A Man's Promise

“Best friends,” he interrupted to say, refusing to fall victim to his younger brother’s nosiness. For months Dalton had been trying to figure out what, if anything, was going on between Caden and Shiloh. Caden had confided in Jace and told him the full story, but he figured the less Dalton knew, the better.

The door opened, and Sandra Timmons was escorted in by Brandy. As always, she looked immaculate, not a hair out of place and her clothing of the finest quality from a top-notch designer. But there was a sadness in her eyes that Caden noted immediately. Was she still mourning the loss of her husband? From what Shiloh had once told him, her parents had an unorthodox marriage that was not based on love.

“I’m glad you could see me on such short notice, Caden,” she said, giving Dalton a brief nod.

“You mean no notice, don’t you, Ms. Timmons?” Dalton interjected.

Caden frowned over at Dalton. “I believe there’s a meeting you’re supposed to attend, Dalton?”

Dalton lifted a brow. “Is there?”

“Yes. I distinctly remember your telling me about it this morning.”

Dalton looked at his watch. “Christ! I almost forgot.” And then without saying another word, he rushed out of Caden’s office, slamming the door behind him.

“I heard about what happened to Jace. That was simply dreadful. And just to think Vidal Duncan was behind it. I recall that he was once a close friend of your family.”

Caden leaned back against his desk and shoved his hands into his pockets. “And, if I remember correctly, Mrs. Timmons, so were you.”

Caden watched as the woman inhaled a deep breath. “Yes, and I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong about a lot of things.”

“Were you?”

“Yes. And I’m here to apologize to you personally. None of you boys were at fault for what your father did to your mother. I should have stood up to Samuel when he wouldn’t let Sedrick and Shiloh have anything to do with you and your brothers.”

“Yes, you should have.” Caden decided not to add that, as far as he was concerned, his father hadn’t done anything to his mother—much less murder her—but he figured it would be a waste of his time. Fifteen years ago, the Timmonses didn’t mind letting everyone know they thought Sheppard Granger was guilty of murder.

“Is that why you came here today? To apologize?” If it was, her apology was fifteen years too late.

“Yes, to apologize for everything Samuel did. I tried apologizing to Shiloh, but she refuses to take my calls.”

Caden raised a brow. “Take your calls? Isn’t Shiloh living with you at Shady Pines?” he asked, surprised.

“No, she moved out the same night she went to see you at Sutton Hills. That was over three weeks ago.”

Caden remembered that night all too well and he had no intention of discussing it with Sandra Timmons. “Mrs. Timmons, Jace will be out of the office for a few days, which means Dalton and I are pretty busy in his absence. If there’s nothing else you’d like to discuss, then I must ask you to—”

“You don’t know, do you?” she interrupted.

Caden drew in a frustrated breath. His patience with the woman was wearing thin. “Know what?”

She stared back at him, and he detected nervousness in her features. “That night, when Shiloh came to see you, didn’t she tell you anything?” she asked softly.

“No. I didn’t want to hear a word she had to say.” He walked around his desk toward the door, intending to open it so she could leave. “Now if you will excuse me, I—”

“What do you mean you didn’t want to hear anything she had to say?” the woman demanded in an angry tone, causing him to pause and look at her as if she’d lost her mind. A part of him was beginning to wonder if she had become unhinged. A lot of strange things had been happening since he and his brothers had returned to Charlottesville to take over the running of Granger Aeronautics, and this could be one more.

He turned around to face her. “I meant just what I said. I didn’t want to hear anything Shiloh had to say that night.”

“So, you have no idea where she was that weekend four years ago when the two of you planned to elope to Vegas and marry?”

Caden was surprised Shiloh had told anyone about their plans to elope four years ago. Plans she hadn’t kept. “I already know where she was, Mrs. Timmons. I received photographs that were compliments of your husband, letting me know that he was still controlling Shiloh’s life. The photographs showed her on the beach having a good time with one of Mr. Timmons’s business associates. The same person he’d been trying to shove down her throat for a year or more. Your husband, Samuel Timmons, wanted me to know she’d finally caved in.”

Sandra Timmons frowned. “And you believed that?”

