And she got the hell out of South Carolina.
A quiet tap at the car window startled Morgan out of her tears. She looked out to see a little old man watching her with concern as he clutched a sack of groceries from the store she’d stopped at.
She rolled down the window, self-consciously wiping the mascara-stained tears from her cheeks. “Yes?”
“Are you okay, dear? Is there something I can do?”
Morgan put on her best practiced smile and shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I just need a minute. You’re sweet to check on me, though. Thank you.”
The man nodded and smiled back, but she could tell he didn’t believe her. “Have a good day,” he said instead, and continued on to his car.
Morgan rolled up the window and pulled her visor mirror down to fix her face. Her skin was red and blotchy from the tears and her eye makeup was everywhere. She pulled a tissue from her purse to do what she could, blew her nose and got back on the road before anyone else came to check on her.
When she pulled in at her parents’ house, she didn’t go inside immediately. Instead, she went around the back of the house toward the gardens. There, beyond the entertaining spaces, right at the edge of some trees, there was a stone bench. Beside it, a marble plaque that was nearly invisible if you weren’t looking for it in the grass.
What seemed like a nice place to sit and enjoy the gardens was actually the world’s tiniest graveyard. Her family had an ostentatious mausoleum at Magnolia Cemetery where generations of Steeles were laid to rest, but after she lost Dawn, her father had had a small private graveyard designated on their property. He told her that he wanted her to be able to visit whenever she wanted to. It didn’t hurt that no one would see it back there, either.
She approached the site more slowly as she got closer. Despite how close it was, it had been a long time since she’d come back here. In part, because when Morgan had buried her daughter, she’d buried that part of her life with her. Or at least she’d tried to. River’s sudden reappearance in her life had changed everything.
Morgan lowered herself down onto the bench and looked at the marble slab that marked her baby’s grave. It said simply Dawn Steele, with a single date. Her life had been so short there was only one date to put there.
She reached down and ran her fingertips across the cold stone. The site was immaculately kept. The family gardener, Paul, was probably paid handsomely to maintain it in the strictest confidence. He was one of only a handful of people who knew about Dawn. Aside from her parents, only Lena had been around to know the truth. She’d brought her prenatal vitamins and ice cream each night before Dawn was born, then her collection of pills with her favorite sparkling water and a few fresh cookies each night after she was born.
Since then, perhaps everyone except Paul had forgotten about this tiny grave and the child it was for. Suddenly, the thought of Dawn made her incredibly sad.
Being around River again had done more than stir up old feelings of desire and regret. It had reminded her that there was more at stake here than just another successful charity project.
That was what had caused the panic as she lay with River in the town house. The moment his hand brushed over her stomach, the reality of her situation came rushing in. She couldn’t let River touch her. See her. Not there, like that. He would see the scar in the bright afternoon daylight. He would notice the firm belly he remembered was soft and covered in faded stretch marks. He would want to know the truth and she couldn’t bear to tell him what had happened. He would hate her. Hate her and her family for hiding the truth from him.
Back then, when she could still feel her daughter moving inside of her, she’d wondered if she needed to reach out to River. Whether he had been using her for money or not, this was his child. He may not have been the man she thought he was, but he deserved to know the truth. Then, before she could tell him he had a daughter, she was gone. What good would telling him do now? It would only cause him unnecessary pain. And even though she wouldn’t admit it to herself, she’d still loved River. She couldn’t intentionally hurt him.
So she kept quiet. Looked to the future. And tried to forget.
“I’m so sorry,” she said to her daughter’s tombstone as her eyes welled up with tears again. “You deserved better than what you went through. You deserved a life. Love. We both did. And I screwed it all up for us.”
Six
Not a word. Not a single word, work-related or otherwise, in two weeks! The land was purchased and leveled, the plumbing was run and the slabs were poured and in the process of curing for all three houses. Framing was going up tomorrow and the roofs after that. And yet, Morgan hadn’t spoken to him since she’d run from the town house that afternoon.
River stood in the lobby of Steele Tools, trying to decide if he should go upstairs and confront Morgan. He did need to talk to her about some business-related topics, but he knew those could’ve been handled via email. The truth was that he was here on a personal mission.
She walked out on him. In the middle of...well, the worst possible time to walk out. There was no explanation, no nothing. She’d run from his life once without another word. He wasn’t about to let that happen a second time. If she didn’t want him, if she had regrets about back then and now, she was going to tell him to his face without Daddy running interference.
He straightened his tie and was about to head toward the elevator when he heard an odd sound. It was something akin to a sputter and a gasp mixed together. He expected it to be Morgan, but then he turned to his left and found he was suddenly face-to-face with her father—Trevor Steele.
He expected the man to yell. Trevor had certainly done his share of that when he’d stolen River’s wife from his bed all those years ago, but now, there was only an eerie silence as the man stared him down.
River was older now. Less intimated by a man like Trevor than he was back then. He wasn’t a kid anymore, playing at being a man. Instead, he grinned and stuck out his hand to greet him. “Mr. Steele! Good to see you again, sir.”
The man narrowed his gaze but didn’t return the smile. “What are you doing here, River?” he asked in a voice so low River almost couldn’t hear it.
That’s when he remembered what Morgan had said about her parents. They hated scandal. Trevor would probably love to beat River with his briefcase, but he wouldn’t because that would cause a scene. “You don’t know, sir? My company is working with yours to build houses for the less fortunate.”
River watched as the muscles in Trevor’s neck and jaw tightened until he thought they might pop through his skin. “Is this my daughter’s doing?” he asked coolly.
“Not at all. I believe my company was chosen through a downselect process overseen by one of your sons.” River smiled as brightly as he could manage at the scowling man. Trevor Steele’s firm policy of secrecy had bitten him in this case. “I’m not surprised they chose me. I took your advice and made the most of the bribe you gave me. I’m quite successful these days.”
“A bribe?!” Trevor sputtered as he glanced around the lobby to see if anyone was nearby. “You keep your voice down when you throw around accusations like that. It was no such thing.”