PART 3 — THE SECRET OF THE FIRST WIFE

Adelaide read the four words again.

Then she looked at Silas Reed.

“What does this mean?”

The older man glanced toward the bedroom.

“Is Gidrick awake?”

“He’s recovering.”

“Then he needs to hear this.”

Adelaide hesitated.

She didn’t know the stranger, and something about the way he kept looking toward the cabin made her uncomfortable.

“Tell me first.”

Silas removed his gloves.

“Three years ago, Abigail Cole went missing during a winter storm. Gidrick found her near the eastern ridge. By the time he brought her home, she was gravely injured.”

Adelaide’s heart sank.

“How did she die?”

“That’s what everyone in Mercy Creek was told.”

He looked down at the paper.

“But I was there that night. I know what really happened.”

Before he could continue, Gidrick’s voice came from inside.

“Adelaide?”

She turned.

“I’m here.”

“Who’s outside?”

“Silas Reed. He says he knew Abigail.”

The name seemed to awaken something in Gidrick.

He struggled to sit up.

“Bring him in.”

Adelaide helped Silas through the door.

When Gidrick saw the older man, his expression changed immediately.

“You.”

Silas removed his hat.

“Been a long time, Cole.”

Gidrick’s voice was weak but angry.

“I thought you left Montana.”

“I did.”

“Then why are you back?”

Silas placed the paper on the table.

“Because the men who wanted your land have finally decided to take it.”

Gidrick looked at the message.

His face lost what little color it had.

“Where did you get this?”

“From a man who was present the night Abigail disappeared.”

Gidrick pushed himself upright despite Adelaide’s protests.

“You’re going to tell me everything.”

Silas pulled a chair closer.

“Three years ago, I was working as a timber surveyor near the eastern ridge. I discovered that someone had been cutting trees outside the permitted boundary. The timber was being transported through your property without your knowledge.”

Gidrick frowned.

“I remember the tracks.”

“Those weren’t ordinary logging crews. They were working for a company that wanted the northern timber rights and the creek water.”

Adelaide glanced at the map she had found.

The red markings suddenly made sense.

Silas continued.

“Abigail discovered the same thing. She found a ledger showing the names of the men involved. She intended to bring it to the sheriff.”

Gidrick’s hands тιԍнтened around the blanket.

“She never told me.”

“Because she was afraid someone would hurt you.”

The cabin fell silent.

Gidrick looked away.

“She went out that night because she heard something near the barn.”

Silas nodded.

“She had discovered that the men were moving stolen timber through the eastern trail. One of them confronted her.”

“Who?”

Silas hesitated.

“Caleb Rusk.”

Gidrick’s expression turned hard.

The trapper.

The same man who had insulted Adelaide.

“He was here last month,” Gidrick whispered.

“He’s been watching your property for years.”

Adelaide looked at Silas.

“What happened to Abigail?”

The older man lowered his voice.

“She was pushed from her horse during the confrontation. She survived the fall, but she was badly injured. Caleb and his men left her there.”

Gidrick closed his eyes.

For three years, he had believed the mountain had taken his wife.

Now he was learning that someone had left her to die.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

“I tried.”

Silas looked ashamed.

“I came to your cabin the following spring. You wouldn’t let me finish a sentence. You said you never wanted to hear her name again.”

Gidrick stared at the floor.

He remembered.

He remembered drinking too much, refusing visitors, and blaming himself for not being beside Abigail that night.

He had shut everyone out.

And in doing so, he had allowed the truth to remain buried.

Adelaide sat beside him.

She didn’t touch him until he turned his hand toward hers.

Then she placed her fingers over his.

“She deserved the truth,” she whispered.

Gidrick nodded.

“Yes.”

Silas reached into his coat and produced another folded document.

“This is why I came.”

It was a copy of the original timber agreement.

Several signatures appeared at the bottom.

One belonged to Caleb Rusk.

Another belonged to a businessman named Everett Sloan, the owner of the company attempting to purchase Gidrick’s property.

But the third signature made Gidrick go completely still.

Sheriff Jonathan Mercer.

“The sheriff?” Adelaide asked.

Silas nodded.

“He was paid to ignore the illegal timber operations. Abigail discovered the payments and copied the ledger.”

“Where is the original?” Gidrick asked.

Silas looked toward the fireplace.

“She hid it.”

“Where?”

“That’s what I haven’t been able to find.”

Gidrick slowly lowered himself against the pillows.

For several moments, nobody spoke.

Then Adelaide remembered the enormous trunk she had brought from Missouri.

The one Gidrick had mocked when she arrived.

She stood and opened it.

Silas watched curiously.

“What are you looking for?”

“Something.”

She moved aside several jars and bundles of dried herbs. Beneath them lay a small wooden sewing box.

Inside were needles, thread, ʙuттons, and a folded piece of fabric.

Adelaide examined it carefully.

Then she noticed a strange detail.

