Chapter 14
Elias handed it to her.
On the front were four words.
ONLY IF ELIAS RETURNS.
Matilda's hands trembled.
She tore it open.
The first line made her stop breathing.
Matilda, if Elias is standing before you, then the time has come for you to learn why I truly left him.
Her eyes moved rapidly across the page.
Then widened.
Jedodiah whispered, “What does it say?”
Matilda looked at Elias.
And suddenly the greatest mystery of her life became even darker.
Because according to her mother, Elias Harrow had not been the man who betrayed their family.
The betrayal had come from someone Matilda had trusted since childhood.
Someone still alive.
Someone whose name was written at the bottom of the page.
Thomas Bell.
The man Matilda had called Father.
PART 4 — THE FATHER WHO STOLE A CHILD
Matilda read the name again.
Thomas Bell.
Her hands began to shake.
“No.”
Elias stood motionless.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You knew the man who raised me was involved?”
“I suspected,” Elias repeated.
“That isn't the same thing.”
“Then tell me what is.”
Elias looked toward the door.
Sheriff Hollis shouted again.
“This is your last warning!”
Jedodiah crossed the room and pulled a heavy cabinet in front of the entrance.
“We need minutes, not arguments.”
Matilda stared down at the letter.
Her mother's words blurred through tears.
Thomas told me Elias had become unstable. He showed me documents claiming Elias had ordered men beaten and threatened entire families. I believed him because I was frightened.
Matilda swallowed.
She continued.
Years later, I learned the documents were forged.
Elias closed his eyes.
Matilda kept reading.
Thomas had been working with Thatcher.
The room seemed to lose all warmth.
Her memories of childhood returned in fragments.
Thomas Bell carving wooden birds for her.
Teaching her to read.
Holding her after nightmares.
Walking beside her mother's coffin.
Could love and betrayal exist inside the same person?
Apparently they could.
The letter continued.
Thomas helped me escape Leadville, but not because he wanted to save us. He wanted Elias gone. He wanted me dependent on him.
Matilda's stomach twisted.
“No.”
She whispered it again.
“No.”
Elias stepped closer.
“What else?”
She lowered the letter.
“My mother wrote that Thomas confessed when she became ill.”
Elias stiffened.
“She knew?”
“For years.”
Matilda's voice broke.
“And she still stayed?”
The answer came in the next paragraph.
I stayed because by then you loved him as your father. I could not tear your childhood apart to ease my guilt.