Chapter 13 - The Last Debt
Hannah went.
Caleb did not ask whether Silas deserved it.
He simply drove.
Silas looked twenty years older.
He had been stabbed by another prisoner.
Hannah sat beside him.
“I'm here.”
Silas opened his eyes.
“Hannah.”
“You're going to live.”
“Never could stand your lying.”
She almost laughed.
He looked toward Caleb.
“Take care of her.”
Caleb answered quietly.
“She takes care of herself.”
Silas smiled weakly.
“That's why I picked you.”
Hannah shook her head.
“Don't turn this into something noble.”
“No.”
His smile disappeared.
“It wasn't noble.”
He confessed one final secret.
The two hundred dollars Caleb paid had never been spent.
Silas had hidden it in a bank account under Hannah's name.
“Why?”
“Couldn't bear touching it.”
Hannah stared.
“You could steal my land but not spend the money you got for me?”
“Men aren't consistent creatures.”
“No. You certainly weren't.”
Silas laughed and winced.
Hannah took his hand.
He looked surprised.
“I don't forgive everything.”
“I know.”
“But I don't want you dying believing I hate you.”
His eyes filled.
“That'll do.”
Silas survived.
Barely.
His testimony helped convict Harland.
The railway executives abandoned their claim after federal investigators exposed the fraud.
Hannah's deed stood.
By July, newspapers across Montana carried the story.
But the headline Hannah kept was not about coal.
It read:
MERCER WOMAN RETAINS REED LAND IN LANDMARK TERRITORIAL RULING.
Mercer woman.
She laughed.
“What?”
Caleb asked.
“They still don't know what to call me.”
“What do you want them to call you?”
“Hannah.”
The ceremony approached again.
This time nothing would postpone it.
Lucy picked flowers.
Samuel polished Caleb's boots.
Ben lost one ring and found it inside his own pocket.
Neighbors arrived.
Even Sheriff Cole wore a clean shirt.
Hannah dressed in green.
Not white.
She did not want to look untouched.
She wanted to look like herself.
Before walking outside, she studied her reflection.
Eighteen.
A wife.
A landowner.
A daughter who finally knew the truth.
A woman who had once been discussed like livestock.
Her mother's letter rested beside her heart.
Then somebody knocked.
Hannah smiled.
“Come in.”
The door opened.
Sheriff Cole stood there.
He looked stunned.
Behind him was a stranger carrying a battered suitcase.
The woman looked at Hannah.
May you like
Then she whispered two words.
“Thomas's daughter?”
