The truth landed harder as she spoke it.
“My father thought the dispute was unrelated. Now I’m not sure.”
Cole looked at the pages.
“Why hide this?”
“Because someone broke into our house three months before he died.”
Cole’s face hardened.
“They searched his office.”
“Found nothing.”
“Because you had it.”
Abigail nodded.
“He gave it to me that night.”
She picked up the brass key.
“And this.”
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
Cole frowned.
“My father said only, ‘When the numbers stop being enough, find the iron box beneath the place nobody bothers to look.’”
“That’s helpful.”
“He was feverish.”
Cole nodded.
Abigail looked at the ledger again.
“The morning before he died, he made me promise something.”
“What?”
“If Blackwood approached me, I was to go to you.”
Cole’s eyes lifted.
“You knew?”
“That he trusted you.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“No.”
She studied him.
“Why you, Cole?”
He looked away.
Abigail’s chest tightened.
“You know.”
Silence.
“Cole.”
He stood.
Walked toward the window.
Abigail watched his back.
Finally he said, “Your father wrote me six months ago.”
She stared.
“What?”
“He asked whether I would marry you.”
Her face flushed.
“I know that.”
“No.”
Cole turned.
“He asked before he got sick.”
Abigail froze.
Her father had told her the arrangement came near the end.
Cole returned to the table.
“He said Blackwood was closing around him.”
Abigail felt betrayed all over again.
“What else?”
“He said several men had already refused.”
The old humiliation came quickly.
“Of course.”
Cole frowned.
“No.”
“Please don’t.”
“Abigail.”
“I know what men think of me.”
“They didn’t refuse because of you.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Cole.”
“They refused because Blackwood threatened them.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Your father approached three ranchers.”
Cole named them.
All established.
All married now except one.
“Blackwood held paper on every one.”
Abigail stared.
Cole continued.
“Within days, each received warning that their loans could be called.”
Her mouth went dry.
“He was isolating me.”
“Yes.”
“And you?”
Cole smiled without humor.
“Blackwood already planned to take my ranch.”
“You had nothing left to threaten.”
“Essentially.”
Abigail looked at him.
“That is why you agreed?”
“Partly.”
Her face fell.
Cole saw it.
“Not the way you think.”
“Then explain.”
He sat.
“I had seen you.”
Abigail frowned.
“Where?”
“County grain hearing. Five years ago.”
She remembered it.
Her father had challenged a supplier.
Abigail had spoken for twenty minutes.
Most men in the room ignored her until she produced invoices proving double billing.
Cole had been there?
“You were in the back.”
“Yes.”
“You remember me?”
“Yes.”