Chapter 32
River
Thomas Tate’s caustic energy is oozing from every pore as he hulks in the doorway of my office on the main floor of Tate International.
“We need to have a long conversation with your . . . husband,”
he sneers.
I consider telling him off, but in the end, I bite back any retorts forming in my head.
Because I’m such a dutiful daughter-in-law, I follow his business-suited form down the hall. Maybe I’m propelled by a sick curiosity.
Thomas gets in the elevator but when he stops it from closing on me, I grin. “I’ll take the stairs, thanks,”
I say as I spin around.
I’m not looking forward to going up four flights—have mercy—but it’s a bajillion times better than riding in an elevator with Mr. Tate.
I’d spent my Saturday morning getting breakfast with Jana, going on and on about my husband. It’s been a week since our artificial marriage became real, and I’ve been dying to talk with her about it. It’s not like I can say these things to anyone else. Everyone else thinks it’s been real from the start.
Then she dropped me off at work so I could tweak the press releases for Elianna’s theater company. After some bonding with his brothers over football, Gabriel and I are going to pick up Skye and bring her to the cottage. She’s reached the point in her time at Caring Souls where the therapist thinks she’s ready for a short visit away.
And then, we can take her back and finally go out on a real dinner date. You know. No big whoop. I’m going to be dating my new husband.
And then we get to go back home. Together.
“Home.”
I like the sound of that.
When I arrive at the suite, Thomas is trying to open the door. “Open it,”
he says, gesturing to my key card, his voice rough.
I cross my arms across my chest. “Mr. Tate, ask me like a civil person and I’d be happy to open it.”
I shrug. “And if not, I’ll go back downstairs now.”
After I catch my breath for a second.
Something in me has lit itself on fire. I’m burning with . . . what? Fury? Indignation? A desire to protect the man I love from his rogue father? I’ve never spoken to Thomas like that. I’ve always had to be cautious and polite. I’ve been living in fear around him because I had to play a certain role. Put on a show.
But something is different now. Is it because I’m in love with Gabriel? Probably. I feel brave. And also? I don’t have to pretend anymore. Because our marriage is real. Things are good. All the pretenses are gone. They’ve blown away like a fallen autumn leaf.
Thomas sizes me up, his lips in a hard line. We stand here, toe to toe. When he falters, hissing out a “Please,”
I’m surprised he caved.
I wave my work badge over the panel on the wall next to the door and the locking mechanism inside the doorknob clicks. Thomas steps in front of me, causing me to stumble back, as he wrenches the handle and pulls the door open.
“Excuse you,”
I mutter and step in the room next to him. I hear Gabriel before I see him.
“What did you do?”
His tone is accusatory and that’s when I see that he’s standing over a reclined Milo.
My gaze meets Gabriel’s. I make my way around the huge, black leather sectional full of various Tate brothers and Drake. The smell of wing sauce punctuates the air, but that’s quickly forgotten when I notice the set of Gabriel’s shoulders, the concern on his face.
Gabriel reaches out a hand to grasp mine as I get to him. He turns to look at his father, who hasn’t moved from the doorway. Thomas scans the room for a second before turning his gaze on us. A football game is playing mutely on the TV screen. Everyone’s staring at us.
“I need to speak to you, Gabriel,”
Thomas’s voice is calm, but there’s an edge, and any false show of calm is betrayed by the look in his eyes.
Gabriel turns to me. “I’ll be right back.”
He squeezes my fingers and gives an affable smile. The cool thing is, I believe it. I believe he really is as carefree as he seems. He’s not posturing like his father is.
“The wife is gonna need to come, too,”
Thomas says.
Gabriel tenses and opens his mouth to speak but Milo stands and pats him on the shoulder. He quirks a half smile. “I’ll handle this. This isn’t your fault.”
Gabriel’s expression is one of confusion. “What happened, Milo?”
“Milo, you can sit down. This doesn’t involve you,”
Thomas says.
Milo doesn’t respond but keeps walking. Gabriel steps forward to join him and I follow. “I’m coming, too,” I insist.
Sebastian’s gotten to his feet. “Is there a problem, Dad?”
Thomas’s eye twitches. “All will be out in the open soon.”
His gaze flashes to mine and that’s when it hits me. Thomas Tate knows our secret.
At least he knows what our secret used to be.
My heartbeat ratchets up as I run to join Gabriel, who, if the twitching muscle near his dimple is to be believed, has also come to the same conclusion.
