PART 2 — THE INHERITANCE HER UNCLE STOLE 💔

Nora read the county document until the words blurred.

Nora Garrett, deceased.

The date was three months earlier.

The signature beneath the declaration belonged to Edwin Garrett.

For a long moment, she couldn’t speak.

Then she looked at Thea.

“How can a man declare someone ᴅᴇᴀᴅ when he knows she’s alive?”

The widow folded her hands.

“Because a ᴅᴇᴀᴅ girl cannot walk into a courthouse and demand her inheritance.”

Nora’s stomach тιԍнтened.

“My inheritance?”

Thea nodded.

“Your father’s money wasn’t the only thing he left you.”

She opened a second envelope and removed a faded newspaper clipping.

It described a copper claim registered in the name of Thomas Garrett, Nora’s father, nearly twenty years earlier. The claim covered a section of Tabletop Mountain, including the abandoned Consolidated Copper Mine.

Nora stared at the name.

“My father owned the mine?”

“Not the entire mine. But he owned a substantial share of the original claim. He and two partners discovered a rich copper vein before the operation closed.”

“Then why did nobody tell me?”

“Because Edwin told the county your father had sold his interest before he died.”

Nora shook her head.

“My father never mentioned selling anything.”

“I know. I remember him saying he wanted you to have that land when you were old enough to understand what it meant.”

Thea reached into the envelope again.

This time she produced a handwritten letter.

The paper was yellow with age, but the handwriting was unmistakable.

Nora recognized it immediately.

Her father’s handwriting.

Her hands trembled as she unfolded it.

My dearest Nora,

If you are reading this, you are old enough to understand that land is not always valuable because of what lies beneath it. Sometimes its greatest worth is what it allows a person to build above it.

I have placed the original mining papers in a safe location. Your uncle knows about the claim, but he does not know where I have hidden the documents.

When you turn eighteen, ask for them. Do not sign anything without understanding it.

Remember, sweetheart, no one has the right to make you feel like a stranger in your own home.

Nora stopped reading.

A tear fell onto the paper.

Her father had known.

He had known that Edwin might try to take what belonged to her.

“Where are the original papers?” she whispered.

Thea looked toward the mountains.

“That is what we need to find out.”

For the next several days, Nora barely slept.

She returned to the mine and searched every chamber she had explored during the winter. She checked behind loose stones, beneath the old sleeping platform, and inside abandoned wooden boxes.

Nothing.

Then, on the sixth morning, she remembered the little bone ʙuттon.

J.P.

She had found it near the chamber’s eastern wall, where the rock formation looked different from the rest.

She returned there with a lantern.

The wall was covered in dust and mineral deposits. Near the floor, however, she noticed a narrow line running between two stones.

Nora brushed away the dirt.

A small metal ring appeared.

She pulled.

A stone panel shifted slightly, revealing a shallow compartment behind it.

Inside sat a rusted tin box.

Nora’s heart began pounding.

The box was locked, but the clasp had deteriorated. She carefully opened it.

Inside were three documents wrapped in oilcloth, a small brᴀss key, and a pH๏τograph.

The pH๏τograph showed her father standing beside two men in front of the old mine.

One was unfamiliar.

The other was Edwin.

Nora turned the pH๏τograph over.

Written on the back were six words:

The mine belongs to Nora. Remember.

She sat down on the stone floor.

For seven years, Edwin had told her she owned nothing.

He had taken her father’s savings, her mother’s belongings, and eventually the roof over her head.

But he had never owned the mountain.

The documents confirmed it.

Her father had retained his share of the mining claim until his death. His will transferred that interest to Nora, with Edwin appointed only as temporary guardian until she reached adulthood.

She had turned eighteen in September.

The date on the declaration of death was October.

Edwin had waited until she was legally an adult.

Then he had declared her ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and filed a claim to transfer her inheritance.

Nora stared at the documents.

“He didn’t just throw me out,” she whispered. “He planned to steal everything.”

Thea examined the papers when Nora brought them to the ranch.

Her expression grew grave.

“These are important, child. But we need someone who can verify them.”

“Who?”

“Mr. Samuel Whitaker. He’s a solicitor in Ridgway. Your father trusted him.”

Nora hesitated.

Ridgway was only a few miles away, but it might as well have been another world.

Edwin knew the people there. He had friends in the county office. He had already convinced everyone she was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

“What if he refuses to believe me?”

Thea took her hand.

“Then we find someone who will.”

Two days later, Nora traveled to Ridgway wearing her plainest dress and a borrowed coat.

She kept the documents beneath her clothing.

When she entered Whitaker’s office, the elderly solicitor looked up from his desk.

“May I help you?”

“My name is Nora Garrett.”

The pen slipped from his fingers.

He stood so quickly that his chair fell backward.

“Good heavens.”

“You remember me?”

“I remember carrying you around your father’s workshop when you were a little girl.”

His face became serious.

“Where have you been?”

“Living in the old copper mine.”

Whitaker stared at her.

Then he noticed the scar on her arm and the worn copper bracelet around her wrist.

“Your father would be astonished by you.”

Nora placed the documents on his desk.

“I need to prove that I’m alive. And I need to know what my uncle has done with my inheritance.”

Whitaker examined the papers for nearly an hour.

He checked the signatures, compared the property descriptions, and studied the original mining claim.

At last, he removed his spectacles.

“Your father was careful. Very careful.”

“Can I get my property back?”

“Possibly. But there is something you must understand.”

He pulled another file from a cabinet.

“Your father did not simply leave you a piece of abandoned land. He and his partners discovered a copper deposit that could be worth a considerable amount of money.”

Nora looked at him.

“How much?”

Whitaker shook his head.

“I cannot give you an accurate figure without a proper survey. But it is enough to explain why Edwin has gone to such extraordinary lengths.”

He turned another page.

“And there is something else.”

A second document had been filed shortly after Nora’s supposed death.

It transferred her father’s mining interest to a company called Garrett Mountain Holdings.

The company had only one listed owner.

Edwin Garrett.

Nora felt sick.

“He put my inheritance in his own name.”

“Yes. But the transfer may be challenged if we can establish fraud.”

“Then let’s do it.”

Whitaker looked at her carefully.

“Your uncle will fight. He may claim you disappeared voluntarily. He may even accuse you of being an impostor.”

“Let him.”

“Nora, this will not be easy.”

She lifted her chin.

“Neither was surviving the winter.”

The solicitor studied her for a moment.

Then he nodded.

“I’ll prepare the necessary papers.”

But as Nora left his office, she noticed a man standing across the street.

He was wearing a dark coat and holding a newspaper.

He watched her leave.

Then he hurried toward the county building.

That evening, Nora returned to the mine with Thea.

They had barely entered the hidden chamber when a sound came from the tunnel.

Three slow knocks.

Nora froze.

The same three knocks she would remember for the rest of her life.

Someone knew where she lived.

Thea gripped her arm.

“Who is it?”

A man’s voice echoed through the pᴀssage.

“Nora Garrett?”

She recognized it.

Her uncle.

“Come out, girl. We need to talk.”

Nora looked at the documents on the table.

Then at the old bone ʙuттon marked with the initials J.P.

Edwin’s voice came again.

“I know what you found.”

And then he said something that made Nora’s blood run cold.

“Your father didn’t die believing that mine would belong to you.”