I opened the letter with shaking hands. “My dearest Riley, if you’re reading this, I was right about your sister’s greed.”

“I pray that I’m wrong, but I saw the way she looked at our home, like it was a prize,” the letter went on. “I need you to know about Adelaide, the woman who took me in when I had nothing.”

“This was her land, and she studied it her entire life,” he wrote. “She knew it held resources, but she told me to protect it until the family truly needed security and strength.”

I set the letter down as tears began to blur the words on the page. My father had trusted me because he saw something in me that Skylar never could.

I picked up one of the old photos of my father and Adelaide. In the background, I could see survey markers driven into the ground.

She’d known the truth all along. She’d left all of this to him, and now it was mine to protect.