“How did you find all of this out?” I ask the sheriff.
“Wade let me know that Reed had been hanging around the general store with Martha quite a bit, and that’s how he knew which ranches to threaten. It seems Martha was onto him, though, and had been doing her own research. She said her ex-husband was also a narcissistic piece of shit, and she can spot them from a mile away now,” he chuckles as he explains.
While everything is winding down, I look around at everything going back to normal. One thing stands out in all of it, though.
Why did Wade say that the balloon payment was taken care of and that he had a receipt?
“Are you okay?” Wade asks as he puts his hand on my shoulder.
I brush him off and race over to my father.
“Are you okay, Dad?” I ask quickly.
“I’ve been in rougher bar fights,” he chuckles as he rotates his shoulder.
“Do I need to take you to get checked out?”
“No, stop fussing over me. What happened?”
Wade walks over and replays the summary of what just took place.
“I thought they were coming to evict us,” Dad says softly.
“You don’t have to worry about that, Frank. It’s handled.”
“Sutton,” Dad growls as he turns to look at me with narrowed eyes. “I told you that I would handle it.”
“Don’t look at me. I couldn’t come up with all the money,” I tell him. I quickly turn on my heel and pierce Wade with a steely glare. “How would you know that it’s taken care of?”
“I paid it off.”
“You did what?” I hiss. “I told you…”
“I know what you told me, Sutton. I did it because I couldn’t bear to see this place go back to the bank after all the blood, sweat, and tears that have been put into it. That bastard tricked a few people…”
“But you didn’t pay off their outstanding debts, did you?”
“No, only yours.”
“Why? Why would you do that?” I ask in a shrill voice.
“Sutton,” Dad interjects as he puts a hand on my shoulder. “You know exactly why he did it.”
The one time my father isn’t a bastard to me and it’s to point out the obvious. Why isn’t he furious with Wade? He was about to light me up for doing it, but he’s calm when it was Wade’s doing?
And I do know why, and that’s where the problem lies. I can’t accept that this man handed a check for six figures over to the bank to rescue my family.
I cannot be indebted to him. I can’t…I can’t accept this gift or whatever it is.
He told me he loved me, and I don’t even know if I feel the same way. What happens when I tell him that I don’t love him or that I’m taking this new job? Will he rescind the payment?
I can feel the air slowly going out of my lungs like the air is getting thinner, and I can’t get a piece of it at all.
“You can’t…” I start.
Wade is at my side in a heartbeat.
“Sutton, look at me, take a slow, deep breath in.”
