The daughter looked up.
"That's what he did to me."
The attorney nodded.
"That may be relevant."
They continued reading.
A later entry described another meeting.
The buyer offered to purchase the southern parcel for a modest amount.
The father refused.
Then the businessman mentioned the possibility of a county drainage project crossing the property.
The father asked whether the project had been publicly approved.
The buyer said it was only a preliminary idea.
A third entry contained a more troubling note.
Buyer appears aware of industrial expansion plans not reflected in public proposal. Obtain independent title and drainage review before discussing sale.
The daughter stared.
Her father had suspected the connection for years.
But he hadn't been able to prove what the businessman wanted.
Then the attorney found a separate folder.
It contained a draft agreement from an industrial development company.
The document requested permanent drainage and maintenance rights across portions of the pond property.
The proposed rights were broader than the easement discussed in the public planning materials.
The daughter read the language slowly.
The agreement might allow substantial alterations to the drainage route.
And those alterations could interfere with the water-management system that made commercial fish production possible.
She felt her pulse quicken.
"Could they ruin the ponds again?"
The maintenance specialist looked toward the document.
"Changes to drainage can affect pond systems, but we'd need a qualified engineering and legal review to determine the actual impact."
The daughter nodded.
The attorney continued examining the papers.
Then she found a letter from the father.
It was addressed to the neighboring industrial property owner.
He requested documents concerning the drainage system and asked whether recent runoff changes had been evaluated before expansion.
The letter was dated shortly after the fish losses began.
There was a reply.
The industrial operator denied that its activities caused the pond problems and referred him to general environmental compliance information.
The father wrote another letter.
Then another.
Eventually, he obtained an independent technical assessment identifying possible pathways by which runoff changes could affect the ponds.
The report didn't prove that the industrial operation caused every fish death.
But it identified enough concerns to warrant further investigation.
The father had preserved the correspondence.
The daughter looked toward the attorney.
"Why didn't he tell me?"
The older woman sighed.
"He may have tried."
The daughter thought back.
The phone calls.
The arguments.
The times he mentioned drainage problems while she begged him to stop spending money.
She remembered dismissing his theories as another attempt to justify keeping the ponds.
For a moment, shame overwhelmed her.
She looked down.
The attorney noticed.
"Sweetheart."
The daughter shook her head.
"I didn't listen."
The older woman reached for her hand.
"You didn't have all the information."