Facade of Love

Chapter 167 The Mine Disaster

I really did not want to dig into the Youngs‘ secret dramas, so I left it at that. Honestly, their issues were none of my business. I just happened to walk into the middle of it all today.

As I turned to leave, Mr. Zachary called out, “Mrs. Young…” I paused and looked back at him.

He let out a weary sigh, glanced around, and suggested, “Let’s go downstairs to talk about this.”

Together, we took the elevator down.

Down in the hospital’s chill–out zone, Mr. Zachary snagged a quiet corner and let out a weary sigh. Back in the ‘80s, things weren’t as tight policy–wise, and our economy was just gaining momentum. Old Man Young started out with nothing but his carpentry skills and turned that into some serious seed money. He got to know folks from all walks of life, set up a lumber mill, and when that started raking in the dough, he launched a bunch of decorating businesses. Before you knew it, he was popping up branches in cities all over the southeast. The bigger the company got, the fatter his wallet grew. With cash to burn, he got the idea to snap up land and mountains all over the place. Back then, if you had the money, you could get your hands on idle mountains for miles, especially around Lake City.”

Mr. Zachary had a lot to say, and I was not quite sure where he was going with it, so I just stayed quiet

and listened.

Lake City’s got mountains galore that are chock–full of mines. Buying them up back then was like hitting a gold mine–literally. Old Man Young bought up just about every hill and dale around Lake City and mined them to the hilt. Those mines ballooned the Youngs‘ fortune like you would not believe. But you know how it is- people always want more. Ten years back, those mountains were pretty much tapped out, and the government was clamping down on private mining. Still, the old man was dead set on one last payday. But

and call it quits, one of the mountains

in school, that story was everywhere. Even before the internet took over our lives, it seemed like everyone knew about it.

his voice. “That disaster was huge. It was not just Lake City talking, but

deal at the time, but it was just a landslide, right? Most folks

about the Mayan calendar, a lot of people just chalked it up to that. It did not seem

something more that we did

Zachary nodded, his face growing serious. “A whole mountain came down, and it was riddled with

hitting me. Forget the villages in the mountains, what

Mr. Zachary, “How many died in the mines when

brows and eyes that started to redden, Mr. Zachary said softly,