“Deadly serious. I hired an attorney. If Logan marries you, or lives with you—or any O’Donnell, for that matter—his mother’s land will be sold to a local builder who wants to build condos on it. He’s been offering to buy my land for years.”
“You would do that to your son?” I was shocked. My voice was the level of a whisper. “You would do that to Logan?”
For the second time, some deep emotion flickered in Drake’s eyes. Maybe regret? Maybe guilt? “Yes. Because I can’t have my son married to an O’Donnell. You think that sounds petty? Vengeful? It’s not. Hamiltons have long-standing grievances against your family, and my land will not be in your hands. Your family has lost my family our land rights and water rights, and your family has taken me and mine to court plenty of times. I will not have you or your family owning, or living on, my land.”
“But it isn’t your land. It was Laina’s. Our family never had problems with Laina or with her parents or grandparents.”
“You may not have had problems with Laina, but you have with us, the Hamiltons, and as the owner of this land now, it’snot gonna be yours, or his, if he marries or partners up with the likes of you.”
“But Laina would want it to go to Logan. He loves this land, Drake. He remembers his mother here. They made memories here that Logan treasures. He would not want condos built on this land.”
“I don’t care. I won’t have you on it, Bellini. Ever.”
“I am not Logan’s wife. We’re eighteen. We’re going to college.”
He looked me up and down as if I were vermin, and yet, there was a weird light in his eyes, something I didn’t trust. “Logan is serious about you. I get it. You and your mother have something…compelling about you. But neither one of you is worth marrying. I know what he’s thinking, and I am telling you, girl, back off. Go to college. Break this relationship off so my son is not pining for you, although I think he’ll meet plenty of classy, sexy women right away, and he’ll forget about you. End of September, you won’t be in his thoughts at all.”
I felt a lightning bolt of pain hit my chest. I knew that could happen… I was scared it would. But I still encouraged him to go to that university because of the opportunity and the scholarship money it gave to him.
“Do not ruin my son. I will not have him marrying one of your kind. And don’t believe I wouldn’t sell this land, girl. I will, and Logan will lose it forever. He’ll know why, too. I’ll be honest with him. I’ll tell him that he can have you or the land. Not both. Even if he chooses you, it’ll grate on him for the rest of his life, seeing condominiums, maybe a golf course. He’ll feel the loss forever. It’ll kill him knowing he won’t have his mother’s land, the land her parents and grandparents owned, his legacy. Eventually, one way or another, he’ll regret the decision he made to be with you over the land. You’ll lose.”
He’ll regret the decision he made to be with you over the land.
Those words tore through my soul and thrashed it. I could hardly breathe. Was it true? Could it be?
Logan stopped the tractor and climbed out. He ran over to me and Drake, a worried, intense expression on his face. He did not want me alone with his father, that was for sure.
My heart contracted. I loved Logan. More than my own life, I loved him. I wanted him to be happy. I wanted what he wanted—I wanted him to be the most incredible person he could be—that’s why I’d helped him with his application to the college out East. And I wanted him to have his mother’s land. Laina would want him to have it, too.
“Hey,” Logan said, looking back and forth from me to his dad. He was suspicious, the anger he always felt for his father simmering. “Everything okay?”
“Everything is great, son.” His father clapped him on the back and smiled. “Isn’t that right, Bellini?”
“Yes, everything is fine.”
Logan’s eyes narrowed. He knew something was up. “What did you say, Dad?”
“I told Bellini I hope she enjoys college.”
I was suffocating. Drowning.
The land or me. That was the final equation.
I broke up with Logan a few days before we left for college—me for the university south of us with two of my cousins and many of our friends, and him for the East Coast.
With Drake’s words echoing in my head like a pinball machine that caused endless pain, I asked Logan to meet me at the top of what we called The Hill. We met there often to talk and laugh and…well, kiss and other things. The Hill has a panoramic view of the town, the Rocky and Swan Mountains, sunsets andsunrises, valleys and meadows, and trees that run on forever. We can also see Logan’s land from there, which reminded me why I was doing what I was doing.
I was working at the bar and he at the hardware store, so we met at about seven thirty.
“Hey, babe,” he called out when he arrived.
I tried not to start crying, but it was pointless.
“What is it?” He ran toward me, wrapping his arms around me. “Bellini, tell me. Are you hurt? What’s wrong?”
I shook my head as he held me, then I stepped away.
He tried to hug me again, but I put up my hands. Oh, how Ihatedhis father.
