Page 41 of Small Town Secrets

“Nothing. You both did absolutely nothing wrong.” He rushed toward her, set on putting out yet another fire, her stiff delivery hinting a suspicion he planned to cut and run. In one swift motion he took her hand and ran a thumb along her knuckles, making certain to hold her gaze. “I have news for you, but before I do that, you should know I’m not going anywhere, okay? Neither is my promise to protect you and Whitney.”

“Has something happened in town? My parents? Ally?” Her voice turned impossibly small and husky, while the shadows forming under her eyes said his promise only added to her concerns.

“Nothing like that.” Set on unleashing the truth, he tugged her closer and cupped her face in his hands, making her look at him. “It’s about Mike. I’ve received confirmation on his whereabouts and movements over the last few years. You’re not going to like what I have to share.”

As if to shore-up her defenses, her lips formed a firm line and she pulled away, unbound hand coming to rest on her chest. For the longest time, she merely stared down at the patch of carpet between them, a million possibilities no doubt running through her mind, along with the dilemma of whether she wanted to know in the first place.

“Okay. Fine.” She snapped her focus back to him and gave a firm nod. “Just tell me.”

“Mike is still in Minnesota.” That wasn’t the worst bit, and he battled a desire to avert his gaze for the rest of it. Although looking away might give her the space to process the upcoming news, he wanted her to know he was here for her, even if a deeper part of him wanted to flinch from sharing the truth. “He lives closer to the city these days. He changed his surname—presumably to remain hidden—but still goes by Michael. Last month marked three years since he’s been married to a woman named Nina Clark.”

She jerked her chin back at that last bit of news, only to school a more neutral expression. “Oh…He moved on fast.”

His stomach sank because she didn’t know the half of it. “Laila. He also has two children. A boy and a girl.”

“Oh. Okay.” She gave a jerky set of small nods, her shoulders slumping, her cheeks baring a flush, while water came to glisten along the lower edge of her eyes.

A weighty silence passed, and she blinked at him a while before she eventually spoke again. “Is that everything?”

Laila’s blood turned cold in her veins, all because Adrian shook his head, the muscles at the edge of his jaw seeming to take on extra strain. As though he braced to deliver the worst news of all. “No, Laila. It’s not.”

As if Mike living in secret wedded bliss, with two children he hasn’t abandoned, isn’t bad enough?

Her vision blurred and the world seemed to spin all around her. Too many emotions rushed in at once. Her lungs felt void of air, so she sucked in a new breath, Adrian’s lack of reply perhaps more pain-inducing than whatever he had to share.

“I’m not going to like what you have to say next, am I?” Though she held his stare and rolled her shoulders back in a show of stoicism, he dipped his gaze down to the ground and nodded, the cabin’s darkness intensifying the gloomy shadows about his face.

“You mean, worse than him building a life with another woman?” A derisive laugh shot past her lips, but the lump in her throat turned that laugh into a twisted sob. “Was I really so hard to lov—”

She pressed her lips shut, feeling far too exposed now to want to talk about love with Ramos. Or perhaps a part of her feared what he might answer.

His gaze lifted but gave little of his own feelings away. “I’m sorry.”

“Just, don’t say anything yet, okay? Give me a minute.” She swiped at the fresh tears spilling down her cheeks and followed his lead at averting her gaze again.

She’d always figured Mike couldn’t hurt her more than he already had, but here she was again, her agony unleashed and at the mercy of whatever other horrible secret he’d kept from her.

Wishing to break her emotional stalemate, she blew out a hard breath and began to pace a small area just ahead of Ramos, shaking her one usable hand in the air in front of her, as if that might release all the bitter feelings pinging around inside.

“What could be worse?” She muttered to herself but loud enough for him to hear, too. “He left without a word. Abandoned his daughter. Time and time again I’ve had to explain to Whitney why her dad went away, when all I could offer was a softened version of ‘I don’t know.’ What could possibly be worse?”

Her tone verging on demanding, she snapped her focus back to Ramos.

His tight frown shifted from shock to concern, his cheeks hollow as he strode closer and caught hold of her arm. “Maybe we should stop here for tonight.”

His voice was soft and soothing, yet she felt anything but soothed. Though her rising anger wasn’t directed at him, she wrenched herself away, and deflected the internal sting from his compassion. “I need to know. I need to know now. I won’t stop worrying until I do.”

“Laila...” Her name was a low and gentle warning, but she shook her head, making it clear she wouldn’t back down. His gaze shifted to the large sliding door leading to the outside world, just like he had moments before, perhaps a clue he wanted to be anywhere but here.

She couldn’t blame him. Even when he cupped her face again and held on tight, releasing a sigh. “I had a hunch and was waiting on access to the birth certificate for Mike’s eldest child.” He paused, his gaze surveying her face, his tight brow yet another damning clue. “Laila, that child was born just six months after Whitney.”

A sharp hiss of breath burst past her teeth, and she snatched herself from his hold in a stumbling step back. This news on Mike’s eldest child meant he’d cheated on Laila while she was pregnant with Whitney, with no clear answer on how far back his infidelity really went.

Did she even want to know?

“I...”

I want to be sick…

---