Dunar is already there with his lawyer, Vance. Smooth, wellorganized, accustomed to winning. Dunar looks at Clara when she comes in with young Henry on her hip and his expression recalibrates, surprised, controlled quickly. She had expected that and is satisfied by it. Vance presents Dunar's case well.
The witness argument laid out clearly, framed as procedural integrity rather than opportunism. Two precedent cases where improperly witnessed transfers had been voided. Then Garrett speaks Cole's statement. The timeline, the settlement documentation, then the photographs, which Clara did not know about until this moment, and she looks at Garrett, who produces them without looking at her. Three photographs, the cabin at the wall plate stage, the completed structure, the garden.
Mr. Caldwell arranged it, Garrett says quietly. A photographer passing through in August. She does not look at Amos. She looks at the photographs.
The cabin looks exactly like what it is. Rough, unbut, real, the kind of thing that can only have been built by someone who intended to stay. Commissioner Aldrich looks at the photographs for a long time. When he looks at Clara directly and asks if she has anything to say, Garrett puts his hand flat on the table. Wait, defer.
She looks at Garrett. She looks at Aldrich. My husband registered this land legally, she says. He died before he could build on it. I built on it instead.
I have been there for 4 months. I have built a cabin, planted a garden, and had a child there. The witness to the transfer was a resident of this territory. By every standard, this office applies. Mr.
Dunar filed his claim 3 weeks after I broke ground. He knows the settlement was active. He is hoping this office will give him something a court would not. She pauses. I am asking you not to.
Aldrich writes something down. In the hallway after, Dunar looks at her once with the expression of a man recalculating odds. Then he leaves. The photographs, she says to Amos. You would have argued about whether they were necessary.