Chapter 7 - The Twenty-Five PercentElias learned he owned part of Hollow Creek from Garrett.
Sarah hated that.
It should have been her conversation.
Not his weapon.
She sat with Elias and Rachel one Saturday morning.
Rachel drew one hundred little squares.
Colored fifty blue.
“These belong to Mom.”
Twenty-five green.
“These are yours.”
Twenty-five yellow.
“Grandma June.”
Elias stared.
“I own twenty-five squares?”
“Basically.”
“Can I sell one?”
Rachel laughed.
“Not like that.”
“Can I have twenty-five goats?”
Sarah smiled.
“You already think every goat is yours.”
“That’s different.”
Then his face changed.
“Does Garrett own zero?”
Sarah nodded.
Elias looked worried.
“He hates zero.”
The adults exchanged a glance.
“What did he say?”
“He said it’s not fair.”
Rachel asked gently:
“Did he ever ask you to give him your part?”
Elias shook his head.
“Mason.”
Sarah froze.
“What about Mason?”
“He said Mason should get some.”
Garrett had a twelve-year-old son from his first marriage.
Mason lived mostly with his biological mother and visited every other weekend.
Sarah loved him.
Elias did too.
“Did Garrett say you had to give Mason some?”
“No.”
“What did he say?”
“That good brothers share.”
Sarah’s chest tightened.
A perfectly innocent lesson used in a completely inappropriate context.
Rachel asked:
“How did that make you feel?”
Elias looked down.
“Bad.”
“Why?”
“Because I like Mason.”
Sarah reached for him.
Elias continued:
“But Dad gave me the farm.”
Daniel had not exactly “given him the farm.”
He had left his twenty-five-percent interest.
To an eight-year-old, same thing.
Garrett had made the child believe keeping his inheritance meant betraying his stepbrother.
Sarah felt anger rise.
Rachel saw it.
“Stay precise.”
Sarah nodded.
That afternoon Grandma June arrived.
Seventy-two.
Sharp.
Unimpressed by everyone.
She listened to the story.
Then said:
“I told you Garrett wanted ownership.”
Sarah flinched.
“When?”
“Before you married him.”
“You said he was ambitious.”
“I was being polite.”
“Why didn’t you push harder?”
June laughed bitterly.
“Because every time I criticized him, you heard me criticizing your decision.”
Sarah looked away.
Another silence.
Another adult who saw something and chose not to make the fight bigger.
June’s twenty-five percent now mattered.
Blue Ridge needed eighty percent approval for the proposed land lease.
Sarah plus June:
Seventy-five.
They still needed five percent from Elias’s trust.
As trustee, Sarah could potentially approve if it benefited Elias.
But because Garrett would personally profit through Blue Ridge, the conflict made everything far more complicated.
Rachel said:
“He needs you.”
Sarah nodded.
“And if you won’t sign?”
Rachel looked toward Elias.
“He may have been trying to convince you that the farm is becoming unsafe, financially unstable, or unsuitable for a child beneficiary.”
Sarah remembered the sick goat.
The punishment.
Garrett’s constant comments about Elias not being responsible enough.
A frightening possibility formed.
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What if Garrett was not only angry with Elias?
What if he was building a story about him?
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