Chapter 18 - Four Hundred Acres
Tears streamed down my cheeks, soaking into the dry yellow paper of Arthur’s journal.
All those years, I had thought I was completely alone in that monstrous family. I had thought that no one saw the bruises. I had thought that Arthur, with his quiet demeanor and his distant mountain cabin, hadn't cared.
He had cared so much that he had spent his final dying months building an impenetrable legal fortress around four hundred acres of pristine mountain wilderness—saving it from Richard’s greed so that one day, when I was strong enough to stand on my own two feet, I could build a new life upon it.
“Mason,” Maya whispered, looking at the deed with wide, stunned eyes. “Do you know where this land is?”
“Where?” I asked, wiping my eyes.
“It borders the Pisgah National Forest,” she said, pointing to the boundary coordinates on the state map. “It’s the mountain ridge directly above Drew’s family cabin. It’s four hundred acres of virgin timber and natural springs. It’s worth ten million dollars on the timber market alone.”
I shook my head slowly, gripping the deed tightly against my chest.
“I’m not logging it,” I said.
“Then what are you going to do with it?” Drew asked.
I looked at the blueprints I had carried in my satchel—the sketches of the haven, the shelter, the community of hope.
May you like
“I’m going to build our sanctuary,” I smiled. “Right where the mountains can protect it.”
***