Chapter 7 - The Discovery
When they returned home, they found the front door ajar. Someone had broken in. The living room was trashed, the few keepsakes Rebecca had left were scattered on the floor, and the locket Toby had been protecting was gone.
"Who would do this?" Toby screamed, his face red with rage.
"It was the town," Caleb growled. "They didn't like being challenged today."
Eliza knelt among the ruins of the parlor. She didn't cry. She felt a cold, sharp clarity. They were tired of being victims. She looked at Toby, who was clutching the empty box.
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"They didn't just take the locket, Toby," Eliza said, pointing to the wall where the wallpaper had been ripped away. "They were looking for something else. Something they think I have."
She reached behind the loose floorboard she had found earlier and pulled out a small leather pouch. Inside weren't treasures, but a set of deeds to the ranch—the legal papers that showed the land belonged to the Boon family, not the town’s land-holding company.
