Chapter 7 - The Neighbor
Daniel Vale arrived before breakfast.
He was older than Corvin remembered, but the resemblance was unmistakable.
“You found the photograph.”
Corvin placed it on the table.
“Who are you?”
“Your mother's brother.”
Corvin stared.
“My mother never mentioned you.”
“She was protecting you.”
“From what?”
Daniel looked toward Lena.
“From people who wanted the agreement erased.”
He explained that Eleanor Vale had been appointed co-trustee after Corvin's father discovered the original land records.
But when she died, Daniel stepped away.
He feared the family would be targeted.
Corvin was furious.
“You let me grow up believing my father was simply a rancher.”
“He wanted you to have a normal life.”
“And instead I inherited a war.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You inherited a responsibility.”
He produced a legal packet.
Inside was the original stewardship agreement.
It named Corvin's father, Eleanor Vale, and Tomas Grey Elk as custodians.
The agreement required future transfers to receive approval from all three families.
Corvin's father had never legally sold the ranch.
The signature on Mercer's transfer claim was forged.
But another document was worse.
A payment ledger showed someone had been paying a local official to keep the original agreement out of county records.
The payments had continued for twenty-seven years.
Daniel looked at Corvin.
“Someone inside the family kept this secret.”
“Who?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Your uncle Marcus.”
Corvin's stomach tightened.
Marcus was his father's younger brother.
He had died five years earlier.
“Why?”
“Because Marcus believed the land should belong to the Torne family.”
Lena quietly said, “And he made a deal.”
Daniel nodded.
“With Harlan Mercer.”
The betrayal suddenly reached deeper than Corvin had imagined.
That evening, a fire started near the northern pasture.
Corvin and Daniel worked with the riders to contain it.
No one was injured.
But afterward, Corvin found a burned scrap of paper near the fence.
Only one line remained legible.
The trustee dies before the land changes hands.
Corvin looked at Daniel.
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Then toward the dark hills.
Someone was planning for a death.
