The Lover’s Secret (No Exceptions #1)(30)
Author: J.C. Reed

Finally, something rustled in the background. Candy? Last time I had checked, the candy bowl had been in the lobby sixty stories down, which meant my gut feeling had been right. She was keeping me waiting on purpose.

“Nothing to report,” she said, after what felt like an eternity. “Tell Jett everything’s fine. We’re managing perfectly well without him.”

I winced as the noise of foil wrappers carried down the line, then a chewing sound echoed in my ear, so loud I had to keep the phone away. It wasn’t hard to imagine Emma chewing with her mouth open. She knew it got to me, and that was my fault. A few weeks earlier, in an attempt to break the ice by having a little chat, I told her that I’d once shared an office with a guy who always distracted me with his noisy eating.

When I could bear to put the phone back to my ear again, I rolled my eyes and put on the sweetest voice I could muster. “Great. Thank you, and have a good day, Emma.”

I disconnected before she could answer. As much as Emma’s hellish and childish behavior annoyed me to no end, my thoughts were on something much more grim: Jett wasn’t at work, and I was worried that something bad had happened to him, which might have been the reason why he wasn’t answering his phone.

By the time I returned to the reception desk, my heart was pumping hard, this time with yet more worry. The redhead gazed at me with a patient expression, as though she had been expecting me. She was probably used to dealing with annoying guests like me.

“Hi,” I said and smiled sweetly. “Do you happen to know when Mr. Mayfield will be back? We’re staying in the penthouse suite.”

I almost expected her to shake her head and offer a curt, “No, sorry,” just to brush me off, but instead, she pulled up her eyebrows in recollection.

“Mr. Mayfield is booked in Conference Room 5A for this afternoon.” She pointed to the open entrance to her right. “Follow the hall, then turn left. You should find him there.”

I stared at her, open-mouthed, as the images of horror in my head slowly dissipated and turned into something else: red, boiling fury.

He hadn’t been in an accident. No need to start making calls to all the hospitals in New York City. I couldn’t have been happier about that, but I also couldn’t have been angrier at the newest development in his actual whereabouts.

“He’s…?” My voice failed me, and for a second I was about to lose it.

He had been here all along.

The reality hit me hard and fast, knocking my breath out of my lungs.

“Conference Room 5A,” the receptionist repeated. “Would you like me to show you the way?”

She eyed me with sympathy, as if she could sense my distress. Or maybe she was just used to female guests being disappointed by rich men. Either way, she suspected that I’d had a hard day. What she didn’t know, though, was that my day had not just been hard; it had been a living nightmare, and I was worried it was only going to get worse.

I shook my head in response. “Thanks, but that won’t be necessary.”

I headed in the direction she had pointed, barely paying attention to the expensive paintings or the polished marble floors. My feet walked fast, as if something was chasing me, as if my life depended on it. In a twisted way, something was chasing me: the past I had hoped would never catch up with me.

If this is a dream, God, please…please let me wake up.

The prayer was futile, though, because it wasn’t a dream. No dream I had ever had felt so surreal, yet was real, and I knew I wouldn’t be waking up from this living nightmare, no matter how many times I tried to pinch myself.

I had a bad feeling about Nate, not least because he was a killer on the loose. Countless questions kept spinning in my mind, all of which I hoped Jett could answer. The sooner I met with him, the faster I could secure the water dam, before the flood burst through and swallowed me whole.

I crossed the hall and took a left, toward the conference rooms. The area was quiet, almost serene, decorated with huge arrangements of orchids and a plush, red carpet that hushed the sound of my heels.

Conference Room 5A was the last door to my right. Even before I stopped in front of it, I noticed that the doors were wide open, and it was awfully quiet.

A rush of disappointment surged through me. No one was inside, meaning the meeting was over. I entered nonetheless, and sat down at the ridiculously huge, round, mahogany table that would have made King Arthur’s knights proud—in ancient business times.

The faint smell of coffee hit my nostrils, making it clear that the room had been recently occupied. But by whom and why? Who did Jett meet here, and why would he hide it from me?

Chapter 18

My head was a blurry, spinning mess. So many questions, so few answers, but among them the one question that kept burning inside my mind: why would Jett lie to me about being at the office when he was right here, in the hotel? And, most importantly: why hadn’t he told me that he had been visiting with his brother—the very man who had tried to kill me—in the past few weeks?

They were little lies, but lies nonetheless. For some reason, I kept thinking that maybe Jett didn’t know his brother had been released.

It was possible.

Hard to imagine, but still possible.

I had to believe that…for the sake of our relationship and our baby.

However, in the event he had known about it, what prevented him from telling me? My fingers traced the smooth surface of the mahogany table as my mind fought hard to put the pieces together.

The letter…Nate’s release…Jett’s secrecy.

Nothing made much sense.

Unless, of course…

Another cold shudder ran down my spine. I tried to stop the dark thought before it could invade my mind, but it was too late. My breath came ragged and heavy. The assumption made me sick to the core, and I grasped the edge of the table for support.

Nate wanted the Italian estate I had inherited, just as Jett had wanted it when he hired me. While the two brothers had different, if not opposite, motives, with Nate greedily wanting it for himself, Jett had just sought to preserve the company reputation and ward off the scandal. Of course that was all before he got to know me better, and fell in love with me, after which he proclaimed he had no interest in it anymore. I once chose to believe him and gave him another chance, trusting that he was on my side.

But what if I had gotten it all wrong from the beginning. What if…Oh God!

My fingernails clenched the table, scratching into the finish of the wood as my mind conjured up another option with bigger implications—something that would be awful beyond my wildest dreams.