before going.
And now that he was gone, work at the farm only accumulated. There was too much to do and not enough time in a single day. Kianna was working late into the night, until her body gave in, and she practically fainted in the field.
Her mother tried doing the same, but there was only so much her body could take. She usually ended up breaking down a couple of hours earlier.
Giles was working more than ever too, but the poor man was even older than Ophelia. And even Catherine, who liked to come visit to escape her own chores, now tried to help as much as she could.
But none of them had the strength and stamina Devon had.
Without him, Kianna was sure the crop would either wither, or rot before they could harvest all of it.
Almost a week after Devon was gone, Kianna forced herself to stop working before she fainted. She dragged her feet to the barn, where she washed her face and hands.
Then, she took in a long breath and looked up at the starry sky.
Her mind ran away from her and went back to the one topic that she shouldn’t.
Devon.
If he knew he had money, he certainly remembered more about his life. Maybe he knew all of it. Maybe he lied to them and wanted to stay for a reason. But why? Why lie to them? Why stay behind when it seemed he had a pretty comfortable life somewhere else?
It didn’t make sense.
Kianna had pushed him away and told him to stay back only out of anger. It was fear. She didn’t know him. He could be playing with them all, only to hurt them at the end.
Her stomach revolved at the thought.
Pain shot through her core. She was hungry. She hadn’t eaten since morning. After another long sigh, Kianna entered the dark manor. The kids were certainly in bed, and hopefully her mother was too.
She reached the kitchen and grabbed a piece of dried bread. With Kianna and her mother working all the time, the kids were left to fend for themselves. Selina was the one manning the kitchen—or the simple things she could cook by herself. Calvin tried helping, but he was too clumsy, and too agitated to help, which only made Selina more anxious. Calvin was supposed to stay away from the kitchen while Selina was cooking.
Kianna felt guilty. Calvin had lost his playing partner. The kids weren’t studying because Kianna was always busy. Their mother was aging by the day and soon would collapse for real.
There had to be something Kianna could do to relieve their situation.
Munching on the bread, Kianna went to her bedroom and closed the door gently, so as not to wake up the others.
With a heavy heart, she opened the first drawer of her dresser and picked up the ring she had left inside a small box. When she found out Devon had been lying to her and her family, she took off the ring and threw it in the drawer. That ring had meant so much to her, but now she knew it had been lies. All the feelings and moments attached to that ring had been lies.
And because of that, she would sell it in the village tomorrow.
Devon
For days, Devon beat himself up. He racked his mind, trying to think of another solution he should have used instead of paying the man, but other than showing his powers, he couldn’t think of anything.
But now he had been expelled from the farm. Sent away. Cast out.
And it hurt like hell.
Though Kianna had told him to stay away from her and her family, Devon couldn’t do that. It was his mission to protect her. To protect the world from her.
He stayed in the shadows. He watched as Kianna, Ophelia, Giles, and even Catherine worked themselves to death. It killed him to see them like that and not be able to help. He knew he had done more for the farm than all of them together. After all, when they weren’t looking, he used his superior strength and agility to work the field.
Now it was all wasting away, because they couldn’t care for the crops by themselves.
It took every ounce of his self-control not to interfere, not to sneak in there in the middle of the night and work the field for them. Several times, he had almost done it, but he stopped himself, because he knew Kianna would figure out what was happening and she wouldn’t stay quiet.