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

were still busy tending to their apple orchards. A few high school students who were home for the

30 and had no clue about the livestreaming industry, Only a handful of young

ones didn't

was easy for them to

Grace glanced at

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

walled

streaming caught sight of

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

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

in just a few days, and once that

face flushed red angrily, and he shot up from his chair. "What do you mean by

even smeared

then, we all agreed that Southbrook apples would be promoted first, then we'd sell them ingether. But the moment Southbrook apples got famous, you neglected us! You

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

Grace saw a rake swinging toward Mandy, the instinctively

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

inter people gathered, their anger