Chapter 18 - The Flood at South Creek
Rain began before sunset.
Jacob reached the mine with Gideon and Sheriff Doyle.
Doyle could barely sit a horse, but he insisted on coming.
He said stopping Edwin would not erase his crimes.
It would only be the first honest thing he had done in years.
Inside the tunnel, Edwin had placed dynamite along the underground stream.
Gideon tried to reason with him.
“You have lost,” he said.
Edwin lit the first fuse.
“My father taught me that losing is simply what happens before witnesses disappear.”
Jacob attacked him.
They fought beside the rushing water while Doyle cut fuses from the wall.
One charge exploded early.
The tunnel split.
A surge of black water tore through the lower shaft toward Millfield.
Clara organized the town to build barriers along the creek.
Thomas left the church despite Pike’s orders.
He rode to the mill and opened the old irrigation gates, redirecting the flood toward empty pasture.
The effort reopened his wound.
He collapsed beside the wheel but kept pulling.
Annie Rose found him there.
She placed both small hands over his and helped turn the gate.
At the mine, Gideon was trapped beneath a beam.
Edwin ran for the upper exit.
Jacob could pursue him or save Gideon.
For one terrible second he hesitated.
Then he lifted the beam.
Edwin escaped.
Gideon looked at him in disbelief.
“Why?”
Jacob dragged him toward safety.
“Because I am done inheriting your family’s choices.”
The diverted flood swept across Vale pasture and exposed a buried line of barrels.
Each barrel carried the seal of Edwin’s mining company.
Federal marshals arrived with the journalist and Miriam before dawn.
The physical evidence could no longer be hidden.
But Edwin had one final hostage.
He entered the church cellar during the confusion and took Annie Rose.
A message was carved into the altar rail.
Bring Jacob to Annie’s grave at sunrise.
May you like
One child for another.
