CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE – A CRAZY PLAN

No matter how much they might rail against the truth of it, the fact remained that men like Carmichael were the vanguard of an encroaching new era for the farming industry. An era of ruthless efficiency over ethics, of bottom lines prioritized over legacies and family heritage. He wasn't the kind of foe they could run off at pitchfork point. He moved through life with the calm assurance of inevitability itself, confident that reality would ultimately bend to his estimates, his graphs, his numbers. And as Scarlett examined that reality without flinching, she found it almost impossible to imagine a scenario where the Matthews Ranch endured in its current form for much longer. They could dig in their heels and fight for another season or two, but ultimately, they would go the way of a hundred other small operations before them - swallowed whole by the inexorable march of "progress." Carmichael was right - the world was changing. And Scarlett felt, in that instant, as though she alone