Semua Bab The Heir : Bab 11 - Bab 20

Six months after Tata Pedro’s death and Kael’s fall, the northern highlands woke to the first rain of the new year. Sheets of water washed over the hillsides, turning the soil dark and rich, feeding the hundreds of saplings that now dotted the landscape of Pedro’s Grove. Bella stood at the edge of the community orchard, her boots sinking into the wet earth as she checked each young tree. She’d planted the first one—a gala apple sapling grown from a seed Tata Pedro had tucked into her hand the week before he died—right beside the cracked stone marker that now served as the site’s heart. The marker had been carefully repaired, the crack filled with silver that caught the light like a river of stars. “Still checking on your babies?” Bella turned to see Riley walking toward her, holding a thermos of hot chocolate and a stack of folders. Her sister had lost weight in the months since the tragedy, the lines around her eyes deeper, but there was a steady fire in her gaze that hadn’t bee

The capital city shimmered in the heat of late summer, its glass towers reflecting a sky bleached white by the sun. Riley stood at the window of Green City’s new headquarters—a modest three-story building in a neighborhood that had once been industrial but was slowly being reclaimed by artists and community organizers. It was a far cry from the gleaming corporate towers across the river, and that was exactly how she wanted it.“The board is expecting you in fifteen minutes,” Elena said, appearing in the doorway with a tablet in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. “And Riley—I should warn you. There’s been a development.”Riley turned from the window. “What kind of development?”“The kind that walks in with a Harvard MBA and a consulting firm’s budget.” Elena’s expression was tight. “The international expansion committee has brought in an outside advisor. They say it’s to help us scale efficiently. I think it’s to clip your wings.”The name landed like a stone in still water: Ad

Kyle arrived at Pedro's Grove on a Thursday morning, just as the mist was burning off the hillsides and the first workers were heading out to the fields. Riley had offered to meet him at the bus stop at the bottom of the valley, but he'd insisted on walking up himself—wanted to see the land the way her grandfather had seen it, he'd said, one step at a time.She found him at the stone marker, standing very still, his head bowed. He'd taken her advice about the boots—worn leather, scuffed at the toes—and a simple flannel shirt that made him look less like a CEO and more like someone who belonged here. In his hands, he held a small bundle of wildflowers, the kind that grew along the roadside, humble and stubborn and beautiful."He must have been something," Kyle said quietly when he heard her approach. "To have this much faith in the world. To keep believing, even when everyone told him to stop."Riley came to stand beside him, looking at the marker her grandfather had placed so many yea

The morning after Kyle arrived, the valley woke to a sky scrubbed clean by the previous day's rain. Sunlight poured over the hills like honey, turning every drop of water on every leaf into a small, glittering star. Riley stood at the window of the guest house—Kyle's guest house, she corrected herself, though she'd spent most of the night there, curled against his side, talking until the first light of dawn.She'd told him things she'd never told anyone. About the night Tata Pedro died, how she'd held his hand and felt the life leave his body. About the guilt she carried—that she hadn't been there sooner, that she'd been in the capital chasing funding while Kael's men were making their final plans. About the dreams she still had, sometimes, where her grandfather stood at the edge of the orchard and smiled at her, but when she tried to reach him, the ground turned to water and she sank.Kyle had listened. Not the way people usually listened—waiting for their turn to speak, formulating

The days blurred together like watercolors in the rain. Riley had stopped sleeping properly—four hours here, a nap there, her mind too full of documents and strategies and the faces of everyone depending on her. The kitchen at the community center had become her war room, its walls plastered with printouts of emails, financial records, and handwritten notes.Vivian proved to be an unlikely ally. She worked alongside Elena with a quiet intensity, her expensive clothes swapped for borrowed sweaters and muddy boots. She didn't complain about the cold or the简陋 food or the way some villagers still crossed themselves when she walked by. She just worked."Here," Vivian said one afternoon, sliding a folder across the table. "This is the link between Blackridge and a shipping company in Panama. Salinger uses them to move equipment without customs inspections."Riley opened the folder, scanning the documents. "How did you get this?""My brother kept a second set of books. Physically, in a safe