You’ll have heavy trucks and equipment fifty feet off your dock for two full years.

The quiet you love out here will be finished.

Take the money, Edmund.

This cabin has brought your family nothing but lawyers and heartbreak for three years.

Take four million dollars and leave the bad memories behind you.”

Chapter 16 — The Anchor

The rain came down steady on the metal roof.

His pitch was polished and logical and ruthless, the familiar language of men who look at a quiet family home and see only the money it is failing to become.