The words burned into me. I wasn’t just sitting on a pile of rocks. I was sitting on a mission. And unlike Megan, I didn’t need a penthouse to feel powerful. I had something better: proof that my father believed in me more than anyone else.
As the fire died down and the cabin went quiet, I looked out the window toward the dark lake. My family thought they’d thrown me away. They had no idea I was just getting started.
The next morning, the crunch of tires on gravel pulled me out of sleep. I pulled on a jacket and stepped onto the porch. A black SUV sat idling at the end of the drive. Two men in business-casual slacks, windbreakers, and clipboards stood near the cabin, scanning the trees like they were surveying the land.
“Can I help you?” I called, my voice sharper than I intended.
One of them smiled too quickly.
“Morning, ma’am. We’re from Summit Realty Partners. Just checking out some property lines.”
Summit Realty Partners. Megan’s company.
My jaw tightened.
“This property belongs to me. You got permission from who exactly?”
The man shifted his weight.
“We were told by your sister it was a family holding, just preliminary inspection, nothing formal.”
I crossed my arms.
“Then you can preliminarily get off my land before I call the sheriff.”
They exchanged a glance, then nodded, retreating toward the SUV without another word. The engine revved, and within seconds, they were gone, leaving behind a churn of dust and the confirmation of what I already suspected. Megan wasn’t wasting time.
I went back inside and slammed the door harder than I meant to. My pulse hammered in my ears. She had sent people here to my cabin as if I were just a placeholder until she could move in her pawns.
I grabbed my phone and dialed.
Mom. She answered on the second ring.
“Hannah,” she said, cautious.
“Mom, did you know Megan sent realtors to my cabin this morning?”
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 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.
“That’s Megan’s bunch, right?”
“Yeah. She sent them here like she owns the place.”
