He stared.
Clara lifted the lid.
Set out the papers.
Nathan read the first.
Second.
Third.
His face drained.
At the line—If the woman fails before spring, he’ll sell—Nathan stopped.
The room seemed to shrink around him.
“Woman.”
His voice cracked.
“Mara.”
“Yes.”
Nathan stood so abruptly the chair fell.
He grabbed his coat.
Clara stepped between him and the door.
“No.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“If you go after Vale, I leave.”
He stopped.
Not because of the threat alone.
Because of what it meant.
She had not left yet.
Nathan stared.
“You would use that?”
“Yes.”
“Unfair.”
“Extremely.”
His breathing was hard.
Clara pointed toward the papers.
“This does not prove he killed Mara.”
“He was waiting for her to die.”
“Yes.”
“He pressured the bank.”
“Yes.”
“He sent a doctor.”
“Ethan says a doctor came through Vale.”
Nathan turned.
“What?”
Clara told him.
Everything.
Green bottles.
Ben’s memory.
Ethan seeing Vale speak with the doctor.
The hidden box.
Mara’s suspicion.
By the end Nathan sat again.
Not because calm returned.
Because rage became too heavy to stand beneath.
He whispered:
“I buried her.”
Clara sat opposite.
“I know.”
“I thought she died because this place worked her to death.”
“Maybe illness killed her.”
“Maybe somebody helped.”
“We don’t know.”
“I should have known.”
“No.”
“I was her husband.”
“That is not magical knowledge.”
His eyes lifted.
“I should have listened.”
“To what?”
“She said things tasted strange.”
“She said the doctor made her worse.”
“I told her fear was making everything feel dangerous.”
His face broke.
“I told my dying wife she was imagining it.”
Clara reached across the table.
Stopped.
Then placed her hand beside his.
Not on it.
Choice.
Nathan looked at her hand.
Then covered it with his.
His grip shook.
Clara stayed.
They missed the ten o’clock train.
Neither noticed until noon.
When Lucy realized, she ran through the house shouting:
“She missed it!”
Rose cheered.
Ben emerged from hiding.
Samuel smiled.
Ethan stood in the doorway.
He looked at Clara.
“You staying?”
She looked toward Nathan.
Then at the children.
“Until the next train.”
Ethan groaned.
Clara smiled.
“The next scheduled one after winter.”
His eyes widened.
Lucy screamed.
Rose hugged Clara around the waist.
Ben joined.
Samuel laughed.
Even Ethan smiled before remembering himself.
Nathan remained behind them.
Watching.
Clara looked over four heads and one shoulder.