Harvest of Ambition: A CEO's Odyssey novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Deed

My father climbed the steel stair one step at a time, with his hat in his hands.

He stopped at the top of the loft, afraid of the floor.

"Say that again," I said.

"I signed the farm over to Jarrett." His voice shook. "All hundred and forty acres. The house, the barn and the east field."

"Why?"

"He said the fund needed it." Bert wet his lips. "He said Brightwater's lawyers wanted collateral in one name, to keep the money coming. A formality, he said. He'd hold the deed, and when you finally came home and could stand on your own, he'd hand it back."

"Dad."

"Delaney said it was the only way to keep from losing everything. She cried."

I sat down on the cot, because my knees would not hold.

The east field.

My mother was buried at the edge of the east field, under the oak she had planted the year I was born.

"Did anyone read it with you?" I asked.

"Dale was at the table." My father looked at his boots. "Neither of us read it. We trusted him."

"Because of the money."

"Because of the money."

I took out my phone and unlocked it.

I opened my bank app and held the screen out to him.

"Read it."

"Mason, I don't..."

"Read it, Dad."

He took the phone in both big hands.

His lips moved over the numbers.

I watched him find the date from the first month, the one when he had called me crying about the combine.

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