"I know I... I told you Alix's father was dead..."
"Yes you did," Keith cut in, still angry, "I can very clearly still remember you saying that."
She lifted her head to look at him now, "Look, I get that you're angry right now, but I had my reasons for not telling you the entire truth."
"And what were your reasons Donna? You didn't trust me?" He planted both hands on his hips and cocked his head to the side. He could feel his anger coming, but he didn't want to lose control. He straightened and paced to the window, "I've told you over and over again how invaluable trust is to me! And yet you break it, over and over!"
"I didn't want anyone to know!" She yelled out and then paused, blinked once and looked down at her fingers, "I didn't want you to know, especially for the fact that you both are business rivals, it'll look... awkward."
Keith still was not convinced by her reason, "You should have let me be the judge of that. I trusted you Donna."
"I'm sorry."
"And you've broken that trust. Twice now."
She shut her eyes, getting very bad, "I'm sorry."
"Sorry won't fix this," his voice came low, and pained as he turned away from her, "Why did you keep the fact that he has a daughter from him?" He asked her, "And I want the truth Donna."
She sniffed, "Because I was angry, he didn't deserve her. He didn't deserve to know."
Keith looked at her calmly and his voice came out soft, "Why would you say that?"
She sniffed again as she recalled the day he had called her up to the roof, their new favorite spot, the same place he had proposed to her two days prior only to break it off, "The day I was to tell him about the pregnancy, he broke off the engagement without much of an excuse and got married to Cheryl."
Keith's eyebrows rose in surprise and he looked at her with pity, "He didn't reach out to you after then?"
She shook her head, "That was the last time I saw him until the luncheon at the Ribbon Palace Art Gallery."
"Cheryl knew about you two?" He asked her to which she nodded in reply, "Guessing that's why she lashed out back then. She's always had issues."
Donna remained quiet. She stood by the bed, leaning against the bed post, with her eyes fixed on her fingers. Occasionally, she would shut them to keep the tears from falling. Keith felt for her, his anger had long completely vanished but he still wanted to know the whole truth.
"Why did you decide to keep the pregnancy?" He asked
She lifted her head to look at him and her eyebrows furrowed deeply, "Should I have gotten rid of it on account of what he did? I'm not a murderer and it wasn't just for him, the pregnancy was mine as well."
Keith lifted both hands and took a couple of steps closer to her, but he was still far away, "I didn't say you should have gotten rid of it, I just want to know your reason for deciding to keep it."
Donna sniffed and looked away from him, "Because I wanted a family."
Keith looked at her, confused for a second, "A family?"
"I was very hurt," she explained. Her heart ached now and the tears came out more, "I felt very betrayed and at some point I did consider getting rid of the pregnancy but... that would only hurt me more. I really loved him and Cheryl was supposed to be my good friend. It's... It's just..."
She shut her eyes and covered her face with her palms as she began to cry.
He hated seeing her cry. He could understand where her hurt was coming from and why she had wanted to keep her daughter and the fact that Jeremy was her father a secret.
He walked up to where she was by the bed post as she was crying her eyes out and he pulled her into his embrace, stroking her hair and back as he hushed her to calm down.
His hands climbed up and his thumb wiped her tears, she sniffed and closed her eyes willing the tears to stop but they kept coming.
“I’m sorry Donna.” he said but she shook her head slowly and sniffed again then opened her eyes to look at him.
“No, maybe I should have told you all these sooner.”
His lips twitched in a smile. “Maybe.”
She chuckled and brought her head down, allowing his fingers brush against her jaw, she kept her eyes on his shirt. “I think I just stained your shirt with my lipstick.”
He looked down but he wasn’t looking at his shirt. “Let me wipe that.”
His hand reached for her chin and he tilted her face up as his face came down. He did everything slowly, Donna kept her eyes on his and he kept his eyes on her lips which he was going for, and he kept going until they touched.
He closed his eyes and his hands spread to cup her face, her lips were soft, he felt her hands grab his shirt around his waist. He wanted to only kiss her once but as he began to pull away, her body came up to capture his lips again. She stood on her tip toes and was beginning to pull on his shirt.
Knowing that she wanted this made him deepen the kiss.
He held her against the bed post and seized her by the waist, pulling her closer to himself. In as much as he wanted to take her, he tried to hold on to control, the kiss was supposed to be one of console and longing, not lustful.
They disengaged but held on to each other for a while with their foreheads touching.
Donna kept her eyes on his chest and bit her lower lip. She felt weird and all of a sudden shy, she had just kissed her boss. She had just kissed Keith Preston!
Keith's fingers stroked her chin and cheek, then dropped down to one side of her neck. He smiled softly and planted a kiss on her forehead, "I may sound heartless right now but I'm glad you didn't end up with Jeremy," he lifted her head so she could look into his eyes as he looked into hers, the emerald green color enchanted him, "because I want you."