Chapter 29 - The Map
Samuel kept Mercer's original map framed above his desk.
Visitors often asked why.
It showed the ranch.
The spring.
The eastern pasture.
The water transfer.
And Rourke's name.
Samuel always answered the same way.
"Because I want to remember what happens when people stop seeing land as home and start seeing it only as property."
One autumn evening, Samuel noticed something written on the bottom corner.
He had never seen it before.
Three words.
WE CHOSE TO STAY.
It had been written by Red Willow's people years earlier.
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Samuel smiled.
The map that once represented greed had become a reminder of resistance.
