Chapter 15 - The Family They Chose
Marriage changed less than Silas expected.
Cora still argued with him.
Hope still stole his breakfast.
Martha still arrived without knocking.
But little things changed.
Silas no longer rode back to an empty cabin.
Cora no longer woke alone when nightmares came.
Hope began calling him “Papa Silas.”
The first time, he had to walk outside.
Cora found him behind the barn.
“You all right?”
Silas nodded.
“You're crying.”
“Wind.”
“There is no wind.”
“Dust.”
“Snowing.”
He looked irritated.
Cora kissed him.
Two years passed.
The ranch grew.
Silas stopped trapping for long periods.
They raised cattle.
Cora managed accounts.
Silas discovered she was much better with money.
One spring morning, Cora placed his hand against her stomach.
Silas stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
He sat down.
Cora laughed.
“You delivered one baby and now you're frightened?”
“Exactly why I'm frightened.”
Their son, Jacob Thomas Hayes, was born that winter.
This time there was a midwife.
Silas insisted on two.
Martha threatened to throw him outside.
When he finally held his son, Cora watched old grief and new joy meet inside his face.
“Jacob?” he whispered.
“For your boy.”
Silas looked at her.
“And Thomas?”
“For Hope's father.”
Silas kissed Cora's forehead.
No jealousy.
No ghosts.
Only gratitude.
Hope climbed onto the bed.
“That's my brother?”
“Yes.”
“He's ugly.”
Silas laughed.
“He'll improve.”
Their home filled with noise.
Years later came another daughter, Rebecca Cora.
Silas protested the name.
He lost.
Their family became something neither Cora nor Silas could have imagined inside that frozen shack.
But the past returned once more when Hope turned sixteen.
She found Thomas's letter.
And after reading it, she asked the question Cora had feared for years.
May you like
“Was my father a bad man?”
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