Caden shrugged. “Seeing is believing.”

The woman shook her head. “You saw what Samuel wanted you to see. Those photographs were altered with Photoshop. That was not Shiloh. She was nowhere near the beach that day.”

Caden stared at the woman as her words sank in. “Then where was she?”

Sandra Timmons eased back down on the chair across from his desk, and Caden actually saw her trembling. And then he saw the tears. Whether they were genuine or not, they were there all the same. “I came here thinking that you knew. Certain that you did, and now to know that you have no idea...”

An uneasy feeling crept up Caden’s spine. What did she mean that those photographs had been altered with Photoshop? That woman in the pictures had been Shiloh. Hadn’t it? He narrowed his gaze at Mrs. Timmons as he crossed the room to her, and anger consumed every part of his body. “Where...was...she?”

The woman dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief, saying, “That same weekend, while you waited for her in Vegas, she was in a hospital in Boston, fighting for her life.”

Stunned, Caden grasped the edge of his desk to keep his balance. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Sandra Timmons lowered her face to study her hands in her lap before lifting a tear-streaked face to Caden. “I don’t know how, but Samuel found out what the two of you planned and flew to Boston to try to stop her. He said he was only going to talk some sense into her. They argued, and she asked him to leave. When he refused, she rushed from the house and darted into the path of an oncoming car.”

Shocked beyond belief, Caden had to lean back against his desk for support. “Shiloh was hit by a car?”

“Yes. Things were pretty bad. She had to remain in the hospital for almost two months. The doctors managed to save her...but they couldn’t save the baby.”

The bottom of Caden’s stomach dropped. “Baby?”

“Yes. She was pregnant with your child.”

Three

Caden remembered very little after that. He recalled that the shock of Sandra Timmons’s words had rendered him speechless, mindless and senseless. He’d been so stunned, so horrified by what he’d learned that he’d covered his face with his hands as an onslaught of emotions slammed into him. Shiloh had been pregnant? With their child? And when she had finally discovered the duplicity of her parents, she had come to him to tell him. And he had rejected her in a very cruel way.

He vaguely recalled hearing the sound of Mrs. Timmons walking softly toward his office door, whispering tearfully, “I’m truly sorry,” before opening the door and leaving. He recalled clutching his stomach and remembered feeling suddenly sick as he agonized over and over about what Shiloh’s mother had said.

He had believed the worst of her. If anyone should have recognized those pictures had been doctored, he should have. But he hadn’t. Instead, he had accused her of the worst betrayal possible, calling her degrading names. Names she hadn’t deserved.

And while he’d been indulging in his holier-than-thou attitude, she had been lying in some hospital room fighting for her life after losing their child.

Oh, God. The thought of her lying there in pain, hurting, brokenhearted, without him there to comfort her, filled him with anger. Intense rage. “Damn you, Samuel Timmons! Damn you!” he muttered under his breath with an alarming force because, at that moment, he knew how it felt to hate someone.

He thought he’d hated the man at fourteen, when he had ended his and Shiloh’s friendship, but now he knew how real revulsion felt. At thirteen, she had been afraid to go against her tyrant father’s orders; however, their friendship never really ended—it was just suspended. She would still smile at him whenever they passed in the halls at school, would silently slip birthday cards in his book bag and tape those you’re still my best bud notes on his locker. And then there was the time on prom night when they managed to slip away from the watchful eyes of the chaperones to steal a kiss in the garden.

Then he finished high school and left for college. But he had thought about her often, wondering what she was doing and if she was still under her father’s thumb. Had she broken free of him, now thinking for herself, living the full life she deserved?

He’d always thought about looking her up and he used to ask his grandfather about her during his visits home, but fear of what Samuel Timmons would do to her made him keep his distance.

He would never forget that night, six years ago, while onstage performing with his band, when he had looked out in the audience and had seen her. Shiloh was in her last year of college, and it was her birthday weekend. It had been years since he’d last seen her, but he had recognized her immediately. Gone was the kid he’d grown up with, the one who used to be his best pal, who would smile up at him through her braces. She had grown into a totally beautiful woman.