For years, he had imagined confronting Thomas. He had imagined shouting at him, demanding that he explain how he could have betrayed the person who had trusted him most.
Now that the moment had arrived, he felt no desire to shout.
He felt tired.
And beneath the tiredness, he felt the quiet recognition that anger alone could not rebuild what had been broken.
“You may see her,” Samuel said at last. “But you will not make promises you cannot keep. You will not tell her stories that make you look better than you were. And you will never use her to persuade me to forgive you.”
Thomas nodded quickly.
“I understand.”
Samuel opened the door.
Anna looked at him.
He gave her a small nod.
She rose and carried Elizabeth toward the front room.
Thomas stood beside the stove, holding the wooden rattle as though he had forgotten why he had brought it.
When Anna offered him the baby, he hesitated.
“May I?”
Samuel nodded.
Thomas took Elizabeth carefully.
She opened her eyes, stared at him for a moment, and then yawned.
Thomas laughed softly.
“She looks like Father.”
Samuel looked at his daughter.
“Perhaps.”
Thomas's smile faded.
“I wish he could have seen her.”
Samuel felt the old grief stir.
Their father had died believing Samuel would never have children. He had never known that the diagnosis was false. He had never known that his younger son had participated in the deception.
He had died without the chance to see the family his eldest son had wanted to build.
But he had also died leaving a ranch that had survived his brother's ambitions, a home that still stood, and a son who had not allowed betrayal to turn him into the kind of man who caused it.
“He would have loved her,” Samuel said.
Thomas nodded.
For a moment, they stood together in silence.
Then Elizabeth began to cry.
Thomas looked alarmed.
Samuel took the baby back, and she quieted almost immediately against his shoulder.
Anna smiled.
Thomas watched his brother rock the child with a tenderness that seemed to hurt him.
“I was jealous,” he said quietly.
Samuel looked at him.
“Of what?”
“Of the way Father trusted you. Of the way people looked to you whenever something went wrong. I thought that if I could take control of the ranch, I could finally prove that I was worth as much as you.”
Samuel did not answer.
Thomas continued.
“I spent so long trying to become the man I thought Father wanted that I never considered what kind of man I was becoming.”
Samuel looked down at Elizabeth.
“Then consider it now.”
Thomas nodded.
He left a few minutes later.
Samuel did not embrace him.