There was silence, then a sigh.
“She just wants to make sure everything’s in order. She thinks maybe
the land could be developed.”
“Developed?” I snapped. “She doesn’t own it. Dad left it to me. What part of that do you two not understand?”
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
