He imagined Anna humming while she rocked the baby.
He imagined learning how to hold a newborn without fear of doing something wrong.
Then another thought came.
“What if I am not the father?”
Anna's hand tightened around his.
“Then we will face that truth together.”
Samuel looked down.
“I don't know if I could bear it.”
“I know.”
She moved her chair closer.
“But you are not the man who wrote that advertisement anymore. You are not a man who believes he has nothing to offer a family.”
Samuel looked at her.
“You have changed me.”
“No,” Anna said gently. “You were always capable of loving someone. You simply believed you had to protect them from a future that might never happen.”
He looked toward the window.
Outside, the first snow of the evening had begun to fall.
It settled across the fence posts and softened the tracks in the yard. The ranch looked peaceful, almost untouched by the trouble that had shaken it.
Samuel returned the wooden horse to the box.
Then he closed the lid.
“I think we should have the examination,” he said. “Not because I doubt you, but because I need to understand what the truth actually is.”
Anna nodded.
“I agree.”
“And if the doctor tells us that the child is mine?”
She smiled through her tears.
“Then we will be very fortunate.”
Samuel reached for her hand.
“And if he cannot tell us?”
“Then we will love the child and continue searching for answers if we need them.”
He studied her face.
“You make it sound simple.”
“It won't be simple.”
She leaned against him.
“But it can still be good.”
Three weeks later, Samuel and Anna traveled to Helena to see a physician recommended by Mr. Jameson.
Dr. William Mercer was a quiet, methodical man who had no connection to the old hospital or the Whitaker family. He examined the original records, asked Samuel detailed questions about the accident and his recovery, and explained what modern medical knowledge could and could not establish.
He did not promise certainty where none was possible.
He did not offer false reassurance.
He told Samuel that the old report had been medically unjustified and that the injuries described in the original notes did not, by themselves, establish permanent infertility.
Samuel listened carefully.
Then Dr. Mercer examined him and arranged additional tests.
The results would take time.
Samuel and Anna returned to the ranch without an answer.
Yet the journey had changed something between them.
Samuel no longer looked at Anna's pregnancy as an accusation he had to defend himself against. He began asking how she felt, what she wanted to eat, whether the journey had exhausted her.