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“That would be great to get the kids together,” Paige said.
“Will you be at the spring festival tomorrow?” Liam asked.
“I didn’t realize it was tomorrow, but I think Emma would like it.” She shot a glance at Cameron, who
nodded enthusiastically.
Paige reached for Liam’s hand and clasped it tightly. “I was so sorry to hear about Ruby. She was one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever known.” Exotic, down-to-earth Ruby. She had been the perfect counterpart to Liam. Together they’d made a beautiful couple.
A look of sadness flickered across his face. “She thought the world of you. I’m very thankful she had a friend like you, Paige. And please accept my condolences about your father. I know that losing him must have shaken you to your core. The two of you were very close.”
Just then Cameron put Emma down on the carpet. Liam’s eyes trailed after her and he got down on his haunches to play with her.
Tears gathered in Paige’s eyes at the magnitude of Liam’s loss. His poor son would never know firsthand the amazing woman who had brought him into this world. Overcome with emotion, she quietly slipped out of the room and through the sliding glass door in the kitchen that led to the outside deck. Once she was outside, she trained her attention on the mountains looming in the distance and the clean, fresh air she was deeply inhaling.
A sound alerted her to Cameron’s presence behind her. She knew it was him before he uttered a word.
“Hey, what is it? What’s wrong?” he asked, swiftly reaching her side.
She swiped at the tears with the back of her hand. “It’s nothing. I’m just being a sentimental fool.”
“It’s not nothing. You’re crying,” he said as he studied her.
She nodded. What was the use in denying it? The evidence was all over her face.
“Since I’ve been back, not a single person has offered me condolences for my father’s death. Not a single one. Until now. Until Liam spoke the words no one else could manage to pass through their lips. And talking about Ruby and then hearing Liam say he was sorry about my father’s passing... It was just too much all at once.” She shivered as a cool breeze swept over her, then wrapped her arms around her middle.
He reached for her hand and entwined it with his own. “I’m sorry I never extended my condolences to you about your father. I’m ashamed of that.” Cameron sucked his teeth. “I’ve been so angry at Robert. He was my friend and mentor and the smartest man I’ve ever known. Because my own father has been absent so much, he became a surrogate father to me. He didn’t just betray this town. He betrayed me personally. It felt like I had been stabbed in the back. They say never to put mere mortals on pedestals, but I think I put your father on one, so when it all came crashing down, it was devastating.” He winced. “But my resentment toward him is separate and apart from the loss of him and what he meant to you. And what he used to mean to me.”
“I know, Cam. I was angry with him, too. Because of his actions, I lost everything that mattered to me the most. Our relationship. This town and everyone in it. My saving grace was our daughter. It’s hard to live in bitterness when you wake up every morning to a smiling baby who relies on you for everything. Feeling resentment toward him would only have weighed me down. And because of Emma, I couldn’t afford that. The price would have been way too high.”
“I guess I’ve been paying that fee for two years,” Cameron said. “All this time I’ve been struggling to work through those feelings. I guess I haven’t done a very good job of it.” His jaw tensed.
“I know he hurt you. And believe it or not, he was very sorry about letting you down.” She looked into Cameron’s eyes. They appeared to be a vivid green at the moment and they shimmered with emotion. “He gave me a letter to give to you. I don’t blame you if you want to rip it up and throw it in the trash, but I promised him I would hand it over to you.”
Cameron knit his dark brows together. “A letter? For me? What does it say?” Suddenly his features tensed up.
“The letter is sealed, not to mention it wasn’t meant for me to open. It was for your eyes only. I never would have betrayed that trust. I put the letter in the dining room hutch at the homestead. It’s right by the little crystal owl. It’s yours to take.”
“I’m stunned that he wrote to me,” Cameron said. His eyes were wide. And full of anxiety.
“Cameron. He loved you like a son. On some level I think you know that,” Paige said.
Cameron laughed hollowly. “I’m not sure that I understand that kind of love. He left me holding the bag. For all he knew, I could have been prosecuted for the missing funds.”
He was voicing all the things she had struggled with for so long until she had let it all go in an effort to heal her wounded heart.
“Love is imperfect. And I think he left enough of a trail so that it was clear he was the culprit. I think on some level he was trying to make it known that he was responsible.” Paige knew from having spoken to her father at length that he had deliberately left breadcrumbs in his wake so that she and Cameron wouldn’t be considered as accomplices. Sadly, both of them had still been cast under suspicion.
“It still doesn’t explain why. Why would he wound so many people?” Cameron looked utterly bewildered.
“Hurt people hurt people. Ruby used to say that expression all the time. I never fully understood it until recently. He was in a lot of emotional pain for years and desperate to get out of a financial hole he dug for himself.”
“Emotional pain? Because of your mother?” Cameron asked. “I know he struggled for a long time after her death.”
“That’s part of it. He was driving the car that day when my mother was killed. I don’t think he ever dealt with his guilt about being the driver. He walked away without a scratch, but his whole world came crashing down around him when she died as a result of her injuries.” She held up her hands. “Again, I’m not defending him. I’m just trying to provide some sort of reference point for his colossal betrayal.”
“How in the world did you manage to forgive him?” The tone of Cameron’s voice was incredulous.
