He looked at her. “Did you ever hate me?”
Judith took a slow breath.
“Tonight, when you wouldn’t look at me, I felt something close to hatred. Not for you as my son. For the choice you made in that moment.”
Jacob nodded as though he deserved nothing softer.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want forgiveness because it would make me feel better.”
That made her look at him.
He held her gaze now.
“I want to become someone who doesn’t require you to forgive the same wound twice.”
Judith’s expression trembled.
Daniel lowered his eyes, giving them privacy.
Jacob reached across the small table but stopped before touching her hand.
“May I?”
Judith looked at his open palm.
Then she placed her fingers in it.
His hand closed around hers carefully, like a child afraid of breaking something precious.
She did not pull away.
CHAPTER 3 – What the Land Remembered
The old cellar office smelled of dust, cedar, and earth.
Martin unlocked the door while Daniel followed with the investigators. Jacob stayed beside Judith, though he no longer tried to lead her or shield her from what waited inside.
The room had been sealed for years.
Samuel’s desk stood beneath a narrow window, its surface covered by a linen cloth. A row of ledgers filled the shelves. On the wall hung a faded photograph of the first vineyard harvest, with Samuel grinning beside a much younger Judith.
Jacob stopped in front of it.
“I barely remember this.”
“You were four,” Judith said. “You threw grapes at the photographer.”
A faint smile appeared on his face.
“I thought you said I was helping.”
“You were helping the birds.”
Martin knelt beside the desk and used the brass key.
