Technically possible.
Not honest.
Jake stared at her.
“You fought.”
“Yes.”
“About Dad?”
Clara looked at him.
The boy was twelve.
Not a child enough to be protected from everything.
Not old enough to carry all of it.
She sat beside him.
“Silas was your father’s brother.”
Jake stopped breathing.
“What?”
Clara told him carefully.
Not about murder suspicion.
Not yet.
Only family.
Letters.
Money.
Estrangement.
Jake listened.
His face hardened in a way she hated.
“He knew?”
“Yes.”
“He knew I was his nephew?”
“Yes.”
“And he didn’t tell me?”
“No.”
Jake stood.
“He’s a liar.”
Clara could not disagree.
The boy went into his room and slammed the door.
Clara sat alone.
The cabin felt empty.
More empty than before Silas ever arrived.
That angered her too.
She did not want missing him to become another form of surrender.
She took the five hundred dollars from the cellar.
Placed it on the table.
Jonah’s money.
Jake’s inheritance.
The sum Clara had secretly hoped might carry them through winter was never hers.
Strangely, once she knew, she felt relief.
She would rather be poor honestly.
Silas returned two days later.
Not to the cabin.
To the edge of the property.
Clara saw him from the porch.
He stopped at the gate.
Dismounted.
Waited.
She walked halfway.
No farther.
“What?”
Silas removed his hat.
“I found something.”
“About Jonah?”
“Yes.”
Clara’s anger shifted immediately.
“What?”
“There’s an old ranch hand in Silver Creek.”
“Worked for Thomas before Jonah.”
“Name’s Wilkes.”
“He remembers the fence.”
Clara moved closer despite herself.
“What did he say?”
“Thomas wasn’t there when Jonah died.”
Clara frowned.
“Thomas told me he found him.”
“He lied.”
Her stomach tightened.
“Who did?”
“Wilkes.”
“He heard the crash.”
“Found Jonah beneath the rails.”
“Thomas arrived almost an hour later.”
“Why lie?”
Silas looked toward the ranch.
“Because he had sent Jonah there.”
“Maybe guilt.”
“Maybe more.”
Clara crossed her arms.
“And the post?”
“Wilkes remembers another man working that section two days earlier.”
“Who?”
Silas’s jaw hardened.
“Thomas’s cousin.”
Clara knew the name.
Edgar Whitmore.
A man who visited rarely.
Always smelled of tobacco and whiskey.
He disappeared after Thomas’s funeral.
“Why would Edgar kill Jonah?”
Silas reached inside his coat.
Removed a folded paper.
“Because Jonah found out Edgar and Thomas were selling cattle twice.”
Clara frowned.
Silas explained.
One herd sold legitimately.
Same animals listed again as “lost” to investors.
Insurance claims paid.
Jonah discovered it.
Threatened to report them unless they settled the money Thomas stole and stopped using his name on records.
Clara stared.
“How do you know?”
“Wilkes kept one old sales receipt because Thomas cheated him too.”
Clara read it.
Thomas’s signature.
Edgar’s.
Jonah’s initials beside a note.