My Neighbors Dug A Two-Acre Lake On My Land While I Was Out Of State—Then Told Me Their Contractor Said It Was Theirs, And That Was The Day I Learned How Expensive Arrogance Can Be

doesn’t have to get uglier,” he said.

“It already got ugly when you dug across the fence.”

“You’re really going to make us destroy it?”

“I’m not making you do anything. The court gave you a choice.”

He looked genuinely angry then, but beneath it I saw something else. Confusion. He still did not understand why I would not negotiate. In his world, everything had a price if you found the right number. In mine, some numbers were insults because they assumed the wrong thing was for sale.

Twenty-one days