I wondered whether Walt meant to interfere with the final bids.

I assumed he planned to wait silently until the auction was over.

Then he would walk across the gravel to tell me I had never belonged on this dirt anyway.

He would make sure everyone in the crowd knew I had failed to protect the family name.

“I have two hundred eighty-five thousand,” Denny called out again, breaking my focus.

“Looking for ninety.”