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“Was it the STM grant?” Wren asked.

“No. It wasn’t them.”

The entire room went silent as all the women took it in. This was terrible news. I pulled up the picture and showed them the buyer. Mollie got her phone out immediately and looked them up.

“Oh God, it’s a developer.”

“You found them?”

“Yes. They’re not a massive footprint, but they’re trying to be.”

“Fuck,” I said.

“Hang on.” She looked at the deed. “One of the good things is that this isn’t zoned for commercial, nor is it zoned for multiple single-family homes.”

“So, can they do anything with it?” I asked.

Mollie’s lips pressed together. “They could rezone. Considering their website, they definitely will try.”

“Their website?” Piper asked. “Does it say what they usually build?”

“Yes.” Mollie said it quietly. “They build data centers.”

I sucked in a breath. “There’s a spring on that land. The biggest and cleanest one in the area.”

“Wait, what?” Mollie asked. “There’s a spring in Strawberry Springs?”

“Yes. Would a data center use that?”

“A data center would use it until they destroyed it.”

Tears gathered in my eyes, and I looked at the picture I’d taken again, begging for any additional information. “Do you know anything else about the developer?”

“They don’t have much on their website.” She frowned. “Let me see if my dad can tell me anything.” She typed out a message.

“We have to stop this,” I said.

Strawberry Springs was a mixed bag of people, but we all agreed that we cared about this town, and we didn’t want it to turn into something it wasn’t. Even when the library was redone, and we opened the doors to nearly anyone in the neighboring towns, we still wanted Strawberry Springs to stay what it was.

“Dammit, Hugh,” Wren said with a shake of her head.

“He didn’t have control over who bought it,” Grace said. “Honestly, he was probably surprised it sold.”

The idea of losing that land broke me. I’d spent my childhood there. So many of my best moments with Gabriel were there. And now, I had moments with his daughters there too.

“We’ll figure this out,” Wren said. “I’m sure once the town hears about this, we’ll find a way to stop it.”

“Can we, without the grant?” I asked.

“Why wouldn’t we use the grant?” Wren asked.

“They own a lot of the town,” I said. “The apartments and the library are under their name. What’s their plan with all of that?”

“I . . . I don’t know,” Wren said. “I never thought about it like that.”

“Obviously,” I said, “We need to look into this more than I need to find out who’s behind the STM grant, but I still don’t feel great about not knowing who it is.”

“We can do our best without it,” Piper said.