“So you were willing to sneak around, betray Dad, take chances and even let a woman you considered your close friend sleep with him?”
“What happened between him and Sylvia wasn’t his fault. She tricked him. Used him. He explained things to me, and I forgave him.”
Jules nodded. “And are you forgiving him for marrying Nannette Gaither, Ms. Timmons? You’re free, and so is he. If you and Vance Clayburn have this great love affair, why aren’t the two of you together now?”
Before she could answer, Shiloh asked a question of her own. “And why did you and Dad begin hating the Grangers? Why did Dad start treating Caden and his brothers like they were the scum of the Earth and forbid Sedrick and me to have anything to do with them? Why?”
Sandra Timmons sat back down, but Shiloh remained standing. She looked at her daughter. “That was my fault. Samuel began suspecting I was having an affair. He just didn’t know with whom. One day he returned unexpectedly from a business trip, and I came home and found him here, sitting in a chair upstairs waiting. He knew I had been with someone and was full of accusations. At first I told him there was no one else, but he got mean, hateful and almost violent. I knew I had to tell him something. Give him a name.” She paused a moment. “So I told him I was having an affair with Sheppard.”
“What?” both Jules and Shiloh exclaimed simultaneously.
“You led Dad to believe you and Mr. Granger were having an affair?” Shiloh demanded.
“Yes,” she said nervously, wringing her hands.
“No wonder Dad hated Mr. Granger. But there was no reason to treat his sons the way he did.”
Sandra drew in a deep breath. “Samuel felt justified. Anyone could see how close you and Caden were becoming, closer than ever. We knew that would eventually lead to a romance of some sort between the two of you. Samuel refused to let that happen. He refused to accept the son of the man he assumed was my lover as a future son-in-law. When Sheppard went to jail, he saw the perfect opportunity to force a wedge between the two of you. But he even went further. He wanted to make sure Jace, Caden and Dalton were ostracized by the community, as well. He set up this vindictive campaign to hurt them.”
“And you let him,” Shiloh said in disgust.
“Why didn’t you tell Mr. Timmons the truth, Mrs. Timmons? Give him Vance Clayburn’s name? Why did you continue to allow your husband to assume Mr. Granger was your lover?” Jules asked.
She didn’t say anything for a minute. “It made perfect sense at the time. Sheppard went to prison for killing Sylvia, and it was reported in the news that another woman was involved. Samuel assumed I was the woman. He believed Sheppard killed Sylvia to be with me and thought his going to jail was his just reward. I thought it was the perfect solution. I could keep Vance’s name out of it, since Sheppard wouldn’t be around, anyway.”
Jules was stunned. What she was hearing was unbelievable. It was bad enough that a man had been in prison almost fifteen years for a crime he hadn’t committed, but he’d also been wrongly accused of taking part in an affair he probably knew nothing about. And Sandra Timmons was standing here admitting that she had seized an opportunity to benefit from Mr. Granger’s incarceration.
“Why were you protecting Vance Clayburn, Mom? Why?”
Sandra sprang from the sofa. “I had to. If your father had found out the truth that...”
Shiloh lifted her brow when her mother’s voice faltered. “That what? If Dad found out the truth about what?”
“It doesn’t matter. He found out, anyway,” Sandra Timmons said softly, anguish forming in her features.
“What did Mr. Timmons find out?” Jules asked, determined to find out for herself.