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chest was unbearable. Never had she been so humiliated in all of her life, and Shane was the cause.
    On unsteady feet, she walked to the door.
    “I never thought you were your father’s son. You were strong and fought his ways. Your time spent was useless.”
    “What do you mean?” he asked and looked up. For a split second, she was sure she saw a flash of hurt in his eyes. As soon as it happened, it disappeared.
    “You wasted your energy. Congratulations. You got your wish. You’re your father’s son.” With as much dignity as she could muster, she walked out of the room.
     
    * * * *
     
    Shane watched her leave. He’d just acted like a bastard to his best friend and the woman he loved. Why? Because of his own wounded pride. For some reason, every time he saw her, the image of her walking away had melded with the memory of his father locking the cupboard.
    Claire and his father were completely separate, and yet both had affected him the same.
    He swiped the pages off his desk and cursed. He would need to spend more time going through the payments and making do.
    Liam found him kneeling on the floor picking up the papers.
    “What the fuck did you do?” he shouted.
    “Made a mess.”
    “Oh, you made a fucking mess all right. The ranch hands are threatening to walk.”
    Shane stood and put the papers on the desk. “I’ll get the payments sorted out.”
    “Payments? They don’t give a shit about the payments. Claire’s got a taxi outside. She’s filling it up with her bags. Says she’s quitting. You got anything to do with that?”
    His gut twisted. Claire was leaving.
    “Fuck. I’ll talk to her. Where is she?” He needed to do some serious groveling. Without waiting for a reply, he moved out of the study and went in search of her. The banging alerted him that she was upstairs.
    Running as fast as he could, Shane found her piling clothes in a suitcase.
    “Claire, where are you going?”
    “Away from here. This was the biggest mistake I ever made. I should have taken one of the jobs out of town.” She didn’t look at him. He heard the tears in her voice cutting him to the core.
    Of all the shithead things he’d done in this past, this was by far the worst.
    “Please—”
    “Don’t bother apologizing. You’ve never talked about that night all those years ago, and at least now I know how you feel. Fucking hell don’t I know how you feel.”
    “I love you,” he said.
    “Yeah, well. It’s not enough anymore. I can’t do this. Be with you and Liam and pretend I don’t want you.” She zipped up her bag, but her words pleased him.
    “We both love you.”
    Claire walked to where he stood at the door. He couldn’t let her leave.
    “You’re in my way.”
    “I’m not letting you leave. It took us too long to get you here. I’m an asshole, okay. I shouldn’t have said the things I said. I didn’t mean a word of them.” Shane grabbed her suitcase and placed it back on the bed. He took her hands and led her to the edge of the bed to sit down. The fact that she hadn’t kicked him in the balls was a huge relief. The tears cascaded down her cheeks, making him feel like a bastard. “You know more about me than even Liam.” He knew he would have to admit something to make her understand his pain.
    “You know I had problems with my dad growing up.”
    “Yes. That’s why you always came to my bedroom bruised and bloodied . I knew, but didn’t want you to feel pressured into telling me more than you wanted,” she admitted.
    He wasn’t her responsibility, and yet he’d unloaded more on her than anyone else. All the times she’d accepted him in her bedroom without explanation.
    “My dad wasn’t the best guy. Do you remember that shed outside near the drains?” he asked. She nodded, and he continued. “I didn’t want to be left in them cells, because growing up, whenever I was bad or a pain or anything, my dad got sick of me. He would put me in that cupboard and lock the door.”
    She