Zane didn't move.
Not even a blink.
But everything about him changed.
His hand flexed once at his side. His mouth went flat. The shed felt smaller than it had a second ago.
"Cascadia," he said.
"Yes."
"What does Cascadia have to do with Fletcher?"
"More than I knew this morning."
Silence pressed between us.
Outside, a sprinkler ticked somewhere down the row. A truck passed on the road beyond the gate. The ordinary world kept doing ordinary things while I stood in the wreckage of my own missing truth.
Zane's voice came out low. "Tell me."
I made myself start at the beginning.
"Monica assigned me a West Ridge packet this morning," I said. "I thought it was a normal project file. Cover memo, agenda, revised index, broker materials, all the usual things I process."
"West Ridge," he said.
"That's the project name in the folder. I didn't know it touched Beargrass. I didn't know it touched you."
His eyes stayed on mine. "Until when?"
"Until I opened the external broker summary."
His shoulders stayed loose, but his face had gone still in a way that made every word feel sharper.
I unfolded the note. "The first line said, External Contact: Fletcher McCrae, Owner/Broker, McCrae Land Brokerage."
Zane's jaw worked once.
"I checked the revised access appendix next," I said. "It named Beargrass Lake access. It named the adjacent McCrae parcel. It treated your land as a viable acquisition or easement path."
His voice dropped. "Viable."
"Yes."
"I told him no."
"I know."
Zane looked toward the south fence, though the shed wall blocked the view. "That son of a..."
He stopped before the rest of it came out.
I kept going because if I stopped, I might lose my nerve. "The land-use map showed the P-Patch as a community amenity. It wasn't colored as part of the acquisition, but the access route curled right past it. It made the garden look like proof the project cared about community while the route pressed against your land and the lake."
"Was there owner agreement language?"
"No." I held up the note with both hands because my fingers had started to shake. "That's one of the things I wrote down. No owner agreement noted."
