Her tone hardened.
“You don’t need to raise your voice. Megan is trying to help. You’re a soldier, Hannah, not a landowner. She has the experience to manage this.”
I closed my eyes.
“She doesn’t want to manage it. She wants to steal it.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” Mom said flatly. “She’s thinking of the family’s future.”
There it was again, the family card, always stacked in Megan’s favor.
I ended the call before the anger boiling in my chest came out in words I couldn’t take back.
By midday, I needed air. I took a walk down the dirt road, the chill biting through my jacket. The woods were still, the kind of quiet that sharpens every sound. Half a mile down, I found fresh tire tracks cutting into the brush near the property line. Someone had driven off-road to get closer.
I crouched, tracing the ruts with my finger. Wide spacing, heavy tread, probably the same SUV. They hadn’t just stopped by. They’d been poking around.
When I got back, Jack was stacking firewood by his porch.
“You’ve got company snooping?” he asked like he already knew the answer.
“Summit Realty,” I said, dropping my hands into my pockets.
He let out a low whistle.