“Stay where you are.”
Jonah stopped.
Sarah raised one hand.
“Daniel, don’t.”
“That man works for Basin Crown.”
“I know.”
Daniel looked at the rusted chest.
“What happened?”
Sarah carried it inside.
She spread the maps across the kitchen table.
Daniel kept the shotgun within reach.
Jonah remained near the doorway.
Sarah showed Daniel the underground channels.
His expression changed when he recognized their property.
“Our well sits here.”
Jonah nodded.
“And one of the old feeder springs runs beneath the western ridge.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Then why is our well drying?”
Jonah’s answer came quietly.
“Because your water isn’t disappearing.”
He looked toward the dead fields outside.
“It’s being redirected.”
Nobody spoke.
Daniel eventually asked what that meant.
Jonah explained that Basin Crown acquired land north of the valley twenty-one years earlier. Official records described reservoirs and cattle improvements. What those records did not describe were tunnels, diversion shafts, and small retaining structures built where underground springs entered Sun Hollow.
Sarah understood first.
“You’ve been taking the water.”
Jonah shook his head.
“Not all of it.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“How generous.”
Jonah did not defend himself.
“Enough to weaken the valley.”
Sarah looked toward the map.
“For what?”
Jonah met her eyes.
“To make farms fail slowly.”
The room became completely still.
Basin Crown had never needed to force anybody from Sun Hollow.
That would attract attention.
Instead, the company allowed drought to do most of the visible damage and quietly made the damage worse.
When wells dropped, farmers borrowed.
When crops failed again, loans came due.
Basin Crown offered to buy.
The purchase price looked generous only because desperate land was worth less than healthy land.
Families thanked the company for giving them a way out.
Then they left.
Daniel stared at Jonah with both hands against the table.
“You worked for them.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Seventeen years.”
Daniel struck him.
Jonah fell against the wall.
Sarah shouted Daniel’s name, but Jonah raised one hand before he could swing again.
“Let him.”
Daniel grabbed the front of Jonah’s coat.
“You helped take these farms.”
“Yes.”
“My neighbors.”
“Yes.”
“My father.”
Jonah’s face changed.
“What about your father?”
Daniel released him.
Sarah noticed immediately.
Jonah knew something.