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As the letters piled up, I sped towards a breaking point. I couldn’t bear to open them any longer.
After a while, Beth stopped giving them to me personally. She left them on the dining table with other letters. One afternoon, while eating, a letter with the Kane Development Corp insignia caught my eye.
I’d had enough. Without giving it a second thought, I snatched the envelope and tore it in half. Then into quarters. The feeling was cathartic.
After pouring the waste into the nearest bin, I dusted my hands, not minding the wide eyes of the ranch workers around me. I took a deep breath. No matter how many letters Richard sent, I wasn’t going to let him, or anyone, bulldoze me or Harrington Ranch.
*******
The sun hung high in the sky. The resulting heat made my shirt stick to my back.
But I needed to focus on my present task, which was repairing one of the old fence lines. It had cut out in places, leaving gaps big enough for the sheep to wander through.
Dragging out a fence post from the truck, I heaved it into position. Securing the post in the ground was a challenge. Its weight threatened to pull me down.
Recalling how Max had quickly repaired the barn’s roof during the storm, I sighed.
“Why did I refuse Max’s help again?” I said aloud. “He can handle this fence with twice the efficiency.”
Right now, in the intense heat, there seemed to be no reasonable justification for asking him not to help.
I started hammering the post into place. Before long, my grip on the mallet slackened and it glanced off the post. The momentum made me lose my balance. I hit the barbed wire line and cried out, bouncing off the fence. That was when I noticed I was teetering on the edge of a concealed sinkhole.
The bright sky, the rusted fence, and the green expanse of the ranch spun around me. Panic plunged into my heart as I tumbled forward. For a moment, I felt weightless.
Then strong arms wrapped around me, and Ethan pulled me back to solid ground.
“You okay, Anna?” he asked, his voice filled with worry.
Dazed, I nodded.
But he was staring at the cuts on my arms and neck from the barbed wire fencing.
“No, you’re not,” he said.
He held my shoulders and took me to the ranch house. Jake joined him while Beth rushed towards us.
“Oh honey, what happened?” she asked.
She guided me to the couch and then started fussing over my minor injuries. She fetched a first aid kit with which she tended my wounds.
“I’ll get Dr. Miller,” Ethan declared and left the living room.
My fingers shook, my mind racing. The terror of what happened was still very real. There was no way I could keep saying no to Max’s help or I’d be in worse trouble pretty soon.
I turned to Jake, who stood awkwardly by the door.
“Jake, can you let Max know what happened?”
He nodded and left swiftly.
I sank deeper into the couch, still shaken by the event that almost turned into a fatal accident.
After cleaning up my injuries, Beth went into the kitchen. The warm scent of cocoa wafted to my nostrils. Before long, she set a steaming mug of hot chocolate in front of me. The aroma was a balm to my frazzled nerves.
I curled my fingers around the warm mug. I inhaled deeply, breathing in the scent of the rich chocolate with a hint of vanilla. Lifting the cup to my lips, I hoped the warm liquid would provide comfort.
In that instant, the roar of a car engine broke through the quietness of the ranch. Tires screeched, coming to an abrupt halt outside.
