Chapter 5 - The Secret Amos Wanted Buried
Gideon wanted Maeve to remain inside.
Maeve refused.
“If Amos is watching us, I want to know why.”
“He wants revenge.”
“No.”
She held the red cloth.
“He wants something.”
Maeve remembered her mother's final months.
The whispered arguments.
The papers hidden beneath her mattress.
A phrase she had almost forgotten.
Don't let Amos find the deed.
Maeve suddenly stood.
“My mother's comb.”
She retrieved it.
The wooden handle was cracked.
Always had been.
Maeve examined the crack.
Then pulled.
The handle separated.
Inside was a tightly rolled strip of paper.
Gideon stared.
Maeve unfolded it.
It was not the deed.
It was a note.
Maeve—
If anything happens to me, the original claim is beneath the floor of the old Red Creek house. Amos knows the land has value. Trust no promise he makes about it.
Mother.
Maeve's hands shook.
Gideon read the note.
“What land?”
“My mother's.”
She had assumed Amos inherited everything.
Apparently he hadn't.
The following week, Deputy Hollis returned.
He brought news.
A railroad survey was moving through Red Creek.
Land surrounding Maeve's mother's old property had become valuable.
Very valuable.
Suddenly everything made sense.
Amos had not merely wanted Maeve gone.
He needed her legally powerless.
Gideon looked at her.
“You want to go back?”
Maeve stared toward the mountains.
She had spent her life allowing other people to decide where she belonged.
“No.”
Gideon's shoulders relaxed.
“But I want what's mine.”
That brought the faintest smile to his face.
“Then we'll get it.”
May you like
And for the first time, Maeve realized she had said we without thinking.
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