Chapter 14 - The Bypass SecretRichard Parker’s land speculation became the next major problem.
Investigators established he had received preliminary planning information from a county consultant before public route announcements.
The consultant denied giving him confidential information.
Then text messages appeared.
RICHARD:
If Route C survives committee, Blake acreage is gold.
CONSULTANT:
You didn’t get that from me.
RICHARD:
Of course not.
Not proof alone.
But investigators found restaurant bills.
Game tickets.
Consulting payments.
The matter moved to county ethics officials.
Suddenly Richard’s fortune was not merely tied to school influence.
His land empire was under review too.
Mrs. Parker watched from home as everything her family had built began collapsing.
And still, in her first formal statement about Mia, she wrote:
May you like
The Bennett family has pursued a deliberate campaign of retaliation.
She still could not see herself as anything but attacked.
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