Those words burned into my mind. I wasn’t just sitting on a pile of valuable minerals. I was sitting on a mission.

I wasn’t going to be the discarded daughter anymore. I was going to be the one who held the line.

The next morning, I heard the sound of tires on the gravel driveway. I stepped onto the porch and saw a black SUV idling near the trees.

Two men in business-casual clothes stood near the fence with clipboards. They were scanning the tree line as if appraising the land.

“Can I help you with something?” I shouted. One of them looked up and gave me a fake smile.

“We’re from Gold Coast Realty,” he said. “Just checking some property lines for a client.”