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

later, the cat pulled up at the

still busy tending to their apple orchards. A

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

ones didn't understand the

for them to get scammed and end up

Grace glanced at

around her and immediately knew they'd been streaming for a long time. But their live

walled over,

streaming caught sight of

Northbrook and Southbrook were just two ends of the sume county, th but their tone was far from friendly. "What are you doing here?

already late. Grace could see apples hanging from the under the glow of the

just a few days, and once that happened, they wouldn't be fresh

shot up from his chair. "What do you mean by that? Did you seriously drive two hours jest to humiliate

even smeared

then we'd sell them ingether. But the moment Southbrook apples got famous, you neglected us! You

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

Grace saw a rake swinging toward Mandy, the

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

people gathered, their anger