A Secret to Keep by Railyn Stone Read Free Book Online

since he was white, she was black and Liyah was Hispanic. They were a multicultural lot and Sloane loved it. She also loved being able to talk to him about anything. They’d talked about her life with Gates and he’d listened without judging. He and Liyah were so supportive of her and they pitched in from time to time to help her with Brayden.
    “Avery is giving him a bath. What’s up?” Again she was thankful for her aunt being there for her. She didn’t realize how tired she was; she could hardly focus on anything. It was evident she had a lot on her mind as she picked at the food on her plate.
    “Not much. I was going to see if you wanted to go with me and Hannah to the movies on Saturday, but…uh oh.” Chase paused and he noticed Sloane wasn’t listening to him as he cut into the pie. “What’s going on?”
    He knew her too well. “Gates is in town. And I don’t think I can keep Brayden from him anymore. And of course Avery won’t get off my back about it.” Sloane rolled her eyes as she referred to her aunt’s persistent badgering. She continued to push the food around on her plate then glanced at Chase.
    “Yeah, Liyah mentioned ‘Mr. Infamous’ was in town. What’re you going to do?” She could see the concern on Chase’s face as she struggled to give him some kind of answer.
    “I honestly don’t know.”
    “Well, you could always tell him the truth.” Most of the time she was very thankful for his bluntness, but today was not one of those days.
    “It’s not that easy. I can’t very well just walk up to him and say ‘hey in addition to the hospital I want you to build, here’s your son’.” She put the fork down, sat back in the chair, crossed her arms and stared at Chase.
    “Well, you could, but it might not go that well,” Chase laughed, sitting beside her to dig into the pie. “You got any ice cream to go with this?”
    “Thanks for the support, Chase.” She quipped as he continued to laugh. “It’s not funny.” Getting up from her spot, she opened the freezer and plopped a box of vanilla ice cream in front of him with a spoon.
    “I’m just saying. You don’t have many choices at this point. What do you think is best?” He scooped ice cream onto the pie before sitting back to see confusion consume her face.
    “I don’t know, but I’ve got to come up with something, and fast.”
     
    ###
     
    “I postponed the meeting with the Reyes Foundation.” Gates said, tapping the end of the Mont Blanc he held in his hand against the hard wood of the mahogany desk. He had purposely scheduled a meeting with Sloane and Liyah, only to postpone it. It was part of his diabolical scheme to make Sloane squirm. In doing so, he’d sent Evan back to New York to touch base with Angelica, but he also wanted to give him time to be with his family. People could say a lot of things about Gates, but saying he didn’t understand the value of family wasn’t one of them. His family hadn’t been close and he’d been practically taken in by Evan’s family. He’d learned how important it was to spend time with the people who cared about you. And, even though his wasn’t the most ideal and loving family, it was still his. It hurt when his mother died two years ago. Elizabeth Gates McCall loved her children and was happy being a mother. But Victor was jealous of her love for them and wasn’t about to share her with anyone, not even his own offspring. She was the only thing he valued as much, or more than, his beloved company. So, when Elizabeth died, a part of the old man died with her and his health began to fail, leaving Gates in charge. Once Victor was gone, it was only him and his older sister, Bailey, left. She lived in London with her husband and their three children and had no interest in running their father’s business. She’d practically signed over her share of the company to him before the old man had time to get used to his dirt surroundings.
    “So, how long are you going to be