From Ruin, A Family's Rebirth

ony Springs. I stood in the center of Warehouse Four, breathing in the clean, slightly damp air. Rows of leafy greens stacked twenty feet high glowed under the soft purple hu

ate streets of the town that raised me. I saw these abandoned warehouses, relics of a dead industry, and I saw a future. I leased them for almost nothing, poured my life savi

ebration

de. It was a chorus of shouts, growing louder, closer. I walked toward the massive rolling door of the wareh

had gathered. Not just a few people, but maybe half the town. They stood

the front, his arms crossed over his chest, a smug, righteous look on his face. Next to him, shifting his weight

door roll shut behind me. The noise

llionaire!" someone

on Chad. "Chad

re the guest of honor." He took a step forward, his voice loud enough

roared in

ds were clenched into fists at my sides. "I created jobs. Everyone wor

mean the low-wage jobs where you work us to the bone

hat' s no

ten trucks a day. Ten! Each one loaded with that fancy lettuce of his. They sell it for twenty dollars a bo

g costs, the loans I' d taken, the constant reinvestment in technology and rese

a month!" s

"He pays us a pittance and pays the town a lease tha

ugly and venomous. I tried

easonable. "The profits are nowhere near that. I have to pay for elect

re not stupid, Ethan! We know how much money you have. We know you came

ed sour. "You think you' re better than us because you went to the city

dropping. The anger was rising in me now, hot a

or a fraction of their value. You got our labor for cheap. Now it' s time yo

entment and greed. The dream I had, the vision of a revitalized Harmo