his father about the affair. Then he could have gone his way, and she could have gone hers and...
Dalton shook his head. With those thoughts, one would assume he believed his father was responsible for his motherâs death, and that a divorce might have spared her life. That wasnât the case, since he knew his father was innocent, and that heâd already spent fifteen years behind bars for a crime he hadnât committed.
Dalton and his brothers had fulfilled one of their grandfatherâs deathbed promises, and now it was time for them to take care of the other. They needed to find out who had really killed their mother so their father could finally be freed.
He moved away from the window to sit down at his desk. The first thing he needed to do was to call Shana and thank her for the invitation to dinner this weekend and let her know he wasnât coming. Knowing Shana, she wouldnât ask why, but she would know the reason. The bottom line was that he didnât have to put up with anyone he didnât want to put up with and, at the moment, her sister topped his list.
A couple of weeks ago at Jaceâs wedding, heâd considered putting a plan in place to play Jules the same way sheâd played him. Although that idea wasnât completely off the table, he didnât want to have anything to do with Jules for the time being.
Go fuck yourself.
She had a lot of damned nerve. No woman had dared ever tell him something like that. He knew he needed to get her out of his mind because, honestly, Jules Bradford really wasnât important. What he needed to spend his time doing was concentrating on the important business at hand, namely, Granger Aeronautics, and finding his motherâs real killer.
Jace would be back in the office tomorrow, and Dalton intended to meet with both him and Caden to discuss strategies about the latter issue. Getting their dad out of prison was the most important thing on his mind.
Three
J ules slid her car into the first available parking spot in front of the condo where Dalton lived. She called herself all kinds of fool for being here, even though she knew it was necessary if she wanted to talk to Dalton. Heâd never answer his phone if he saw her name on the caller ID. âItâs not about you,â she muttered to herself. âItâs about your love for Shanaâthatâs the only thing that could make you even think about putting up with this bullshit.â
She and Shana were two years apart and had always had a close relationship. Shana had been just months from turning fifteen and Jules thirteen when their mother had died of pancreatic cancer thirteen years ago. Their father had raised them alone while working as a police detective in Boston. He had retired a few years ago, wanting a quiet life, and had decided to settle in Charlottesville, the place where he and his wife had met while attending college. Jules had been the first to follow their father to Charlottesville, where she established a private investigation firm. Shana had relocated to Charlottesville a few years later.
The three of them always managed to do things together, even when Julesâs busy work schedule took her out of town, as it often did. But things were somewhat different now. Shana was married, and Jace was now the main planet in her universe, which meant he would be taking up a lot of her sisterâs time. And Ben was involved with Mona, something Jules knew she had to get used to. Mona was the first woman her father had been seriously involved with since her mother died, and he rightly deserved to be happy.
She had called Shana earlier today to welcome her back to town and to find out how the honeymoon had gone...like it would have been anything but great. During the conversation, Shana reminded her about Saturday night, which would be the first dinner party she would give as Jaceâs wife. Shana was excited but somewhat disappointed, because she had