Chapter 4 - His Father's Letter
Corvin read the letter twice.
His father's words described a secret partnership created when he was a young man. He had been hired by a land company to map the valley.
Instead, he discovered that the company planned to claim a spring used by several families and an Apache community.
His father had initially agreed to help.
Then he met an elder named Tomas Grey Elk.
Tomas had shown him records proving the valley had been protected through a private agreement.
Corvin's father had copied the documents and hidden the originals.
But the letter contained a warning.
Do not trust Mercer.
Corvin stopped.
Silas Mercer.
His father had named the family decades earlier.
Lena read the letter silently.
“My grandfather knew yours.”
“You knew my father?”
“No. But I knew his name.”
Corvin turned the page.
The final paragraph was shorter.
I failed once because I believed money could repair a broken promise. If they return, do not give them the ranch. The land is not yours alone.
Corvin looked at Lena.
“What does that mean?”
She pointed to the map attached to the letter.
A red line crossed the property.
It continued beyond the northern ridge.
At the center was a small circle.
The old spring.
Corvin realized his ranch was only one part of something much larger.
Then a noise came from outside.
A horse.
Corvin extinguished the lamp.
He and Lena moved to the window.
A rider stood beside the barn.
Silas Mercer.
He wasn't alone.
Another man carried a shovel.
Corvin whispered, “They're searching.”
Lena shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“They already know where to search.”
The men walked directly toward the old well.
Corvin's heart sank.
He had spent years using that well without ever wondering why his father had built it from unusually thick stone.
Lena touched his arm.
“Your father hid something beneath it.”
Corvin looked at the well.
Then he understood why three hundred riders had arrived before the sun.
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They weren't there to protect him.
They were there to protect the evidence.
