My office phone rang. I hit the speaker button, assuming it was Maggie or Bria. “Yeah?”
“Miss Lafayette?” a sharp voice asked.
“Yes, sorry. This is Gem Lafayette; how can I help you?”
“Mr. Peters would like to see you in his office immediately. He said you would know what this was regarding.”
My stomach dropped. I knew exactly what this was regarding. The jig was up. Somehow, I had been found out.
“I will be there shortly,” I sighed.
I wasn’t going into John’s office without being prepared. Analytics showed that our outreach campaign was positively impacting client relations. I needed the latest reports. I printed a few spreadsheets and scurried to Maggie’s office.
“No time to explain, but shit is about to hit the fan. I need the latest numbers on the campaign.”
“Gem, what’s going on?”
I cringed. “Long story short, John Peters is my brother and he just found out I work here. I need the numbers to prove to him that I’m not wasting my time ‘playing on the internet,’ as he likes to call it.”
She gave me a stern Mom-quality look. I hadn’t fucked up, and I was scrambling to prove it.
Maggie slowly nodded. “I think I probably wouldn’t have told everyone I was the owner’s sister either.”
“I promise I’ll give you the whole story.”
She handed me a stack of papers. I flipped through them.
“These are exactly what I need. Thank you,” I gushed.
“Good luck up there,” she said.
“Thanks, I’m going to need it.”
My nerves flipped and buzzed the entire elevator ride up to the executive floor. I had to remember to breathe. I couldn’t decide if I wanted Chase there for backup or not. On a professional level, I knew he would have my back. He saw the value that the marketing department had brought to expanding the company’s client base and improving client satisfaction.
But how would he react to finding out who I was this way? I should have told him.
“What the fuck are you playing at?” John practically screamed as his assistant opened the door for me and I stepped into his office.
Her eyes went wide, and she closed the door with a loud bang behind me. I didn’t blame her, I wanted her out of there too.
“I’m not playing,” I dug in my heels and held out the sheets with the graphs. “I’m a professional and I’m doing my job. I’m doing a damned good job too. The latest campaign’s numbers—”
He batted the papers from my hand, scattering them on the floor.
“Get the fuck out of my company, Gemma. Father left it to me, not you. This isn’t a playground.”
“I’m not playing. I know what I’m doing,” I tried to explain.
“I’m calling security to have you escorted off the premises. If you ever come back here Gemma—”
The door slammed open. “John, you have some serious explaining to do before I knock out your teeth.” Chase stormed in; his voice raised.
He stopped and looked at me. “Gem?”
He looked back and forth between me and John. His shoulders slumped as he finally recognized me. John and I both looked very much like our mother with curly strawberry blonde hair and green eyes. John’s features were sharper, his hair was a shade or two darker, and with his hair being short, the curls weren’t as noticeable. Seeing us together, it was obvious we were related.
“Gemma,” Chase said with a sigh.
“I’m sorry, I…”
“Gemma, you always fuck things up don’t you?” John sneered.
“No, I don’t. If you would only look at the numbers.”
“Gemma.” Chase looked stunned. He shook his head and lifted a finger to me.
“You are nothing but a spoiled brat. You manipulate and twist everything until you get your way.” Spittle gathered in the corners of John’s mouth.
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Chase bit out. “The marketing numbers are good.”
“Don’t you even,” John turned on Chase. “You’ve been fucking my sister and didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me.” He turned on me. “How many times did I tell you to stay away from my friends?”
“I was just a little kid,” I yelled.
“I meant forever,” John yelled back.
“Chase.” I reached out toward him. “I can explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain, Gemm,” John held the M sound, emphasizing the nickname I had chosen to use. He threw one of the office chairs to the side so he could rush at me. “You are a fucking liar. You ruin everything you know that? That’s what you do.”
He stopped short and pointed his finger in my face. “I would have thought that Dad raised you to have a little humility.”
“Our father had nothing to do with raising me. My mom—”
“Such bull shits. You weren’t sent away to boarding school. Dad kept you around to spoil. Daddy’s little girl.”
I shook my head. John’s words felt like a punch in the gut. “Our father barely had anything to do with me. I wasn’t taught anything about the family business, and he never took me out on his stupid boats. You were always his pride. I am not the evil person you and Dad always seemed to think I was.”
“No, you’re just some slut who I happen to share a parent with.”
“Parents, John, parents. I am your full sister.” The other comment I couldn’t say anything about, it felt too close to reality.
I swiped at the stupid anger response tears that ran down my face.
“How dare you use the Lafayette family name? Go away Gemma, I’m tired of you taking everything I’ve ever had away from me, father’s love, my mother, my home. You can’t have Chase. I forbid you from seeing him again.”
“John, this isn’t some competition between the two of you. The choice to see Gem, Gemma, is mine. Not yours,” Chase barked.
John sneered and shook his head. “Why did you have to sleep with her? She’s, my sister. You could do so much better, man. I can’t believe you didn’t even recognize her. You don’t get a say in this.”
He turned on me again. “Why him? Why my best friend? Why couldn’t you stay away? Go back to Europe and find the loser who knocked you up. Unless…”
He stopped ranting and looked from me to Chase. His gaze stayed on me, and I watched as realization crossed his face.
“Unless that loser is right here. Why couldn’t you leave him alone? Leave me one person,” John sounded like he lost all energy to fight anymore.
My heart wanted to collapse in on itself. John had figured out that Chase was Amelia’s father. This wasn’t how I wanted Chase to find out.
“You fucking whore!” John charged me. Chase stepped in the way and held him back.
John pushed away from Chase and straightened his tie. “Get your fucking hands off me. You knocked my sister up? Just perfect.”
“What the fuck? John, you’re delusional. I would have had to have been with Gemma years ago. That never happened.”
Chase looked to me for confirmation.
I couldn’t say anything. What had been my dream come true, Chase Campbell wanting to touch me… I gave him my virginity and he didn’t even remember any of it. I bit my lower lip. “I didn’t know how to tell you. I wanted to this weekend. But I chickened out. I never meant for you to find out like this. It’s why I wanted you to meet Amelia. Chase…”
He closed his eyes and shook his head.
“Chase?” I willed him to look back at me. I needed him to show me in any small way that I hadn’t destroyed everything between us.
I stood there as more tears, this time tears of grief and pain, blurred my vision.
“Get the fuck out Gemma. You can’t cry and get your way with me.” John’s words cut, and I felt like I was bleeding.
“I’ve been fighting and trying to prove myself to you for as long as I can remember. I wasn’t trying to take anything from you, I just wanted you to acknowledge me. I guess I got what I wanted, but not in the way I wanted it. All I ever wanted from you was a big brother who loved me.”
I struggled to breathe as I left his office. I couldn’t face anyone. Avoiding the elevators, I stumbled through the door to the emergency stairwell. I sat on the stairs before I collapsed from misery. With my head against the wall, I held onto the railing to keep from evaporating. I had never cried so hard in my life. It felt like my very soul was being ripped from my body.
My brother was as dead to me as my father was, as the mother who gave birth to me was. I wanted to fade away into nothing. Chase was lost to me.
