Regret Came Too Late

Grace sat in

the

car and carefully cleaned the wound on her knee with a portable disinfectant spray. It would take two hours to get to Northcock. She didn't have time to

wait for it to heal Mandy handed her a bottle of mineral water, her voice filled with grievance. "Grace, don't be sad. 11 I hear anyone talking bad about you. I'll set the record straight when I get back to the

office.

Grace pre he wound another spritz and chuckled. "It doem't matter. People have mouths, and they'll say whatever they want. Let them."

Mandy hesitated, then finally spoke up. "Actually, I have a friend in your department. No one there really likes you. But back then, you and Yancey got along pretty well. That was a few Tears ago, though. After t A few years ago? That must have been betone Alice returned to the Lambert family

from the moment she came back, everything changed.

"Grace, you and Yancey are engaged. It's not like he didn't like you before. How did things get to this point? Are

you really never going back? Prople in your department told me that you're willing to endure anything just to win him back."

Grace rubbed her temples. Warthere ever a time when she and Vancey were close?

She didn't remember anything from before her memory loss, but the bitterness that surfaced whenever she saw Yancey on the Lambert family that couldn't be fake. Maybe she really had cated once. But now, n Seving her stay ment, Mandy quickly shut up as well

pulled up at

it was late, the local farmers were still busy tending to their apple orchards. A few high

had no clue about the livestreaming industry, Only a handful of young people were uying

ones didn't

easy for them to get

Grace glanced at

knew they'd been streaming for a long time. But

walled over, but

sight of her and instantly became

Northbrook and Southbrook were just two ends of the sume county, th but their tone was far

apples hanging from the

many areas. These apples would start falling to the ground in just a few days, and once that happened, they wouldn't be fresh anymore. Southbrook had project leaders over Grace turned to

red angrily, and he shot up from his chair. "What do you mean by that? Did you seriously drive two hours jest to humiliate us? You

even smeared

sell them ingether. But the

had known that the relationship between the two regions" farmers was strained, but she hadn't realized just how bad it had gotten. Before she could say anything, the nearby farmers, who had been busy Gare only had two people with her. Mandy and the driver, both terrified, instinctively moved to shield

swinging toward Mandy,

her back with a dull thad Pain shot through her, and the let out a

and inter people gathered, their anger