I waited sixty seconds, counting each tick of my pulse.

I tapped my phone screen.

The call with Alden had disconnected.

I sent him a quick text: *Meet me at the stone bridge by the south gate. Now.*

I slipped out of the carriage house through the low rear window, dropping onto the damp grass below.

The Virginia fog was thick tonight, rolling off the Blue Ridge Mountains and settling over the pastures.

I kept to the shadow of the tall oak trees, my boots sinking into the mud.

The forty-eight acres of Blackthorn Ridge felt vast and empty, yet crowded with secrets.

The highway project was the key to everything.

The state wanted to build the bypass right through our eastern ridge.

A government buyout of this scale would set Graham up for life.

It would give Celeste the social standing she had chased since marrying my father.

And they were going to freeze me out completely.

I reached the stone bridge, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps.

Headlights flickered through the trees near the main road.