“Well, you could buy out the other owner, assuming they agree to sell.”
It was my turn to sigh. “I don’t have the money for that. I paid a fortune for my divorce. I don’t even know how I’d pay for all this authentication you’re talking about.”
“We can argue that the other party needs to prove the letter’s authenticity,” he said carefully.
I would still have to pay him for that, though. My heart sank a little lower.
“You don’t have to decide anything right now,” he continued, “but I don’t want to give you false hope. I don’t know why Walt wouldn’t have mentioned this letter to me, especially if it was signed the same day as his will. That makes me suspect it’s fake, but if it isn’t, then this is the reality we’re facing.”
“Selling.”
“Selling. It would save everyone a lot of time and money if you could both agree to sell and split the profit.”
My thoughts started spiraling, my chest tightening until it felt hard to breathe. I’d just come out of a legal battle I never wanted, and now I was staring down another one. I didn’t have it in me to do this again. And more than that, if the letter was real, the property would likely end up being sold. I would rather let Grant have the cabin than see it go to someone Walt had never known.
Besides, it was his home. He didn’t seem to be sentimental about anything except that old cabin.
I swallowed. “If the letter turns out to be real, I’ll withdraw my claim to the property.”
There was a long pause on the line. “I don’t think you understand,” he said finally. “You have a claim to at least half the property. It doesn’t make sense to walk away.”
I shook my head, even though he couldn’t see me. “I don’t want to fight over it. If the letter is real, then Walt wanted Grant to have it. So let him have it.”
“Kara, listen—”
I hung up and took a deep breath, squeezing the phone hard enough that it dug into my palms.
I needed that fresh start like I needed my next breath.
I wasn’t going to find one here. I’d left the city to escape the memories of my ex, both good and bad. Now everything about Iron Peak would remind me of Grant. Of what could have been but wasn’t.
I had to leave this place behind.
Chapter Eighteen
Grant
My phone rang in my pocket Monday morning while I was staring at the wall. I yanked it out, hoping it was Kara. The name on the screen readHank. I swore under my breath and answered anyway.
“Did you find her?”
“Well, hello to you too,” he said with a chuckle.
If I could have strangled him through the phone, I would have. “Just tell me.”
“I ran into your girl at the Ridge Diner,” he said.
“Diner? What was she doing?”
“Ordering a large coffee to go. Said she had a long drive ahead of her. I talked her into sitting down and telling me what was going on. She said the date on the letter and the will are the same.”
“So she’s leaving? That makes no sense. Half this place is hers.”
“Well, that’s the problem. The lawyer said one of you would have to buy the other out or sell the place.”
“We can’t sell it,” I barked.
“I’m not finished,” Hank said. “She said the idea was so awful that she planned to renounce her claim and let you have the place. Better for you to have it than for it to be sold.”
