He Sold My Mother's Farm, So I Got Engaged to His Best Friend novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Hayes

Hayes's POV

Nobody in that country club clapped for me, and I didn't expect them to.

I walked off the little stage and left the key on the podium beside Mary Ellen's plaque.

Lainey didn't pick it up.

She stood in the middle of the room with those fake pearls hanging out of her fist.

She looked at me.

Boone was standing three feet from her.

He'd told the whole county he was in love with her, and I'd sat at the back and let him.

I went out the side door to the parking lot.

My mother was already standing by my truck.

She was seventy-four, and she'd driven herself, because she didn't trust anybody else to.

"You will not," she said.

"I already have, Mama. You heard me."

"Your great-grandfather built that company on that water," she said. "Your daddy fought the Ashcrafts for it until the day he died."

"Daddy fought Mary Ellen for it," I said. "Mary Ellen won."

"That spring house is on every bottle we sell, Hayes. That label is this family."

"Then the family can draw a picture of something it doesn't own," I said. "We've done it since 1931."

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