PART2:

“I should have defended you.”
“You were trying to belong to that family.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“No,” I said gently.
“But you’re here telling me now.”
She looked across the pasture before asking why I had never told Nathan’s family about my investments.
“I didn’t see a reason to,” I said.
“They knew how I worked and how I treated you.”
“That should have been enough.”
Emily reached for my hand.
“They thought you were powerless because you worked with your hands.”
I looked across the fields my father had once struggled to keep.
“There’s nothing powerless about honest work, sweetheart.”
Beyond the fence, the cattle were moving slowly toward the barn.
“The mistake they made was believing money could protect them from the truth.”