Emily stared.
“Here?”
Cole nodded.
“To Mercer Valley.”
Daniel felt the room tilt.
“No.”
Emily turned toward him.
Her face changed as understanding arrived.
Mrs. Bennett.
Willow Crossing.
The job.
The quiet town.
Daniel.
Cole spoke softly.
“Your father arranged for Mrs. Bennett to take Emily in if she ever appeared.”
Daniel stared.
“Mrs. Bennett knew?”
“Everything.”
Emily covered her mouth.
“The letters she received…”
“From me,” Cole said.
Daniel’s mind raced backward through the last two years.
Mrs. Bennett encouraging him to repair Emily’s porch.
Inviting Daniel for supper.
Asking him to drive Emily home after church.
Had it all been arranged?
He looked at Cole.
“Did you arrange our marriage?”
“No.”
Cole laughed softly.
“No lawman on earth is clever enough to arrange love.”
Daniel looked at Emily.
She was crying again.
But differently now.
Cole continued.
“Your father simply wanted Samuel Harrow’s daughter somewhere safe.”
Daniel whispered, “Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because knowing would have put you in danger.”
Daniel thought of his father dying twelve years earlier after being thrown from a horse.
At least, that was what Daniel had always been told.
He looked at Cole.
“How did my father really die?”
Cole’s face darkened.
Daniel already knew.
“Charles?”
Cole nodded.
“Vane found him.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Daniel stared at Charles’s body.
The man who had terrorized Emily.
The man who had killed his father.
The man who had unknowingly driven Emily across half the country straight toward the son of the man who once tried to protect her.
The coincidence was too enormous.
Except it had never been coincidence.
Daniel looked down at the photograph again.
His father and Emily’s father stood shoulder to shoulder.
Friends.
Allies.
Men tied together by a dangerous secret.
And years later, their children had found each other.
Emily whispered, “Daniel.”
He looked at her.
“I swear I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t marry you because of your father.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t even know who he was.”
Daniel reached for her.
This time she did not flinch.
She came to him.
He wrapped his arms around her.
Emily began sobbing against his chest.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Stop apologizing.”
“I brought this here.”
“No.”
She pulled back.
“Daniel—”
“You survived.”
His voice broke.
“That’s what you brought here.”
She stared at him.
“You survived long enough to reach Wyoming. Long enough to build another life. Long enough for me to meet you.”
He brushed tears from her face.
“That’s the only part that matters.”
Marshal Cole quietly stepped outside.
By dawn, Charles Vane’s remaining men were either dead, wounded, or in federal custody.
The barn had burned almost completely.
The cabin roof had caught twice but survived.
Daniel needed twelve stitches along his side and six across his shoulder.
Emily never left him.
Three days later, Marshal Cole returned.
He carried a wooden box.
“This belonged to your father.”
Daniel opened it.
Inside were Thomas Mercer’s old badge.
A journal.
Several letters.
And one sealed envelope.
On the front, written in Thomas Mercer’s unmistakable handwriting, were four words.
FOR DANIEL, WHEN READY.
Daniel’s hands shook as he opened it.
The letter had been written thirteen years earlier.
Son,
If you are reading this, then someone decided you were strong enough to know that your father was not always the man you remember.
