I hadn’t known about that request.

And suddenly the peeling paint and sagging porch felt like the least important things wrong with Grandpa’s farmhouse.

PART 4

The emergency filing was three pages long.

My father wanted a court order declaring me an absentee owner and temporarily giving him authority to manage, renovate, and—buried in the last paragraph—sell Walter’s land.

I read the paragraph twice as the clerk handed me a copy.

“Sell?” I said before remembering where I stood.