Before we’ve even reached Thomas, he’s already spinning on his heel. “River’s office.”
Again, his tone is falsely breezy. Void of feeling. Which I realize is a tactic in and of itself. Appear completely unaffected by anything and everything around you and you’ll be less likely to be hurt.
“Nope.”
Gabriel’s tone is hard. “We can talk right here.”
“Uh . . .”
Oliver glances behind him at the big screen. “You guys want to go over to my office instead? You remember the code, don’t you?”
“Thanks, but no, Oliver,”
Gabriel says, widening his stance. “This won’t take long.”
“If you really want the entire family to hear what you’ve done, then fine.”
Thomas is grinning broadly. “It’s quicker like this, anyway.”
“Guys, I feel like this is my fault,”
Milo begins but he draws back when Gabriel shoots him a look.
“I appreciate you telling me, Milo,”
Thomas says. “It was the right thing to do.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
Gabriel shoots out a gust of air.
“I was . . . well, severely affected by something this morning,”
Milo says, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “I haven’t slept much and I don’t know what came over me. I was already in Denver, and I stopped at the house to see Mom because I wanted to tell somebody, you know? And then I ended up saying something on accident about . . . you and River . . . to Mom and Dad—”
Gabriel tugs at a fistful of his own hair. “Can you just stop talking, Milo?”
He takes a breath and says in a quieter tone, “It’s okay.”
I place a hand on Gabriel’s arm but turn to look at his youngest brother. “Obviously something’s going on, Milo, that caused a lapse in judgment. It happens to the best of us.”
My gaze darts to Gabriel. I’m not trying to dig up my husband’s recent past here but there’s no use getting after Milo for what was clearly a mistake.
“He didn’t have to say much,”
Thomas says. “I was already wary of your marriage from the start, as any sane person would be, so it didn’t take much for me to understand what you two did.”
“What did you do?”
Alec also stands to join us, as does Oliver. Henry’s coiled near the door, as if on watch, ready to pounce if things escalate. Which makes sense because of his military and security background. Still, I feel that much safer now, oddly enough.
Celine bursts through the door, out of breath, fly-aways bouncing off her normally pristinely precise hair. Her eyeliner has smudged across one side of her face. “Thomas Tate! What do you think you’re doing?”
Thomas flinches, his mouth dropping open before he recovers. “What are you doing, Celine?”
“Ha!”
She shakes her head and holds up a key card. “I’m making sure you don’t mess things up more than you already have. Look, everyone just calm down. There were some good reasons they did what they did, okay? And maybe it wasn’t the best thing to do but you gotta give ‘em points for creativity, right?”
She swipes at the hair falling in her eyes. “When’s the last time any of you did anything so outside the box as to marry somebody for pretend in order to get back what was rightfully yours? They were thinking of the greater good, I’d say, because if Foundations Financial were to be sold or mismanaged, then—”
“Marry somebody for pretend?”
Sebastian’s voice roars. Everyone in the room’s mouths drop open. Drake, stands and lets himself out with a “Right. I’ll leave all y’all to it . . .”
Celine’s eyes are wide. “Wait. You didn’t know?”
She turns to Thomas. “You hadn’t said anything?”
She shakes her head. “Unbelievable!”
Thomas’s face caves. “Now you’re angry that I didn’t say anything?”
“Mom . . .”
Gabriel’s dimples flash as he chuckles. “You beat everyone to the punch. You were about three seconds or so too early.”
“How did you know, though, Celine?” I ask.
Celine steps to me grasps both my hands. Her smile is warm. “Hi, River. Nice to see you.”
She tilts her head to one side, making her neck long and graceful as she takes me in. “And, please, you’re welcome to call me Mom if you’d like. I know how things are . . . well, you don’t have to, if that feels unfair to your own mother’s memory. But if you’re comfortable with that, I would love it.”
Tears spring into my eyes. I can’t say anything. I only nod, searching her expression.
“Okay, but—”
Alec throws his arms in the air. “What does Mom know that I don’t?”
Sebastian swears, his face reddening. “Looks like Mom, Dad, and apparently Milo all know that Gabriel and River got married under false pretenses in order to convince Dad that he was responsible enough to get his job back.”
Wow. It sounds so . . . shady when he says it like that.
“What?”
Oliver smacks his forehead. “You lied to us?”
“Wait a minute, okay?”
I step in front of the room. My heart is pounding so loudly in my ears I can hardly hear my own words. Things are garbled—I’m under water. “Yes, we did.”
