“No,” Ara said.
The single word surprised everyone.
Including Ara.
Caleb stared.
“What?”
Ara held Hope and Grace closer.
“I said no.”
His face transformed.
For the first time, the respectable mask disappeared.
“You ungrateful—”
Elias moved.
Bellamy grabbed Caleb’s arm.
“Don’t.”
Caleb jerked away.
For several seconds the two men stared at each other.
Then Caleb smiled again.
But there was no warmth in it.
“Fine.”
He mounted his horse.
“I’ll return with a judge’s order.”
He looked toward Ara.
“And next time, sweetheart, nobody will stand between us.”
Elias watched until both riders disappeared through the trees.
Then he turned.
Ara was shaking.
“We need to leave.”
“No.”
“Elias—”
“Why does he want them?”
Ara frowned.
“He’s their father.”
“That man left three people to freeze.”
Elias stared toward the empty trail.
“Men like that don’t ride through two mountain passes in winter because they suddenly discover affection.”
Ara said nothing.
Elias looked at her.
“He’s here for something.”
That night someone tried to burn the cabin.
Elias woke to Hope screaming.
Smoke filled the room.
He rolled from bed.
Flames climbed the outside wall near the woodpile.
“Get the babies!”
Ara seized both twins.
Elias grabbed blankets, beat down flames, then dumped water across the logs.
A shadow moved between the trees.
Elias grabbed his rifle.
He ran outside barefoot.
“Stop!”
A rider bolted from the timber.
Elias fired above him.
The horse vanished into darkness.
Then Elias saw something lying in the snow.
A folded piece of paper.
He picked it up.
Three words had been written across it.
GIVE THEM BACK.
Ara read the message beside the dying fire.
Her hands shook.
“Caleb.”
“Probably.”
“What does he want?”
Elias stared at the paper.
“I intend to find out.”
The following morning he rode to Cedar Hollow.
Margaret Pike agreed to stay with Ara.
Elias visited the courthouse.
Marriage records told him almost nothing.
Then he found the property ledger.
Caleb Dorne owned no land.
His house was mortgaged.
His feed store had failed the previous autumn.
Debts totaling nearly six thousand dollars were listed against him.
Elias frowned.
Why would a bankrupt man spend money searching through winter for three people he’d tried to murder?
Then the clerk said something that changed everything.
“You said his wife is Ara?”
“Yes.”
“Ara Bell?”
Elias turned.
“How do you know?”
The clerk shuffled papers.
“There was a lawyer asking about her last year.”
“What lawyer?”
“Man from St. Louis.”
The clerk searched through another drawer.
“Something involving an old estate.”
Elias felt cold.
“What estate?”
“Vance.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What did you say?”
The clerk looked up.
“Vance.”
Elias couldn’t speak.
The clerk continued searching.
“Big tract north of here. Timber, silver rights, water access. Belonged to Nathaniel Vance.”
Elias’s father.
Elias gripped the counter.
Nathaniel Vance had been dead twenty-three years.
The family’s land had supposedly reverted to the territory because no heirs remained.
Except Elias.
But Elias had never claimed it.
He had abandoned the name.
Abandoned the property.
Abandoned everything after the night his family died.
The clerk found the document.
“Here.”
Elias read it.
His father’s estate had contained a forgotten clause.
If any missing heir or descendant appeared, ownership reverted immediately.
One name was listed beneath Elias’s.
Anna Rose Vance.
