Chapter 1: The Root System
There are seasons in life when we lull ourselves into believing the storms have passed. We convince ourselves that we have finally reached the soft, golden years, earned through sweat, heartbreak, and a thousand tiny, unseen decisions. I thought I was entering that hallowed season when I remarried at sixty. Instead, I walked straight into a war I didn’t know was being fought. The only reason I am still standing on my land, sipping wine I coaxed from the earth, breathing air that belongs to me, is because I guarded one truth like a sacred talisman.
The vineyard estate wasn’t “ours.” It was mine.
