AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They’re coming to take my land! And there’s nothing anyone can do about it, Rosie!”
CHAPTER17
Eli
“Miss Katherine, you need to calm down,” Connor tells the elderly woman again, and I scowl at him.
When in the history of the world has telling a woman to “calm down” ever had that effect?I want to bark at him. But I hold my tongue, knowing that my true frustration is not with Connor at all.
I reread the notice in my hand yet again, shaking my head in disbelief.
Katherine hobbles across the porch, predictably made angrier by his suggestion. “I will not calm down, young man!”
“Will you at least sit down?” I offer. “You’re not doing anyone any good by pacing around.”
“How long until Rosie gets back?” she demands.
I look at my watch again. It has been over an hour since I called Hudson. He promised to be on his way immediately.
“They’ll be here soon, I’m sure,” I say, hoping that’s true. “But getting worked up won’t help our cause.”
“I don’t understand how they can just come in here and take the land!” Katherine screeches, and I rub the space between my eyes.
“They’re claiming eminent domain,” I explain again, but I don’t think she understands, or she’s just too upset to hear me. I’m not entirely sure I understand it, either.
“I don’t know what that means! This land is all I have. I’ve done everything in my power to hold on to it. Jake is flipping in his grave right now! Eli, I…”
She purses her lips and looks at Connor, who stares out into the horizon, not noticing our shared glance.
“I’ve done everything I can to protect this property,” Katherine breathes again, and I push myself off the railing to help her into a rocker on the fermenting veranda.
“They’re full of shit,” Connor announces. “Pardon my French, Miss Katherine, but that’s exactly what they are. They’re just trying to scare us off now, resorting to scare tactics. We should have dealt with this nonsense already. We put this off too long.”
Katherine’s jaw twitches as she looks at me, then at Connor. “Explain it again to me,” she urges. “What is this domain business?”
I inhale as Connor scoffs. “It’s bullshit!” he grumbles indignantly.
“It means…” I inhale, holding up my hand to calm my friend down now. “That in the case that the government needs the land for public purposes, they can buy the land they need from the people who reside on it.”
“Who decides this?” Katherine moans. “I never had any say in this!”
“No one decided it,” Connor says with far too much confidence, and I wish he wouldn’t give Katherine any false hope. “It’s decided in a court. There are hearings and petitions. It’s not something that just happens overnight.”
But if MVP sent official letters to that effect, we’re all in big trouble.
The sound of a car’s tires pulling up the gravel driveway turns us toward the front, and Katherine is on her feet to hurry down the steps.
I nod at Connor to go after her, and he rushes to her side as the truck stops by the garbage pile. Rose is out of the truck first, Hudson on her heels.
The women embrace.
“Don’t worry, Gran,” Rose tells Katherine firmly. “We’re going to sort this out. Right, guys?”
She looks at us for solidarity, but I can’t offer it to her, not yet.
“I’m going to talk to some of the neighbors and see if they’ve gotten anything like this,” Hudson suggests.
I nod, exhaling. “That’s a good idea. I’ll come with you.”
