Widow’s Daughter Only Had $1 for Her Date—Millionaire Cowboy’s Son at Next Table Watched Her, Until…
Chapter 16
Three days later, the town council met in the courthouse. The room was packed. Harrison Montgomery sat at the front, his lawyers on either side like matched bookends. Kora sat in the back, her mother clutching her hand, her grandfather in his wheelchair beside her.
Silas stood at the front of the room.
“I am here to make a formal declaration,” he said, his voice carrying across the silent hall. “I am renouncing my claim to the Montgomery estate.”
The room erupted. Harrison Montgomery stood up, his face purple with rage. “You cannot do that!”
“I can.” Silas’s voice was calm, steady, certain. “I am eighteen years old. I am a legal adult. I choose to build my own life.”
“And how will you live? You have nothing. You know nothing about real work.”
“I know enough.” Silas looked at Kora, and his eyes were bright with a fire that had nothing to do with anger. “I know that the only thing worth having is the thing you earn yourself. I know that a man’s worth is not measured by the size of his empire, but by the quality of his character. And I know that I would rather be poor and free than rich and trapped in a cage made of gold.”
He pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “I have taken a position as a clerk at the mercantile. The pay is modest. The work is honest. And I will be building my own life, one day at a time.”
Harrison stared at him, his face a mask of fury and disbelief. “You are a fool.”
“I am free.” Silas turned to face the crowd. “And I am asking Kora Boon to be my partner in this new life.”
The room was silent. Every eye turned to Kora.
She stood up. Her mother’s hand tightened on hers, but she pulled away gently. She walked to the front of the room, past the rows of shocked faces, past Harrison Montgomery’s cold glare, and stopped in front of Silas.
“Are you sure?” she asked quietly.
“I have never been more sure of anything in my life.”
She took his hand. “Then yes.”
The crowd erupted into chaos. Harrison Montgomery was shouting, his lawyers were waving papers, the town council was banging their gavels. But Kora and Silas did not hear any of it.
They were too busy looking at each other.