My fingers shook so hard I thought I might drop it.
Two million dollars.
I stared at the number like it was written in another language.
Silas held his own check with the same stunned expression.
“Nolan,” Grandpa said quietly, “in two days, I’m transferring the rest of the farm to you and Silas.”
My breath caught. The remaining land—millions more.
Silas swallowed hard. “Dad… I never wanted it to come to this.”
“I know,” Grandpa said. “But I’ve watched them for years. Today was the final straw. I know who has a good heart. I know who I can trust.”
I couldn’t speak. The gratitude was too big, too tangled with grief.
That night, lying in Grandpa’s guest bedroom with Ivy asleep beside me and Hazel curled like a warm comma between us, I stared at the ceiling and tried to understand how my entire life had pivoted in one evening.
Not just because of the money.
Because someone had finally said out loud what I had carried silently for twelve years: I had sacrificed, and it mattered.
Ivy’s voice came softly in the dark. “I still can’t believe this is real.”
“Me neither,” I whispered. “But we have to use it wisely. We can’t let it change who we are.”