Chapter 1 - The Feather in the Mud
The morning air was cold,
biting at my skin through the thin fabric of my sweater.
I stood beneath the old mesquite tree,
where the shadows were still long and jagged.
The ground was damp with dew,
and the silence of the ranch felt heavy,
as if the earth itself was mourning.
I knelt in the dirt,
my fingers digging into the soil,
searching for anything that was left of him.
I found three white feathers,
pristine and soft,
clinging to a patch of mud near the roots.
They were the only evidence that Barnaby had ever existed,
the only remnants of the creature who had loved me unconditionally.
I tucked them into my pocket,
my heart feeling like a cold stone in my chest.
The laughter from the dining room still echoed in my ears,
a cruel,
tinny sound that wouldn't stop.
I thought about Travis’s hand on my neck,
the pressure of his fingers,
the way he looked at me like I was a piece of livestock.
I thought about Evelyn’s smile,
sharp and predatory,
as she served that plate of meat.
They thought they had won,
they thought they had finally broken the girl from the orphanage.
But as I stood up,
wiping the mud from my knees,
I felt a strange sense of clarity.
My phone vibrated in my hand,
the screen lighting up the darkness.
It was Mr. Henderson,
my lawyer.
His voice was low and urgent when I answered.
"Samantha,
you need to listen to me very carefully,"
he said.
"We found something in your grandmother’s original trust."
"The property transfer Travis wants you to sign on Friday..."
"It isn't just for the land."
"It’s a waiver of your right to investigate his father’s past."
"And there’s more."
"The blood tests we ran on you last week?"
"They came back,
Samantha."
"You aren't just exhausted."
"You’ve been being micro-dosed with arsenic for months."
The world tilted on its axis,
and for a moment,
I had to lean against the tree to keep from falling.
Arsenic.
The tea Evelyn made for me every night.
The "vitamins" Travis insisted I take to help with my "nerves."
They weren't just trying to steal my ranch;
they were trying to kill me.
I looked back at the house,
the windows glowing with a warm,
deceptive light.
Inside that house were four monsters,
waiting for the sun to rise so they could finish their work.
I reached into my pocket and touched the feathers.
They wanted to watch me break,
but they were about to find out that I was made of steel.
I wasn't the orphan they took in;
I was the granddaughter of the woman who built this empire.
And I was going to take it all back.
Line by line,
May you like
penny by penny,
and soul by soul.
