Page 113 of Miss Vincent’s Vow

Just outside the door, his wife pulled him to an abrupt stop.

“Jethro, wait. I think you should stay and listen to Mr Wade. Remember the miniature I found in your mother’s desk? I’m sure it’s him. He might be telling the truth. You owe it to yourself to hear what he has to say. Xander and I will take the carriage and send it back for you.”

He gave her a curt nod. If his wife thought he should give the man a chance to speak, he would, but that was the only reason he was staying.

She tilted her face up to his. “I’ll be waiting for you when you return.” And then she kissed his cheek.

Jethro swayed in his place, the soft feel of her lips on his skin rocking his balance in a way that not even Mr Wade’s shocking claim had done.

He squeezed her hand, and then she and Alexander were gone.

Jethro strode back into the room and retook his seat.

“I will listen to you, Mr Wade, because my wife thinks I should, not because I believe there is any truth in your outrageous assertion. You have ten minutes, and then I’m leaving. If you are who you say you are, why did my mother tell me you were dead?”

“Just like me—straight to the point.”

Jethro sneered, and Mr Wade rushed on. “Because I was dead to her after I left.”

“Why did you leave her?”

“Because I had to. It was the hardest decision of my life, and one that I’ve always regretted. I couldn’t have a successful business and your mother.”

“You can regret a choice you’ve made without being sorry for it. Would you make the same choice again?”

Mr Wade hesitated and then dropped his eyes. “No…maybe…I don’t know.”

“Then you chose money over love, and your only regret is that you couldn’t have both.”

“It is no excuse, but it was my wealth that provided a comfortable life for your mother and an education for you.”

“Pshaw!” He didn’t want to listen. If what Mr Wade said was true, the man had invested in his business because of his relationship with Jethro’s mother, and it had nothing to do with his own merit, as he’d always believed.

This man’s claims swept away the confidence on which Jethro had built his life.

“And you?” Mr Wade asked. “Which have you chosen?”

“Love.”

“And yet I swear it was not a love match.”

A dreamy smile settled on Jethro’s face as he thought of Cassandra and the kiss she had bestowed on his cheek just a short while before. A kiss full of promise. He wanted to get this conversation over and done with so he could go to her.

“No, it wasn’t, but I vowed to love and cherish my wife, and I discovered that caring for her was only one step away from falling deeply in love with her.”

A scowl replaced Jethro’s smile. “If what you say is true, and you are my father, your marriage vows can have meant nothing to you. If they had, you wouldn’t have left us.”

The sheen of unshed tears in the older man’s eyes took Jethro by surprise. “You’ve got it all wrong. It was your mother who made sure I kept my marriage vows.”

“I don’t understand. If you loved her so much, why didn’t you come back again?”

“I couldn’t. Your mother banished me after I married Margaret.”

“You divorced my mother? On what grounds? How could you treat her like that?”

Mr Wade shook his head sadly. “I didn’t divorce her. We never married.”

The foundations of Jethro’s world trembled and seemed in danger of collapse. Please, Lord. This can’t be happening. Tell me it’s not true.