# She Wed the Mountain Man Sight Unseen to Flee Her Brother’s Cruelty — He Gave Her More Than Safety
Chương 2 – ## PART 2
## PART 2
Spring came late to Sable Range.
The first green shoots appeared beneath melting snow while the creek broke free from its icy edges.
By then, Tabitha had stopped waking every time the floor creaked.
She no longer hid money.
She no longer positioned herself near doors during disagreements.
And, gradually, she stopped thinking of Bram Osler as the stranger she had married.
He became simply Bram.
The man who left the larger half of a biscuit for her without mentioning it.
The man who sharpened her kitchen knives because he noticed she struggled with them.
The man who never touched her unexpectedly.
The night Clem rode away, Bram had stood beside Tabitha until the last hoofbeat disappeared.
“You didn’t need much from me,” he said.
“I needed you beside me.”
His expression had softened.
“I’ll be beside you as long as you’ll have me.”
Tabitha had taken his hand.
After that, affection entered their marriage quietly.
No declaration.
No grand romance.
One evening, Bram kissed her forehead.
Two weeks later, she kissed him first.
By April, they no longer slept separately.
And Tabitha discovered that love could arrive without taking anything from her.
Then a letter came from Gallon Forks.
It was addressed to **Mrs. Tabitha Wren** instead of Tabitha Osler.
That alone made her uneasy.
The envelope contained three pages from an attorney named Silas Crewe.
According to the letter, Clem had accumulated substantial debts against the Wren farm.
He claimed Tabitha had knowingly abandoned jointly inherited property while taking money belonging to the estate.
He further claimed her marriage to Bram had been obtained through deception.
If Tabitha did not return to Gallon Forks within fourteen days, Clem intended to petition the territorial court for damages.
Bram read the letter twice.
“This is nonsense.”
“Some of it.”
Bram looked up.
“What part isn’t?”
Tabitha sat slowly.
“My father’s will.”
“What about it?”
“He always said the farm belonged to both of us.”
“And?”
“After they died, Clem told me the court gave everything to him because he was the son.”
“Did you ever see the will?”
“No.”
Bram’s jaw tightened.
Tabitha understood immediately.
“What?”
“He’s afraid you have a claim.”
“To a ruined farm?”
“Maybe it isn’t ruined.”
Three days later, they rode down to Sable Crossing to speak with Marshal Everett Hale.
Hale was an older man with white hair and a tobacco-stained mustache.
He read the legal notice.
“Crewe is a real lawyer,” he said.
“Good one?” Bram asked.
“Depends who’s paying him.”
“Can Clem force her back?”
“No.”
Tabitha exhaled.
“But he can drag you into court over inheritance.”
“What money does he say I stole?”
“Doesn’t specify.”
“Because I stole none.”
Hale nodded.
“Then I’d advise finding your father’s original probate records.”
Those records were in Gallon Forks.
The place Tabitha had sworn never to return.
That night Bram found her sitting alone beside the fireplace.
“You don’t have to go.”
“Yes, I do.”
“I can retrieve the papers.”
“He wants me frightened enough to hide behind you.”
Bram sat opposite her.
“And?”
“I’ve hidden enough.”
They left two mornings later.
Gallon Forks looked smaller than Tabitha remembered.
The general store.
The blacksmith shop.
The church.
The house where neighbors had certainly heard Clem shouting but never intervened.
People stared when Bram and Tabitha arrived.
Some recognized her.
Word spread quickly.
The probate clerk, a nervous man named Whitaker, searched old records.
Finally he placed a dusty folder on the desk.
Inside lay the will of Matthew Wren.
Tabitha read the first paragraph.
Then the second.
Her hand began shaking.
“What?” Bram asked.
She pushed the paper toward him.
The farm had never belonged solely to Clem.
Matthew Wren had divided the property equally between his children.
Tabitha owned half.
Furthermore, her father had established a small trust containing eight hundred dollars to be divided between them.
Tabitha had never received a cent.
“He stole it,” she whispered.
Bram’s face darkened.
Whitaker cleared his throat.
“There’s more.”
Another document showed Clem had taken loans using the entire farm as collateral.
Including Tabitha’s half.
Her signature appeared on the loan papers.
Tabitha stared at it.
“That isn’t mine.”
Bram leaned over the page.
“You’re certain?”
“I know my own name.”
Clem had forged her signature.
The legal attack suddenly made sense.
If Tabitha challenged the loans, the bank could invalidate part of the debt.
Clem needed her frightened.
Or controlled.
They were leaving the courthouse when Clem appeared across the street.
He looked thinner.
More desperate.
But the hatred remained.
“You should have stayed on your mountain.”
Tabitha stopped.
Bram stood beside her but said nothing.
“What happened to Father’s money?”
Clem’s eyes flickered.
“You ate under my roof for years.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I fed you.”
“You hit me.”
People nearby slowed.
Clem glanced around.
“Keep your voice down.”
Tabitha almost laughed.
All those years he had shouted.
Now truth made him whisper.
“You forged my signature.”
“I did what was necessary.”
“For whom?”
“Our family.”
“No. For you.”
Clem stepped closer.
“You think that big mountain brute makes you important?”
Bram shifted slightly.
Tabitha touched his arm.
Not because she feared Bram would lose control.
Because this confrontation belonged to her.
“I don’t need Bram to make me important.”
Clem sneered.
“You were nothing before you married him.”
Tabitha’s old fear stirred.
But it no longer controlled her.
“I was never nothing. You simply needed me to believe I was.”
Something changed in Clem’s face.
He had lost the ability to frighten her.
That frightened him.
“You challenge those loans and the farm goes under.”
“Then it goes under.”
“It’s our father’s land!”
“You mortgaged Father’s land.”
“You’ll destroy everything.”
“No.”
Tabitha stepped closer.
“You did that.”
She turned away.
Clem grabbed her wrist.
Bram moved.
Fast.
But Tabitha moved faster.
She twisted exactly as Bram had taught her when they practiced protecting herself.
Clem’s grip broke.
Tabitha stepped back.
Dozens of people were watching.
Clem stared at his empty hand.
His sister had never resisted him before.
Bram’s voice came softly behind her.
“Touch my wife again and Marshal Hale won’t need to search for you.”
Clem walked away.
That evening, Tabitha thought they had won something.
She was wrong.
At the boarding house, a messenger delivered another envelope.
This one came from the bank.
Clem had missed three payments.
The entire Wren property would be auctioned in twelve days.
But attached to the notice was something far worse.
A statement claimed that because Tabitha had allegedly guaranteed the debt, creditors intended to pursue additional property belonging to her husband.
Including Bram’s Sable Range claim.
Tabitha read the sentence twice.
Her stomach turned cold.
She had married Bram to escape her brother.
Now Clem’s lies might cost Bram everything he owned.
And for the first time since arriving on the mountain, Tabitha wondered whether loving her had made Bram’s life harder after all.
