Page 76 of The Rancher's Wedding

Was he willing to do it for a woman he’d only known a few months?

He had the choice between possibly never seeing her again and throwing away everything in his life to be with her. He didn’t like either option, but the second one was the superior one.

Michael walked over to Jacob’s cabin. Jacob had to, at the very least, be told about what was going on. But Michael really didn’t want to tell him and he dragged his feet as he headed up the path.

Where would he even start? Well, he could start by letting him know that Estelle was actually engaged to somebody else. But eventually, Michael would have to get to the part where he told Jacob that he was choosing her over him. Jacob wasn’t going to like that and, frankly, neither did Michael. He was going to abandon his brother at the moment they’d finally reconnected after the fire three years ago.

Michael knocked on Jacob’s door. Jacob opened it and invited Michael in.

“Jacob,” he said, sitting down in one of the wooden chairs in the kitchen area, “I’ve got something important to tell you.”

“I’m all ears.” Jacob took another chair and sat across from him, listening intently.

“Estelle isn’t who she said she was.”

“She finally told you?” Jacob asked.

The question took Michael by surprise. “Told me what?”

Jacob paused for a second, realizing he’d spoken too soon.

Michael felt the rage grow inside him as Jacob leaned back in his chair. “Jacob, you’re my brother. What do you think she told me?”

The words came out of Jacob’s mouth slowly and quietly. “She’s… I believe… as I understand it, she’s engaged to somebody else. From Philadelphia.”

How did Jacob know? More importantly, “How long have you known?”

“A week,” Jacob said. “Maybe two.”

He could understand Estelle keeping a secret from him. She shouldn’t have, but he could understand it. Now Jacob had been keeping the same secret, lying to him just at the very moment where Michael had thought he’d broken through to his brother. Right when Jacob seemed to have finally opened up to Michael. Where did his loyalties lie?

“Two weeks?” Michael asked. He was angry, unable to process the words and completely lost as to how to express his anger.

“That’s about right.” For his part, Jacob remained calm, sitting down, talking carefully in a soft voice. “I’m sorry, Michael, I really am. I begged her to tell you. I didn’t want to keep a secret from you, but…”

“But what?” Michael clenched his fists, trying to keep his voice at an appropriate level, knowing that an outburst could push his brother back into solitude.

“But I thought it would be better for you to hear it from her.”

The plan had changed in Michael’s mind. It had flipped in an instant.

“Let me tell you something, Jacob,” Michael said. “I was just about to come in here and tell you that Estelle and me were going to do what we could to get away from here. Far, far away where nobody would find us. Not even you because you’d need to stay to watch the farm.”

Jacob’s face slowly dropped and Michael could see his heart slowly breaking. Michael could feel his own heart break as he was saying it.

“It killed me to even consider it,” Michael said, “but it was the only way for me and Estelle to be together. Now I don’t even know what to think. Now I’m thinking maybe I should just go on my own and leave the two of you to figure things out.”

“Michael…” Jacob began.

“No, Jacob. I thought you and I were brothers and I thought she was my wife. And now I hear that the two of you both betrayed me? And for what? It’s just the three of us here. You couldn’t let me in on the secret?”

Jacob shook his head. “I felt powerless, Michael. Really, I wanted to tell you.”

“Then why didn’t you?!”

Michael stood up.

“I thought we had a family,” he said. “I thought we had a home. I don’t know what this was, but it don’t matter much because I’m pretty sure I wasn’t even part of it.”

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