Chapter 16 - The Night the Town Chose
Edwin’s hired men blocked every road.
They carried oil cans and torches.
Their orders were simple.
Destroy the courthouse, the flower shop, and every record connecting the Vale family to South Creek.
The people of Millfield had spent days whispering against Thomas.
Now they had to decide whether rumor mattered more than the armed men outside.
Pete opened the courthouse gun cabinet.
The schoolteacher moved children into the stone church cellar.
Mrs. Doyle sat beside her wounded son.
Reverend Cole climbed the bell tower and rang the alarm without stopping.
Thomas broke the chain between his wrists with a blacksmith’s hammer.
Jacob freed himself and stood beside him.
Neither called the other father or son.
They did not need the words yet.
Clara carried Annie Rose through the rear passage toward the flower shop.
The original letters were hidden there inside dried lavender bundles.
Edwin followed her.
He knew exactly where she would go.
The shop was already burning when Clara arrived.
Smoke filled the front room.
She climbed beneath the old counter and pulled up the hollow floorboard.
The letters were gone.
Edwin stood in the doorway holding them.
“You built a beautiful life on my family’s money,” he said.
Clara faced him through the smoke.
“No.”
“My father built a hiding place from your family’s crimes.”
Edwin threw the letters into the fire.
Annie Rose ran past Clara and knocked the burning bundle aside with a broom.
Edwin grabbed the child.
Clara struck him with the flower press.
He released Annie Rose but pulled Clara into the back room.
Thomas arrived as the ceiling began collapsing.
He saw Edwin dragging Clara toward the alley.
Jacob cut him off from outside.
For one moment Edwin stood between Thomas and the son he had raised.
He fired at Jacob.
Thomas stepped into the shot.
The bullet entered beneath his ribs.
Clara screamed.
Jacob caught Thomas as he fell.
Edwin fled toward the creek.
Thomas pressed the rescued letters into Jacob’s hands.
“You keep these,” he whispered.
Jacob’s face broke.
“You keep breathing.”
Thomas tried to smile.
“I have been trying to do that for twenty-two years.”
May you like
Then his eyes closed.
