this baby. I know it’s different, though, when I’m the one carrying it and not him. I don’t want to get my hopes up that he would be happy about having a child.

  So, after this I’ll let him know I’m quitting. But first I’ll go to HR to make sure it’s a done deal and that there’s no backing out for me. I’ll ask them to change the names on my paychecks and make the real estate commission check for this house out to Mariah Harper, not Mariah Young.

  Barring any snags or hang-ups that get in my way – which, I’m sure there might be many due to Wesley probably wanting to talk to me before the closing or before I make it to HR, and not knowing how HR will handle my request for a name change – I’ll be out of here in time to work my very last shift at the diner. Then I’ll go to my dad’s house to let him know I fulfilled my part of the bargain, and that I’m ready for him to fulfill his.

  “Oh, Mariah, there you are,” says Bill Piper, the realtor who represents the buyer of the home, as I rush into the conference room and take my seat. “We were just about to call you. And Mr. Drive has been looking for you.”

  “Sorry about that,” I tell him, sneaking a sheepish grin at Wesley, who is seated to my left and ready to get his house sold. “I was just going back over everything to make sure all I’ve dotted all my I’s and crossed all my T’s.”

  And that part isn’t a lie. I’ve been so busy fretting over my current predicament and trying to make plans for the future that I let a little work slide until the last minute, which isn’t like me. It’s hard to work in a hotel room, and my mind has just been so frazzled.

  “How are you?” Wesley asks me in a low whisper, looking as if he’s been worried about me. “Are you feeling better now?”

  “Yes,” I tell him. “Thank you.”

  Then I look over at Mr. Piper and ask in my most professional tone, “Are we ready?”

  Bill nods at me and says, “Yes, I don’t want to let anything get in the way of me buying this house.”

  “Me neither,” I tell him, thinking, if only you knew how much I mean that.

  Chapter 36 - Mariah

  The closing is over, and everything has gone off without a hitch. Now, I just have to get to HR before Wesley tries to talk to me. I hurry to pick up my files and leave the office, while he’s exchanging pleasantries with the new owner of the house. I also have to swing by my office to pick up some personal things before carrying out my exit plan.

  “Oh, Mariah, are you…?” I hear Wesley trying to talk to me, but he had been in the middle of a conversation with Bill, who interrupts him to go back to telling him about how he’s planning to change the detour, so it’s the perfect chance to keep hurrying away.

  I get to my office and see that t
he door is already open. I turn around to Kristy to ask her who she let in without letting me know, but she says, “By the way, Mariah, your dad decided to drop by. I figured since he’s your father, and all, it was okay that he didn’t have an appointment. And I let him in for you and told him to wait for you.”

  She has such a smug smile on her face that I don’t want to give her the satisfaction of showing her I’m upset. I wonder how she would know that I don’t want my dad in this office. Then the thought hits me: I wonder if she knows who my father is?

  A bout of nausea hits my stomach and I don’t think it has anything to do with the pregnancy. I force my mouth into a smile and tell her, “Thank you , Kristy,” while I walk confidently into my office, as if my father is just the person I want to see here – instead of the last person in the world I wish was here.

  No, correction, I think, as soon as I get through the door and realize who else is there with my father. Charles is the last person in the world I wish was here.

  “Dad?” I ask him, looking at him instead of Charles, because Charles has nothing to do with my life except for continuing to try to intrude on it with my father’s help. “What are you doing here?”

  “Well, I heard about your little sale and I wanted to come congratulate you.” He has a wide smile on his face, but it looks fake.

  “You heard about the…” How did he hear about the sale? I decide to focus on the important things. “So, you know I sold a house for over a million dollars.” I stand up straight and look at him without blinking, even though I’m scared and have no idea what’s going on. “That means you’ve come to give me the company.”

  “Oh, Mariah, don’t be silly,” he says, laughing and looking at Charles as if he wants him to join in on the joke. So of course, Charles laughs too. “I let you have your fun, to try to prove you could be a big girl in the real world, but instead, according to the very nice, very hard working receptionist who called me, all you did was play on your knowledge of my competitors to come here and trick these people into hiring you. In fact, and I’m sorry, Charles, to have to break the news to you about your bride-to-be in this crass manner, but, Mariah, rumor has it you even started out as a schoolgirl uniform-wearing coffee server until you slept your way up the ladder.”

  “What?” I explode, wanting to cry but forcing myself to hold back the tears. “Kristy called you? She said all that?”

  I’m about to walk back into the lobby to confront Kristy, but I see that she’s already there, on her way to my office… along with Wesley. Great.

  Maybe I deserve for things to go down this way because I haven’t been brave enough to tell the truth, I think. But, still, it is an awful way to “celebrate” doing the one thing I set out to do – sell a house – and apparently my dad isn’t even going to honor his end of the deal anyway. Not to mention that Wesley looks completely crushed, and so I’ve hurt him in the process, too, which was the opposite of what I was trying to do. Everything is falling apart – not that I was holding it all together that well, anyway.

  “Mariah, Kristy says there’s something about you that I should know?” Wesley asks, as they approach my office. “I thought maybe you and I should go speak in private?”

  I nod, but then Wesley sees my dad in my office and says, “Mr. Harper?” hesitantly, as if he might be seeing things. There had never been any love lost between them over the years, as competitive deals constantly made one of them mad at the other. So, he was probably particularly surprised to find his rival sitting in one of the offices he owns – and he doesn’t even know the worst part yet. I open my mouth to start explaining it to him.

