“You scared ten years off my life,” Joseph said.
Samuel managed a smile.
“I'll try not to do it again.”
Joseph helped him into the house and arranged for a hired hand to take over the heavier work.
For several weeks, Samuel focused on recovering.
He walked with a cane. He slept badly. He woke from dreams in which he was falling down the embankment again.
And then Dr. Lang sent his final report.
The letter was brief.
It said Samuel’s injuries had resulted in permanent infertility.
No qualification.
No uncertainty.
No recommendation for further examination.
Samuel read it alone in the study.
He remembered the doctor's original words. He remembered being told that no one could yet be certain.
But the letter looked official. It bore the hospital seal, the physician’s signature, and the authority of a man who had opened Samuel’s body to save his life.
Samuel accepted it.
He told Joseph.
His father sat in silence for a long time.
Then he placed a hand on Samuel’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry, son.”
Samuel nodded.
He did not cry until he was alone in the barn.
That night, he made a decision.
He would never ask a woman to sacrifice the family she wanted for the sake of a man who could not provide one.
He would never allow affection to become a trap.
And he would never give a child a promise he could not keep.
He did not know that the report was false.
He did not know that Thomas had visited Dr. Lang two days before the final document was issued.
He did not know that a bank draft had been written, a promise made, and an agreement reached behind the closed door of a hospital office.
He only knew that something he had wanted more than anything had been taken from him.
And he had no idea that the person who would eventually tell him the truth was his own brother.
In the present, Thomas sat beside Samuel’s stove and rubbed his hands together.
“I was twenty-four,” he said. “I was young, and I was afraid.”
Samuel remained standing.
“Of what?”
“Of losing the ranch.”
“You keep saying that. Explain it.”
Thomas glanced at Anna.
She stood near the bedroom doorway, her expression pale but steady.
“You should sit down,” Thomas told Samuel.
“I am comfortable where I am.”
Thomas exhaled.
“Father had begun talking to a lawyer about changing the inheritance arrangements. He wanted you to have control of the ranch. He was worried about my debts.”
Samuel frowned.
“What debts?”
Thomas looked away.