Homeless At 22, He Found An Abandoned $20 Farm Deep In The Pines – Then Everything Changed
Chapter 6
Caleb knocked.
Ethan opened the door.
“You’re becoming difficult,” Caleb said.
“That’s what I’ve been told.”
Caleb looked past him.
“You should reconsider the offer.”
“No.”
“Seventy-five thousand.”
“No.”
“Two hundred.”
Ethan stared at him.
“You’re still calling this worthless?”
Caleb didn’t answer.
“That number tells me enough.”
Caleb stepped closer.
“You’re twenty-two.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve been homeless.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“How do you know that?”
“We do our research.”
“That sounds threatening.”
“It’s advice.”
Caleb handed him another card.
“Sell the farm.”
Ethan returned the card.
“No.”
Caleb’s voice dropped.
“You don’t know what you’re interfering with.”
“I know a company wants my land.”
“It isn’t about the land.”
Ethan remembered the hidden mine.
“What is it about?”
Caleb said nothing.
That evening, someone broke into the farmhouse.
Ethan returned from town to find the front door open.
Drawers were pulled out.
Furniture overturned.
The old journal was missing.
He froze.
Then he checked the hidden compartment.
The photographs were gone too.
Whoever had searched the house knew exactly what they wanted.
But they had missed one thing.
Ethan had photographed every page of the journal.
He immediately backed up the files online.
Then he called Emily.
“They broke in.”
“I knew they would.”
“What should I do?”
“Leave.”
Ethan looked around the farmhouse.
“No.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I do.”
He looked toward the forest.
“This is my home.”
“It was your father’s home too.”
Emily became quiet.
Then she said,
“My father once told me something.”
“What?”
“If the forest ever chooses someone new, protect the person who refuses to run.”
Ethan frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
There was a pause.
Then Emily added,
“Maybe you do.”
The next morning, Ethan noticed tire tracks leading toward the forest.
He followed them.
They ended near the hidden tunnel.
Someone had been there recently.
Inside, the old cabinet had been opened.
More disturbing was what Ethan found on the table.
A fresh set of blueprints.
Morgan Ridge planned to begin preliminary drilling within weeks.
And the drilling site sat directly above the underground chamber.
If they drilled, the tunnel would be destroyed.
So would the evidence.
Ethan took photographs.
Then he heard footsteps.
He turned.
A man stood at the end of the tunnel.
Not Caleb.
Someone older.
The man looked at Ethan.
“You shouldn’t have come down here.”
Ethan backed away.
“Who are you?”
The man smiled.
“You really don’t know?”
Ethan shook his head.
The man stepped forward.
“My name is Victor Hale.”
He paused.
“I was your father’s—”
Then he stopped himself.
“Never mind.”
Ethan frowned.
“My father?”
But Victor turned and disappeared into the darkness.
Ethan followed.
The tunnel was empty.
He had one question.
Why had Victor called James Carter his father?
