was Mom having an affair and not you?”
Sheppard tightened his hand on the phone and closed his eyes. He’d never wanted his sons to know. They loved their mother, thought the world of her and...
“Dad, please tell me why. That could have possibly cleared you.”
“Or strengthened the prosecution’s claim of a motive. They would have claimed I killed Sylvia out of jealous rage. It wasn’t worth taking the chance. She was the mother of my sons, and I refused to let her name be dragged through the mud just to clear me, when there was no guarantee that it would have.”
“But you had that letter from Yolanda Greene, threatening to do Mom bodily harm.”
“Yes, and Yolanda came to see me while I was out on bail. She was nervous and scared that I would turn it over to the authorities and she would be implicated. But she had an ironclad alibi. Both she and Michael did. The week your mother was killed, they had taken a cruise together, trying to repair their marriage. They were thousands of miles away from Charlottesville, so neither of them could have been involved.”
Jace’s jaw tightened. “Are you certain of that? She could have been lying.”
“Yes, I’m certain. Dad checked out their story. They were trying to save their marriage, and I didn’t see the need to let the world know about Michael’s and your mother’s indiscretions.”
Jace inwardly cursed. His father was too much a man of honor, caring for others when no one cared a crap about him. Someone was willing to let him take the rap for something he didn’t do. He tried to make his father see reason. “If it wasn’t one of the Greenes, then it was someone else. Maybe Ms. Greene hired someone to do it and—”
“Maybe you’ve been watching too many episodes of NCIS.”
Jace frowned. “Dad, I’m serious.”
“So am I. Don’t you think that at the time I weighed all my options? I made my decision about what I was and was not going to tell the authorities. The jury reached a verdict of guilty. Let it go.”
Now it was Jace’s hand that tightened on the phone. “No, Dad. I can’t let it go. You’re sitting in jail while the person who killed my mother is out here, walking around footloose and fancy-free. Enough is enough. Whether you want us to do so or not, your sons are going to prove your innocence.”
“No! The three of you need to make a combined, concentrated effort to save the company.”
Jace’s temper flared. “Do you think we care more for the company than we do for you?”
Shep heard the torment in Jace’s voice and knew he had to do something to keep his sons from snooping around. He needed to keep them safe. Taking a deep breath, he said, “Would you leave it alone if I were to confess that I did kill your mother?”
Jace flinched. “No! Because I wouldn’t believe you. And it would make me even more determined to uncover just who you’re trying to protect.”
“Damn it, Jace, I’m trying to protect the three of you. Besides the affair, your mother was involved in something else. I’m not sure what, but I believe it was enough to get her killed.”
Jace went still for a second. Then he recovered enough to ask, “Involved in what?”
“I have no idea.”
He had a feeling his father did have an idea but just wasn’t saying. “All right, I have to go. We’ll keep in touch. Goodbye, Dad.”
“Wait! Jace, promise me you’ll let this go and that you won’t say anything to your brothers about what you found out about your mother.”
Jace ran a frustrated hand down his face. He immediately thought about Dalton and how he would handle learning something like that. He worshipped the ground Sylvia Granger walked on and thought she could do no wrong. “I can’t make you that promise, Dad. All I can say is that I won’t tell them anytime soon, not until I wrap my head around a few things. But at some point, they need to know, and if you won’t tell them, I will.”
“Jace, listen to me.”
“No, Dad, you need to listen to me. Nobody’s perfect, and I never thought Mom was. But I can’t see me letting my father rot in prison for something he didn’t do. You might be willing to be the sacrificial lamb for some cold-blooded killer, but I refuse to let you do this any longer. Like I said, I’ll keep in