And she still had only six days to save the farm.
The first indication of how far he intended to go appeared the following morning.
An overnight courier delivered an envelope from a law firm representing Silver Canyon Ventures.
Inside was a notice asserting a commercial interest in the black-root harvest.
The document referred to an alleged equipment and development arrangement with Walter Ashford.
Dileia stared.
Her father had never mentioned such an agreement.
She read the notice twice.
Then saw a photocopy of a document bearing his signature.
It was dated three months after Walter died.
For several seconds, she couldn't breathe.
Then she reached for her phone.
“Get me a lawyer,” she whispered.
Because somebody had made a mistake that couldn't be explained as an ordinary misunderstanding.
A dead man had supposedly signed away rights to the crop he spent his life developing.
And whoever prepared that document apparently hadn't expected his daughter to notice the date.
The attorney Dileia contacted was a middle-aged woman who specialized in agricultural transactions, commercial disputes, and property law.
She practiced in Boise but had worked with rural farming families for years.
Her first question was simple.
“Do you have proof of your father's date of death?”
Dileia stared at the phone.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
The attorney paused.
“Do not contact the company that sent the notice directly. Forward me the document and every related record you have.”
Dileia nodded.
“I will.”
“And preserve the envelope.”
“Okay.”
The attorney continued.
“We need to establish what they're claiming, whether any filing has been made, and whether the document is authentic.”
Dileia looked toward the date again.
“He was dead.”
“I understand.”
“He couldn't have signed it.”
The attorney's voice softened.
“Then that is a significant fact.”
Dileia swallowed.
“What happens now?”
“We work through it carefully.”
She looked toward the farmyard.
The broken tractor sat inside the shed.
The foreclosure notice lay on her kitchen table.
And hundreds of acres of roots remained underground.
She felt as though every problem in her life had arrived at once.
The attorney continued.
“Miss Ashford, I need you to listen to me.”
Dileia took a breath.
“Yes?”
“Do not let the urgency of the mortgage deadline push you into an agreement you don't understand.”
Dileia closed her eyes.
“Everybody keeps telling me that.”
The attorney smiled faintly through the phone.
“Then you have several people giving you good advice.”
Dileia laughed despite herself.
They arranged an emergency meeting.
By noon, the attorney had reviewed the documents.
The alleged commercial agreement contained a signature resembling Walter's, but the execution date occurred long after his death.