CHAPTER 37: THE WEIGHT OF THE CHOICE
We called the gathering at dawn, out on the wide south meadow where the grass stayed thick and green all summer and the valley opened clear toward the silver curve of the river. Every homesteader, every rider, every family who’d called this land home for generations came — some carrying worn leather‑bound photo albums, some bringing letters folded tight in oilcloth, some just standing quiet with their hats in their hands, waiting to hear what truth we’d found after all these years. We laid the original deeds on a rough plank table draped with clean canvas, alongside Elias’s final letter, Mara’s silver locket, and Silas’s own ledger, so everyone could step forward, see them, touch them, and hear the full story for the first time in twenty years.
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