Chapter 10 - The Secret at Ruth’s Grave
The missing object was Ruth’s silver locket.
Asa had kept it in a small box for years.
Someone had taken it.
The footprints led toward the road.
Sahale feared another threat.
The truth was stranger.
A woman named Margaret Hale had taken the locket.
Ruth’s older sister.
She had heard Asa planned to remarry and traveled to New Mexico furious.
“You’re replacing her,” Margaret accused.
Asa’s face went pale.
Sahale remained silent.
Margaret had taken the locket because she believed it belonged with Ruth.
Asa did not argue.
Instead he said, “Keep it.”
Margaret was surprised.
Then Sahale spoke.
“I do not want Ruth’s place.”
Margaret looked at her coldly.
“What place do you want?”
“My own.”
That answer changed the conversation.
Sahale told Margaret about the grave.
About Asa visiting it.
About the way he still spoke Ruth’s name.
“You think I want him to forget her?” Sahale asked. “I love the man she helped him become.”
Margaret’s anger broke.
She began crying.
The conflict had never truly been about Sahale.
Margaret was afraid that if Asa moved forward, Ruth would disappear.
Sahale understood something about being treated as though disappearance were easy.
She took Margaret’s hand.
“Come to the wedding.”
Margaret did.
And on the morning of the ceremony, she returned Ruth’s locket to Asa.
“Keep remembering her,” Margaret whispered.
“I will.”
“Then keep living too.”
Asa closed his hand around the locket.
Outside, Sahale waited beneath an open sky.
But as Asa walked toward her, thunder rolled across the mountains.
May you like
A storm was coming.
And with it came a rider carrying news that threatened to stop the wedding before it began.
