Chapter 10 - MasonMason visited Elias after three weeks apart.
The boys sat on the porch.
Awkward.
Adults had turned their relationship into a financial argument neither understood.
Finally Mason said:
“My dad says your mom is trying to take everything.”
Elias looked confused.
“My mom already owns more.”
Mason frowned.
“Dad says he built it.”
“He didn’t build the old barn.”
“I know.”
“My dad helped too.”
“Your dad’s dead.”
Elias’s face changed.
Mason immediately regretted it.
“I didn’t mean—”
“You always say that.”
“What?”
“Stuff about my dad.”
“Dad says—”
“Garrett says.”
Mason became quiet.
Elias looked at him.
“Do you want my farm?”
Mason looked horrified.
“What?”
“Garrett said brothers share.”
“I don’t want your farm.”
“He said it’s unfair.”
Mason stared toward the pasture.
“He tells me something else.”
“What?”
“That your mom would never love me like you.”
Elias’s anger disappeared.
“What?”
“He says that’s why I need something permanent from Hollow Creek.”
Both boys sat silently.
Garrett had been telling each child a different version of the same story.
To Elias:
Keeping your inheritance is selfish.
To Mason:
Without ownership, you will never really belong.
He had turned property into proof of love.
Sarah overheard enough from the kitchen to understand.
Later she called Mason’s mother, Laura.
They had never been close.
Laura sounded exhausted.
“Garrett’s been obsessed with Hollow Creek for two years.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You wouldn’t have listened.”
Everyone had an answer like that.
Sarah hated how often it was true.
Laura added:
“He tried something similar during our marriage.”
Sarah froze.
“What?”
“Not a farm.”
A family-owned auto shop.
Laura’s father owned it.
Garrett pushed for equity.
When they refused, he called the family controlling.
The marriage collapsed for many reasons.
But ownership had been one.
Sarah whispered:
“Why didn’t this come up?”
Laura answered:
“Because when you started dating him, he asked me not to poison Mason’s relationship with his new family.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Reasonable words.
May you like
Again.
Garrett survived because every demand came dressed as fairness.
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