“River, you don’t have to—”
Gabriel gently squeezes my upper arm.
“Gabriel, it’s okay. It’s out there. Regardless of how or why, it’s out there. And it’s okay, right?—”
“Right. Because our goals and our plans have completely changed.”
“Now, let’s not be hasty, Gabriel,”
Celine has pressed the back of her hand to her chin. “The future doesn’t necessarily need to be discussed right now.”
She turns to us. “And I apologize for letting the cat out of the bag.”
Her eyebrows twinge together. “I thought your father had already ruined everything.”
“I gave them the chance to discuss this privately, but they refused,”
Thomas says.
“But honestly, Mom,”
I press. “How did you know?”
Sidenote: It feels good to call her that. I’m beginning to really like the idea of having two moms, one in Heaven and the other one to eat chili cheese fries and drink Cokes with.
And maybe even some other mother-daughter stuff, too.
“I didn’t,”
she says. “Not completely. But you know how I love my cozy mysteries and my little detective shows set in the English countryside . . .”
She gives up a nervous laugh. “I knew something was afoot. You two didn’t do anything wrong. But Stella’s been sort of dropping hints.”
“Of course she has.”
Sebastian deadpans.
Mom sighs. “I do apologize but you know how I’ve been trying to make some changes in my life. I believe in openness and honesty but the last thing I wanted to do was have my husband go and ruin a good thing. And you two, Gabriel and River, are a good thing. I wasn’t intending to get you in trouble or foil your plans, it’s just that . . .”
She lifts a shoulder. “Your father is a different person now and part of me wondered if he could handle it.”
“Mom, what happened exactly?”
Gabriel shifts in his stance.
Yes, my love. I squeeze his hand. I’m feeling antsy about all of this, too.
“Last night at dinner, when your father and I danced around the subject of you taking over the company and how lovely it is that you found River even though maybe things got started off in an unconventional, maybe slightly dishonest way . . .”
“I thought you just meant that they rushed into it like complete idiots,”
Thomas said.
“Oh.”
Celine’s eyes grow wide. “Oh! Milo said some things this morning, and then when you texted me, Thomas, saying you were heading to Longdale to sort out some issues with Gabriel. I assumed—”
“It’s my fault, Mom. Not yours.”
Milo sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “There were some . . . extenuating circumstances that I was involved in—”
“Will you please tell us what happened, Milo?”
Henry says. We all gasp. For Henry to be so curious about it!
“In due time, brother. In due time.”
Again, Milo can’t contain his smile. It’s reverberating throughout his entire being.
“It doesn’t matter who said what.”
Gabriel’s voice is loud and clear as he looks at everyone in turn. “Yes. We had an arrangement.”
He flashes me a look of agony, but I offer a brave smile and a nod.
“A . . . a,” he tries.
“A marriage of convenience, if you will,” I offer.
“I got stuck on the idea that getting married and settling down would convince Dad I was trustworthy enough to get my job back and eventually take over the company. River needed some compensation for her sister’s care and so . . .”
He shrugs. “We hatched a plan.”
“But you didn’t plan on falling in love.”
Celine’s eyes shine bright, and she whisks away a tear. “Sorry to announce your business!”
“Better it came from you than from him.”
I point to Thomas. Thomas is on my bad list, no matter what changes people allude to.
Celine’s gaze focuses on the others. “Maybe they did make a rash decision, but it looks like it’s turning out well.”
Thomas gives a colorless laugh. “In any case, Gabriel, your dishonesty forces my hand.”
He shrugs. “I have no choice but to terminate you. For good.”
“I was already terminated, remember?”
Now Gabriel’s voice is soft. He does love his dad. “And it’s okay. I’ve made a lot of mistakes these past couple of months, but the silver lining is I found River. And she’s worth all of it. And more.”
I tighten my grip on his hand once again, marveling at the way things are turning out after all these years of loving this man and trying so hard not to.
“I’m okay with being finished at Foundations Financial,”
Gabriel says. “I’ve got a different focus now. Different priorities.”
“But you’re the only one who could ever do it, Gabriel.”
Oliver’s voice is insistent. I think I know what he means. He’s the only one who could have managed to work for their father. Without Gabriel tied to Thomas Tate, would anyone be? Despite his changes, did he push too far this time?
Thomas’s expression is steely. He doesn’t say another word, just looks over his sons and the wreckage of the years, and leaves.