I cross the room in three strides, pulling up the chair next to her bed.“Hey yourself.”
Taking her hand—careful of the IV—I’m struck by how fragile her fingers feel in mine.
“You scared the hell out of me, Dell.Don’t ever do that again.”
A ghost of a smile touches her lips.“Not planning on it.”
“I’m so damn grateful you’re alive.When I thought I might lose you...”I can’t finish the sentence.
She squeezes my hand weakly.“Maddox, there’s something I have to tell you.Something I overheard while I was being held captive.”
The seriousness in her tone makes me sit straighter.“What is it?”
Della takes a painful breath.“It’s about Mom.”Her eyes well with tears.“Mom’s death wasn’t an accident, Maddox.”
The air leaves my lungs in a rush.“What are you talking about?”
“Dad made a deal to sell the ranch to Landry Oil right before she died,” she continues, her voice strengthening with each word.“Granddaddy found out.He killed the deal and fired Dad.”
My mind reels, trying to process what she’s saying.“And Landry Oil?—”
“They retaliated,” she confirms.“Cut the brakes on the car, but Mom was never meant to get behind the wheel.It was Dad they wanted.”A tear slips down her bruised cheek.“Mom was just an innocent casualty.”
My pulse thrums in my ears, and my chest tightens.None of this can be true.It’s the meds talking.
“How do you know this is true?”
“The men who took me...they were talking about history repeating itself.One of them mentioned how they messed up thirteen years ago by targeting the wrong Meadows.”She swallows hard.“I don’t know why Granddaddy kept it to himself, but now he’s gone, and we’ll never know.”
Her grip on my hand tightens as I try to digest all she’s revealed.
“But one thing I know for certain is that you and I can never let anyone take the ranch.Our mother died for that land.”Her eyes, so much like our mother’s, burn into mine.“Promise me we’ll always protect it.”
I’m silent for a long moment, the weight of this revelation settling on my shoulders.Everything I thought I knew about our family history has just been rewritten.
“I promise,” I rasp.“No one will ever take Meadows Ranch from us.”
“Fallen Meadows Ranch,” she corrects.
“Right.”
How could I forget?
I squeeze her fingers gently and release a ragged breath.
“Rest now.I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“You don’t have to stay?—”
“Try and make me leave,” I challenge, managing a small smile.
As Della drifts back to sleep, I sit there holding her hand, my mind working overtime.The pieces start falling into place—Granddaddy’s overprotectiveness of the ranch, his falling out with my father, his insistence that Della and I keep the property and continue building our family’s legacy.
He didn’t want us to let go of what our mother died for.
ChapterTwenty-Four
Amelia
