Billionaire Buys a Failing Farm in Secret, Then the Farmer’s Daughter Refuses His Only Offer
Chapter 2
Adrian Vale had not become a billionaire by making impulsive decisions.
Every acquisition was researched.
Every investment was modeled.
Every risk was calculated.
But Carter Valley Farm wasn’t an ordinary investment.
He sat in the back of his SUV studying an old aerial photograph.
The farm had been photographed fifteen years earlier.
The land looked completely different then.
Green.
Wet.
Healthy.
A river curved around the western edge.
Adrian zoomed in.
The river had disappeared from newer satellite images.
Not because it dried up.
Because someone had redirected it.
He looked at the consultant sitting across from him.
“Who changed the irrigation channel?”
“We’re still investigating.”
“Who owns the water rights?”
The consultant hesitated.
“That’s complicated.”
Adrian hated that word.
“Everything is complicated when somebody is hiding something.”
The consultant handed him a folder.
“The original water rights were registered to Carter Valley Farm.”
Adrian looked at the map.
“Were?”
“They were transferred eleven years ago.”
“To whom?”
A company name appeared.
Blue Ridge Agricultural Holdings.
Adrian recognized it.
One of the shell companies used by a rival developer.
“Who owns Blue Ridge?”
“Officially, nobody.”
“Unofficially?”
“We don’t know.”
Adrian closed the folder.
That was why he had bought the Morrison farm.
It bordered Carter Valley.
If he controlled the neighboring land, he could protect access to the underground aquifer and the old river channel.
But there was another reason.
His mother had grown up on Carter Valley Farm.
Adrian had spent the first eight years of his life there before his parents divorced.
His father had taken him away.
His mother stayed.
They lost contact.
She died before Adrian found his way back.
He had never told Henry Carter.
He had never told Emily.
He didn’t know whether they knew who he was.
And he wasn’t ready to tell them.
Not yet.
The next morning, Adrian returned.
This time he came alone.
Emily was repairing a fence.
She looked at him.
“You again.”
“Yes.”
“Persistent.”
“Careful.”
“About what?”
He looked at the broken fence.
“You’re standing on unstable ground.”
Emily frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means your fence is about to fall.”
She looked down.
The post shifted.
She jumped back.
The fence collapsed.
Adrian caught the top rail before it hit her.
Emily stared at him.
“I had that.”
“I noticed.”
She took the rail.
“Why are you really here?”
Adrian looked across the fields.
“Because someone is trying to buy this farm for the wrong reasons.”
Emily paused.
“Who?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
“Then why buy Morrison’s place?”
“To stop them.”
She stared.
“You’re saying you bought an entire farm just to block someone?”
“Yes.”
“That makes no financial sense.”
“It does to me.”
Emily studied him.
“You’re hiding something.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
“Everyone hides something.”
She looked away.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
He handed her a different document.
This one was an agricultural feasibility report.
It showed that Carter Valley was sitting above an unusually valuable underground water reserve.
Emily read the numbers.
Her eyes widened.
“We don’t have a water reserve.”
“You do.”
“Then why is the farm dying?”
“Because the water isn’t reaching your fields.”
She looked at him.
“Why?”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Someone diverted it.”
Emily’s mind raced.
The failed crops.
The shrinking creek.
The irrigation problems.
The sudden interest from developers.
It suddenly made sense.
“Who?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Then what do you want from me?”
“Access to the farm’s historical records.”
She crossed her arms.
“That’s private.”
“I know.”
“And you think I’ll give them to you?”
“No.”
She smiled.
“Good.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Then I’ll ask again.”
She laughed.
“You’re not used to being refused.”
“Not often.”
“Get used to it.”
He smiled.
“I might enjoy it.”
Emily shook her head.
“You’re strange.”
“So I’ve been told.”
He walked away.
Emily watched him go.
She didn’t trust him.
But she couldn’t ignore what he’d shown her.
For the first time in years, someone was saying the farm might not be dying.
Someone might be killing it.
