CHAPTER I – THE RETURN TO THE RANCH
CHAPTER I – THE RETURN TO THE RANCH
Ethan stood in the middle of the abandoned ranch, the letter still shaking in his hands. The desert wind slipped through broken windows and rotting wood, carrying echoes of a past that refused to stay buried.
Everything his grandmother Elena Carter had owned now belonged to him and Lily. But the inheritance was not what mattered. What mattered was the name written again and again in the letter: Victor Hale.
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Lily sat inside the house, holding one of the surviving chickens close to her chest. She did not understand the weight of what had changed, only that her brother was no longer the same boy who had arrived here.
That night, Ethan made a decision. Survival was no longer enough. He would rebuild the ranch, protect his sister, and prepare for whatever—or whoever—came next.
