“Vows are to be kept, not broken. What gave Mom the right to break hers with another man?”
Now that, Shep thought, was a question he could not answer. But what he could do was release his son from the guilt he must still feel for keeping Sylvia’s promise. “It doesn’t matter now. You did the right thing in doing what she asked you to do.”
“But you’ll never know how I felt all those years, Dad. I was young at the time, and at first I thought it was cool having a secret with Mom, one that nobody else knew about. Not you, Jace or Caden. Not even Grandpa. But when I got older and realized what she’d been doing and understood the depth of the promise she’d asked me to keep, I felt sick inside. I knew I had betrayed you.”
“You didn’t betray me, Dalton.” However, your mother did.
“I loved Mom, Dad. But what she did to you was wrong.”
And what she did to you was even worse, son, Shep thought, reaching out and taking hold of Dalton’s shoulder. They stared at each other in silence. He’d known about Sylvia’s affair with Michael Greene, but he’d been willing to keep his marriage together, anyway, for his sons. “It’s okay, Dalton. That all happened years ago.”
“I know. I’ll never forget that day. Jace and Caden thought the man she was with was Michael Greene, but it wasn’t.”
Shep’s jaw dropped, startled. “It wasn’t?”
“No. I knew Mr. Greene, and the man I saw Mom with that day wasn’t him. It was a man I’d never seen before.”
If it wasn’t Michael Greene, then who? Shep wondered. He would never forget the day he received the pictures Greene’s wife, Yolanda, had sent to his office. She’d hired a private investigator and had been more than happy to share what the man had uncovered. There had been several photographs of Michael Greene and Sylvia together in a number of compromising positions.
He had confronted Sylvia about it, and she hadn’t denied a thing. In fact, she had laughed in his face and told him that he was stuck with her if he wanted to remain a father to his sons. That had been her leverage. That had always been her leverage.
When they heard two raps on the door indicating Ambrose couldn’t bend the rules any longer, they stood. “I feel better now that I’ve told you,” Dalton said, releasing a deep breath. “Every time I came here and saw you, the guilt I felt beat me down.”
That explains why he hasn’t come here as often as the others, Shep thought, coming around the table to hug his son. “It was not your fault, Dalton. It was never your fault. You did nothing wrong.”
“Thanks, Dad. I know this might sound crazy, but after all these years, I needed to hear that.”
Twelve
Definitely déjà vu, Jules thought as she sat parked outside Dalton’s place exactly three nights after the last time. This time she wasn’t questioning her sanity, mainly because she had a plan. She was fully aware of the Granger brothers visit to their father and, thanks to Shana, she’d known things hadn’t gone the way Sheppard Granger had hoped. She also knew that yesterday her father, keeping his word to Sheppard, had met with Jace, Caden and Dalton at Granger Aeronautics. From what her father told her that morning at breakfast, the three appreciated his meeting with them but were fully aware of the risks in the decision they’d made. They were determined not to back down and had the blessings of their wives. Jules thought all that might be fine and dandy with them, but one of those wives happened to be her sister, so it wasn’t fine or dandy with her. Although her father had stressed it was their decision, and the Bradfords needed to honor it, she wasn’t that compliant.