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words made something inside her snap. “I did try to contact you. For months, while I lay in that hospital bed, broken up and in pain, I didn’t believe any of the things my father was telling me about you. He even showed me newspapers that listed where you had gone on tour and the women the tabloids claimed you were sleeping with. I didn’t want to believe it. I refused to believe it.”
    She paused a moment. Later, when she’d been released from the hospital, she had discovered that he’d been sleeping around with those women. “And when I could travel, I found out where you were. I wanted to know why you had betrayed me and why you hadn’t come to me when I needed you. I believed there had to be a reason, and I needed you to tell me that reason. But when I attended your concert, you had Security escort me out. Again, you didn’t want to hear what I had to say.”
    Caden cursed himself, shamed by the memory. Yes, after he had received those photographs and had believed the worst, he had begun having affairs, hoping she would hear about them. He had wanted to hurt her the way she’d hurt him. Seeing her in the audience at one of his concerts had been a huge distraction and he’d acted like a fool. He’d had no idea she had come to tell him about the baby.
    He looked over at her and saw her lips trembling, saw the anger in her eyes in a way he’d never seen before. He had wronged her in so many ways. Yet, she had come to pay her last respects to his grandfather by attending the memorial service. And she could have been spiteful during the board meeting, voting against him and his brothers to prevent them from retaining control of Granger Aeronautics.
    When she had discovered the truth of what her parents had done, she had sought him out again, and he had said words to her that no man should ever say to the woman he loved.
    Looking at her now, he knew those same words applied to himself. She couldn’t stand the sight of him.
    Caden knew he had to plead his case and hoped she would give him another chance. He took a step toward her and felt agony all the way to his feet when she took a step back, away from him. “You have every right to despise me, Shiloh,” he said in a soft tone. “And I deserve all the hatred you might be feeling toward me right now. I let you down. I did the one thing I’d always promised not to do, and that was to let your father come between us again. And you’re right. You believed in me more than I believed in you.”
    He paused a moment and then said, “There has been a lot of hurt and anger on both sides. I suggest we pick up the pieces and move on. Together. And I think—”
    “Right now, I don’t care what you think, Caden,” she said, interrupting him. “I hurt too much to care. The only thing I want you to do is leave me alone. I want to move on...without you.”
    He stared at her for a moment, not believing she could really feel that way, and he knew now was not the time to push. But he definitely needed her to understand something. “I love you, Shiloh. I know you doubt that right now, and I understand. But if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m a survivor. I survived the death of my mother and the injustice done to my father. Right now, the only thing that threatens my survival is you, because I need you...and I always have. And I intend with every breath in my body to make you believe in me again. I will regain your trust.”
    He paused to get himself together. At that moment, he was filled with all kinds of emotion, and at the top of the list was the fear that he might have lost her for good. What he’d just told her was true. He was a survivor, but only because he’d always known she was there and always would be.
    “I’m making you a promise, Shiloh—a man’s promise to the woman he loves. I promise that I will do what it takes to win you back. I promise to regain your love and trust.”
    Shiloh shook her head sadly as tears filled