  But my dad butts in. “There’s no need for that, Wesley. I already know all about everything that’s happened at your office, but apparently you don’t. While you are busy congratulating my daughter on selling your house, I’m busy congratulating her on the upcoming wedding I’m planning for her, to Charles here – her fiancée.”

  “What?” Wesley asks, looking back and forth from my dad to me. “You’re his daughter? And you’re engaged?”

  “No,” I tell him, very quickly. “I mean, yes, I’m his daughter. But no, I’d never be engaged to Charles. The whole reason I’m here is so I wouldn’t have to be!”

  “Yes, Mariah, let’s talk about the reason you’re here, and who you really are,” says Kristy, clearly wanting to get all the credit for exposing me. “When I noticed you were acting strangely, and then saw that you had uncashed paychecks, things started to not add up. Not that that ever really did when it came to you, anyway. I was just determined to get to the bottom of it. I tried to tell Mr. Driver here that I had concerns about you – I even gave him your file – but I guess he was more worried about getting – or staying – in your pants than saving his own company.”

  I look at her with my mouth hanging open, and Wesley’s is much the same way. She continues.

  “So, I did a little digging myself. Nothing came up for your supposed name, so I traced your license plate, with the help of a detective I happen to know. You’re not the only one who uses your feminine wiles for favors, you know. I found out your car is registered to a Mariah, all right… but not Mariah Young. Mariah Harper. And the address was that of Mr. Harper, who happens to be… wouldn’t you guess it, our number one competitor in the real estate business!”

  She clasps her hands together and smiles with glee for figuring it all out. “So, Wesley, I’m sorry to be the one to break the news to you, but your darling little Junior Associate, with whom you entrusted the sale of your home, was only here to spy on you for her dad’s company.”

  “That’s not true!” I insist, but then I realize that it doesn’t really matter.

  My real pretense for being here wasn’t to spy on them, but, at least when I found out that there was a million dollar house I could sell, it was to do something just as bad in their eyes, I’m sure… to use them to get a real estate deal that would let me get back in with my dad’s company, their rival. How could I ever be redeemed after having done this? I was being selfish, no doubt.

  I decide not to drag Wesley any further through my mess. I’ve put him and his reputation through enough.

  “I’m sorry, Wesley,” I tell him. “I know this looks bad. I want you to know something for sure. I wasn’t spying on you; I don’t have any information to give my dad. In fact, I don’t want to have anything to do with my dad any more. He is not a man of his word, and I don’t want to be like him. So I can promise you this. I’ll leave you alone, and I’ll let anyone who asks know that you didn’t know anything about this and had nothing to do with it. You care about your company, as you should, because you’ve built it up with a lot of hard work and dedication, and I’m not going to ruin that for you. You can keep my commission money and my paychecks.”

  I’m looking at him wanting to tell him the truth: I love you. But I can’t. I’m having your child. I definitely can’t say that. So, I just say, “I’m sorry,” again, before heading out of the office. I no longer even want the personal items I have there, because I have nowhere to put them in the motel and I don’t even know where I’ll be living next.

  “Mariah…” both Wesley and my dad say at the same time. My dad is saying that if I walk away he is never going to give me the opportunity to marry Charles, heir to his fortune, ever again. As if I would want him to. I turn around to look at Wesley, but he shakes his head at me as if he thought better about talking to me. I continue to make my exit, thinking that I really don’t blame him.

  Chapter 37 - Wesley

  What the fuck? I have no idea what just happened, except that it seems Mariah has been using and manipulating me. Shows what I get for thinking I was in love with her.

  And to think, I was about to ask her to stay, so that we could work things out. That would have blown everything – at least she left without divulging our relationship, so there’s nothing that would really get me in trouble with the board of my company.

 
But if she didn’t have the guts to explain whatever the fuck is going on to me earlier, let alone to stick around now and try to do so, then I’ll be damned if I’m going to profess my love for her in front of people who obviously have their own agendas to worry about – her dad (I still can’t believe he’s her father!), her wannabe fiancée (what the fuck is that little wimp’s problem, anyway?, and why is he still hanging out in my office when Mariah has made it clear she doesn’t want anything to do with him?) and Kristy (that girl is trouble and I need to get rid of her smug ass).

  All these thoughts run through my mind but I can’t help but thinking about the look in Mariah’s eyes before she left. I guess I’m that naïve brokenhearted guy I never wanted to become. Because I could swear she wanted to say more to me. I think there’s more that she’s hiding. I keep thinking how she was sick at the office party, and then didn’t want any champagne to drink…

  I have got to get the fuck out of here before I let her mess with my head anymore.

  “Kristy,” I say, and she turns to me all smiles, as if she’s going to be thanked and promoted.

  “Yes, Boss?”

  “Please ensure that Mr. Harper is shown out of my office, and never let back in again.”

  Her jaw drops a bit, and she blinks.

  “Yes… sir… I can do that,” she says.

  “On second thought,” I tell her. “You’re the whole reason my competition is in my office in the first place, and I have no idea what made you think that was a good idea. So, please show yourself out as well, and do not return.”

  “I… I…”

  Now it’s her turn for her mouth to be hanging open while she’s absolutely speechless. I head out before I have to spend any more time with any of these crazy people.

  When I get home, Carrie greets me at the door with sad eyes.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” I tell her. “It all had to be done. I don’t know what’s up with Mariah, but it’s not what I thought it was.”