Emma found the first discrepancy. Clara said, "I traced it back. Something moved across his face. Something fierce and complicated. This is Hollis, he said.
Gerald Hollis. He's been trying to get this property since before my father died. He wanted to consolidate the valley land and my father wouldn't sell and I wouldn't sell. And he stopped, pressed his palm against the fence post. If he controls the bank note, he doesn't have to buy it.
He just waits. Yes, Clara said. I have to fight this. Yes, she said again. You do?
I don't know if I can, he said. And it came out raw and unguarded in the way of a man who has been holding that sentence inside him for a very long time. You don't have to know if you can, Clara said. You just have to start. He looked at her.
I found three additional records that support a case for unfair modification of the loan terms. She said, "I believe there's documentation that the bank violated the original agreement, but to pursue it, you'll need a lawyer, and you'll need people in this town willing to stand with you, and that means you're going to have to stop handling all of this privately and let your neighbors see what's happening. You want me to go to the town," he said. "I want you to let the town come to you." She said, "There's a difference.
You've been suffering privately for 2 years, Daniel. You've been letting this family go through loss and now financial crisis without asking anyone for help because you think that's what strength looks like. She held his gaze. It isn't. The wind moved across the field between them.
A muscle jumped in his jaw. My wife used to say something like that, he said quietly. She sounds like she was a wise woman. She was. He exhaled.
All right. What do I need to do? And just like that, simply without ceremony, they began to plan. They worked at the kitchen table that night after the girls were in bed. Clara with the records spread before her and Daniel across the table with a legal pad and a pen.
And for 3 hours, they worked through every document, every date, every discrepancy. Clara had found building a picture of what Gerald Hollis's bank had done over 14 months. It was 11:00 when Emma appeared in the kitchen doorway in her night gown. She looked at the table. She looked at her father.
She looked at Clara. I knew something was wrong, she said. Emma, Daniel started. I'm not leaving, she said. Not defiant, just certain.