The fabric had been sтιтched twice along one edge.

She took her sewing scissors and carefully opened the second line of sтιтching.

A small brᴀss key fell into her palm.

Gidrick stared.

“Where did that come from?”

Adelaide unfolded the fabric.

A note was sewn into the lining.

The handwriting was unfamiliar.

But the words were unmistakable.

For the woman who comes after me. If Gidrick has found someone willing to stay, give her this key. The truth belongs to the living, not the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Adelaide felt a chill.

She turned the note over.

On the back was a drawing of a small wooden building beside the eastern creek.

Silas stood abruptly.

“The old storage shed.”

Gidrick looked at him.

“What’s there?”

Silas swallowed.

“An abandoned timber office. Abigail used to keep her work records there.”

Adelaide looked at the key.

“Then we need to go.”

Gidrick tried to rise.

“No.”

She turned toward him.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Adelaide, this concerns my first wife.”

“And right now, it concerns your health. You can barely stand.”

“I won’t let you go alone.”

She looked directly at him.

“Then recover quickly.”

For the first time, Gidrick almost smiled.

But the moment pᴀssed when Silas approached the window.

“There’s another problem.”

He pointed toward the distant ridge.

Three riders were approaching.

One carried a red company flag.

Caleb Rusk was leading them.

And they weren’t coming to negotiate.

Gidrick reached for his rifle.

Adelaide immediately stepped between him and the weapon.

“You’re still running a fever.”

“Those men are coming for my land.”

“And I won’t let you make yourself worse trying to stop them.”

He looked at her with frustration.

Then she said something that silenced him.

“You told me I couldn’t survive your mountain. You told me I was too much trouble before I had even stepped inside your cabin.”

Her voice trembled, but she didn’t look away.

“I survived the mountain. I found you beneath a fallen tree. I kept this cabin standing while you were unconscious. And now I’m asking you to trust me.”

Gidrick slowly lowered his hand.

Silas watched them.

Then Adelaide turned toward the door.

She pulled on her coat and took the brᴀss key.

“Where are you going?” Gidrick demanded.

“To the barn.”

“Why?”

“Because the men outside think this is your land, your fight, and your decision.”

She looked back at him.

“They haven’t understood that I live here now.”

Outside, Caleb Rusk dismounted.

He approached the porch with a broad smile.

“Well, well. The mountain man’s new wife.”

Adelaide opened the door.

“What do you want?”

Rusk laughed.

“Your husband owes us money. We’re here to collect.”

Gidrick tried to stand behind her.

But Adelaide raised one hand.

“Show me the contract.”

Rusk looked surprised.

“What?”

“If he owes you money, show me the contract.”

The trapper’s smile faded.

“That’s man’s business.”

“Then you shouldn’t have come to speak with his wife.”

For a moment, even Silas seemed impressed.

Rusk reached into his coat and produced a folded paper.

Adelaide examined it.

She had spent years helping her father keep the apothecary’s accounts. She knew how to recognize altered figures, suspicious dates, and forged signatures.

Within seconds, she spotted something wrong.

The amount written in the agreement didn’t match the amount in the ledger Gidrick had kept.

Someone had added nearly four hundred dollars.

She looked up.

“This is a forgery.”

Rusk’s face hardened.

“Careful, woman.”

Adelaide held the paper firmly.

“You have until tomorrow morning to bring the original agreement. Otherwise, I’ll take this copy to the sheriff.”

Silas almost laughed.

Gidrick, despite his fever, looked at her with something he had never shown before.

Pride.

But Rusk leaned closer.

“You really don’t understand what you’ve walked into, Mrs. Cole.”

Then he looked past her toward the bedroom.

“Perhaps your husband never told you what happened to Abigail’s child.”

The words struck the cabin like a thunderclap.

Gidrick went completely still.

Adelaide turned toward him.

“Child?”

His eyes filled with something she couldn’t understand.

“Adelaide…”

Rusk smiled.

“Ask your husband why he never told you.”

Then he mounted his horse and rode away.

Adelaide slowly closed the door.

She turned toward Gidrick.

“Was Abigail expecting a child?”

Gidrick looked down.

For a long time, he said nothing.

Finally, he whispered:

“She was.”

Adelaide’s heart ached.

“Did the baby survive?”

Gidrick shook his head.

“No.”

But Silas suddenly stepped forward.

“That’s not what happened, Cole.”

Gidrick looked up sharply.

Silas’s face had gone pale.

“I saw the child after Abigail disappeared. Someone took the baby away before you reached the ridge.”

Adelaide gripped the edge of the table.

“Where is that child now?”

Silas looked toward the window, where the riders had disappeared into the falling snow.

Then he answered:

“Living less than twenty miles from here.”

And the name he spoke next would change everything Gidrick Cole believed about his first wife, his past, and the woman he had married.

Because Abigail’s child was alive—and someone in Mercy Creek had been raising that child under a different name.

To be continued…