Chapter 14 - The Storm at Red Creek
Abigail arrived at Red Creek before dawn.
The station was gone.
Buildings had been ripped apart.
Families wandered among debris.
Abigail immediately turned the surviving warehouse into a relief kitchen.
Within hours, huge kettles simmered.
Bread arrived from Whispering Pines.
Blankets followed.
Doctors.
Carpenters.
Money.
The same network Abigail had built for commerce became a network for survival.
For three weeks she remained at Red Creek.
Nobody went hungry.
Nobody slept without shelter.
A reporter asked why a restaurant company was paying to rebuild strangers' homes.
Abigail looked genuinely confused.
"They aren't strangers."
The quote appeared in newspapers from Denver to New York.
Donations arrived.
More than Red Creek needed.
Abigail used the surplus to establish the Prescott Relief Fund in her mother's name.
Caleb read the documents.
"You know this means more work."
"I know."
"You complain about having too much work."
"I enjoy complaining."
"I know."
They smiled.
Years had passed since the starving winter.
Gray had begun appearing in Caleb's beard.
Abigail had laugh lines around her eyes.
Their fortune continued growing.
But neither forgot the first skillet.
Abigail kept it hanging above the original ranch kitchen.
Then one autumn morning, Wyatt rode in carrying terrible news.
Josiah Caldwell had been released from prison.
May you like
And he was coming back west.
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