“Trust me.” Mason’s voice was stern. Determined. Oh, God, how she loved him. She was about to walk inside, but held back. The air was charged and she knew, deep in her heart, that she should just walk back to the stables and forget every word that was being said. Or she should announce herself and barge into the kitchen. But still she hung back, her throat as dry as a desert wind, her heart pumping madly.

“The day I trust you is the day I give up the ghost, Lafferty. I wanted you as far away from my daughter as possible. I thought I made that clear a few years ago. Seems to me we had an agreement.”

“It’s off.”

“I paid you good money.”

Bliss bit her lip. She knew about the cash. So what was the big deal? She reached for the handle of the door.

“Just like the money you paid Terri to pretend she was pregnant?” Mason demanded.

What? Bliss’s heart stopped. Surely she’d heard wrong.

“Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, son.”

“Sure you do, Cawthorne. Paying me to stay out of Bliss’s life wasn’t enough, was it? You bought yourself some insurance by sweetening the deal with Terri. Fortunately for you, she was only too willing to go along with the scam.”

No!

“You’re just blowin’ smoke, Lafferty.”

“Am I?” Mason snorted. “I only wish I’d been smart enough to demand the results of a pregnancy test before I married her.”

Oh, God, please, no! Bliss’s knees nearly gave out. With one hand she balanced herself against the post supporting the roof. Was she hearing correctly? Had her father actually talked Terri into lying? Paid her off? What?

“If I live to be a hundred,” Mason said, “I’ll never believe another woman.”

“Even Bliss?”

“I think we should leave her out of this.”

“She’s the reason you and I are at odds, boy.”

A few passing seconds seemed like an eternity. “Bliss wouldn’t set me up and try to trap me into marriage with a baby—even a nonexistent one like Terri did.”

Bliss’s insides were shaking.

“And besides, Terri was coached, wasn’t she? By you.”

No!

John clucked his tongue, then sighed audibly. “So Terri blamed me? Always knew she couldn’t be trusted.”

“I saw the records, Cawthorne. When I got suspicious I paid a kid who worked in the lab for a copy of all of Terri’s reports. When I confronted her, she told me the whole sick story.

“Of course by the time I got the news, it was too late.” Bliss heard the scrape of boots. “I was already married and guess what? By that time Terri really was pregnant.”

“And you ended up with a daughter.”