A Widowed Rancher Stopped for a Mother and Daughter in the Rain… She Said ‘Stay Back or I’ll Shoot
Chapter 8
The old farmer’s name was Samuel Crow.
He had lost his farm eight years earlier.
Mercer had claimed Samuel owed him money.
Samuel insisted he didn’t.
But the papers said otherwise.
“My wife died the winter after,” Samuel said.
“Why are you telling us this?”
“Because I saw something.”
Thomas leaned closer.
“What?”
“The night your wife died.”
Thomas went still.
Samuel swallowed.
“I saw a man near your house.”
“What man?”
“I didn’t know him then.”
Thomas’s voice dropped.
“Who?”
“Nathan Crowe.”
Sarah looked at Thomas.
Samuel continued.
“He wasn’t there for your wife.”
“Then why?”
“He was looking for something.”
Thomas’s eyes hardened.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Samuel looked toward Sarah.
“But your wife saw him.”
Thomas said nothing.
Sarah touched his arm.
“Thomas.”
Samuel lowered his voice.
“Your wife told me to tell you something if she ever had the chance.”
“What?”
“She said the land fraud wasn’t new.”
Thomas stared.
“Elizabeth knew?”
“She believed your family was involved.”
Thomas stepped back.
“My family?”
Samuel nodded.
“Your father had signed several documents.”
Thomas felt the ground disappear beneath him.
“My father?”
“He claimed he didn’t know what they were.”
Thomas remembered his father’s silence.
His sudden anger whenever Mercer was mentioned.
His insistence that Thomas never question certain debts.
All those years.
Thomas had believed his father was merely difficult.
Now another possibility stood before him.
His father had known.
Perhaps he had even helped.
Thomas left the village without speaking.
Sarah followed.
They reached Miller’s Creek by sunset.
The water was cold.
Thomas waited while Sarah searched beneath the old bridge.
She found a small wooden box wedged between stones.
Inside was a letter.
Elizabeth had written it.
Thomas recognized her handwriting.
His hands trembled.
The letter was addressed to him.
“My dear Thomas,
If you are reading this, then I am gone.
There are things I could not tell you because I feared what would happen to you.
Your father knew about the false deeds.
He tried to stop Mercer.
But he was threatened.
Do not blame him for what he could not prevent.
And if you ever meet someone carrying a child through the rain, do not turn away.
Some people arrive in our lives only after we have stopped looking for them.”
Thomas lowered the letter.
Sarah stared.
“Your wife knew about us.”
“No.”
Thomas looked at the river.
“She knew about someone like you.”
He folded the letter.
Then he heard a branch snap.
A figure stood on the opposite bank.
His father.
Alive.
