“Seth? Are you still there?” Lois prompted when he didn’t respond.

Although Tia didn’t speak, he could feel her watching him. “I’m here.”

“Can I come in?”

“You can’t let that guy or anyone else come through with you.”

“I won’t.” She spoke with enough conviction to convince him.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll come out and get you.”

Eighteen

Tia went upstairs while Seth spoke to the woman who’d come through the gate. She’d been surprised when he told her his visitor was Shiloh’s mother, probably because he hadn’t acted very excited to see her. He didn’t say anything negative specifically—she’d had only his body language to judge by—but that had been telling enough.

She tried not to listen to the voices that were rising up from the living room below, but the vaulted entry acted as a megaphone, and when the conversation started to get heated, she couldn’t help being drawn to the banister.

“You said you came over here to make amends,” Seth said.

“I did” came Shiloh’s mother’s response.

“Until you learned that I’m not alone. Then you acted as though I’m somehow cheating on Shiloh.”

“Of course I didn’t mean it that way. I know you no longer owe her your fidelity. I—I was just shocked that you have a woman here with you. That’s all. In Silver Springs, as if...as if this wasn’t where you met Shiloh. I mean, it’s where we live, for crying out loud.”

“You have no idea how much Shiloh meant to me—how much she still means to me. But Tia isn’t the reason I won’t give you the money, so why would you accuse me of that?”

“Because you’ve never had a problem helping us out before!”

“I didn’t realize what was going on before! I don’t want to be viewed as an ATM.”

“We don’t view you as an ATM. It’s just... We thought you’d want to help us out—seeing that we’re family.”

Seth’s voice dropped, but Tia was so reeled in by the conversation, she found herself straining to hear the rest. “That’s the cruelest form of manipulation, and you know it,” he gritted out. “Before I had money, you didn’t want anything to do with me, did everything you could to tear my marriage apart. So forgive me if I don’t have a lot of trust where you’re concerned.”

“Maybe we weren’t excited about you at first, but...how were we to know you’d become a famous artist?”

“Did I have to become a famous artist to earn your approval?”

“You had to become something! You weren’t anything to start with. We only wanted what was best for our daughter.”