I would keep every acre. Every deed would stay in my name, and Lake View would pay for the right to use it, not own it. A sixty-year contract with review every decade, guaranteed annual income, full control.
I called Thomas.
“I have a proposal,” I said, “but I need you to tell me if it’s legally possible.”
He listened. He asked questions. Then he was quiet for almost a full minute.
“It’s possible,” he said at last. “And it’s exactly what your grandfather would have done.”
Then his tone changed.
“But Clare, I need to ask you something. Not as your lawyer, but as someone who knew your grandfather his whole life. Are you sure you don’t want to sell and walk away? Start clean somewhere else? Nine million would give you a lifetime without worry.”
I looked through the window. The lake was dark. The stars were starting to come out.
“My grandfather had thirty-seven years to sell and leave,” I said. “He never did.”
Thomas was quiet for a moment.
“All right,” he said softly. “Let’s build the lease.”
The meeting was at Thomas’s office on a Wednesday morning. It had rained all night, and the air smelled like washed earth and pine needles. I drove the road that ran along the lake, and for the first time, I didn’t look at that landscape like a lost woman who had ended up there because she had nowhere else to go.
I looked at it like the owner.
Scott Kesler brought a team this time—his attorney, a financial analyst, and a man I didn’t recognize, older, with completely white hair and a suit that cost more than everything I had in my two suitcases. He was the investment director of Mercer Capital. The big money.
Thomas and I sat on one side of the table. They sat on the other. Four against two. But I had something they didn’t.
I had the land.
“Thank you for coming,” I said. “I’ll be direct. I’m not selling.”
“You refused an offer of 9.4 million,” Scott said. “We can renegotiate the price.”
“It’s not about the price. The land is not for sale. Not a single lot. Not a single acre. Not at any price.”
“Then why are we here?”
“Because I have an alternative proposal.”
I passed the pages across the table.
“Long-term lease. Sixty years, with a review clause every decade. Lake View receives the right to use all seven parcels. I retain full ownership of the land.”
Thomas walked them through the terms. The white-haired man read every page without expression. When he finally looked up, his face hadn’t changed.
“This is highly unusual,” he said.
“My grandfather was an unusual man.”
“Investors prefer outright acquisition.”
“A lease creates complexity,” Scott added.
“Complexity for you,” I said, “security for me.”
The white-haired man steepled his fingers.
“You understand that if you refuse to sell and we don’t accept the lease, the project simply moves to another location.”
“With all due respect,” I said, “you have forty-eight million dollars invested in land on the west and south shores that only has value if the project is here. You’re not going anywhere else. You can’t. Everyone at this table knows it.”
He looked at me for a long moment. Then he did something I didn’t expect.
He laughed. A short, contained, genuine laugh.
“Your grandfather knew how to pick his heirs.”
At that exact moment, the office door opened.
Everyone turned.