2: 2
At the mention of money, the villagers' eyes lit up again.
In a heartbeat they had the yard packed solid once more.
"Ruby, honey, we all watched you grow up. Don't you go turning cold-hearted on us now."
"We treated you better than our own daughters. Don't you forget where you came from!"
Mayor Welch stepped in with a smooth smile.
"My boy studied abroad. He's an educated man. If he says you owe us money, then that's how it is."
Luther turned to the crowd.
"Folks, when I was in college overseas, image rights over there had a price on them."
"Her camera caught your faces, so she pays for it."
I was pressing down on the gash in my mother's head, but the blood kept coming.
My chest was on fire; I couldn't afford to lose another second.
"Let me get my mother to a hospital first. I'll stay behind and settle every cent with you."
My voice went cold.
"Otherwise, if anything happens to her, not one of you walks away from this."
I watched them load her into the ambulance.
Candice shot to her feet, shaking with anger.
"Do you people have any shame at all?"
She pulled out every last thing—three months of spending records, and the contract we'd signed from the start.
"Three months of labor, equipment wear, plus operating costs."
"Over five hundred thousand, all told."
"Ruby didn't just refuse to take a commission from you. She handled the travel agency herself."
"Every family that opened a country bed-and-breakfast off the tourists she brought in cleared a hundred grand, minimum."
"Did she ever ask for a dime of it?"
A few of the villagers glanced at each other and dropped their heads.
"And who exactly are you?"
Luther snapped.
"You think an outsider gets to point fingers about what happens in our town?"
"Ruby Pruitt grew up in this town. Making money for us is the least she owes."
That was all it took. The villagers straightened their spines again.
The whole crowd started shouting over each other.
"Ruby, we held you in our arms when you were little. Now you've got money, so you push your elders around?"
"Barely grown and already sucking the blood out of hardworking farmers. Watch you don't get struck down for it."
Aunt Hope dropped straight down onto the ground and started wailing.
"There's no justice in this world. You won't give back the money you stole from us."
"My four grandbabies can't even afford school anymore."
I forced myself to breathe deep, or I'd have passed out on the spot.
"Your family can't afford school again?"
I pointed at the gold rings covering her fingers and let out a cold laugh.
"There's more than a hundred grand right there. And you can't scrape together tuition?"
Aunt Hope shut her mouth instantly, guiltily looking away.
"Ruby Pruitt, quit dodging and spouting this nonsense."
Luther's face darkened.
His eyes crawled over me and Candice with something ugly in them.
He sneered.
"You don't square up the money today, the two of you stay in this town and marry off to our bachelors. People are as good as payment."
I watched a few of the drunks start to shift toward us and pulled Candice behind me.
I forced the fury back down.
"Fine. Say it. How much?"
The crowd burst out laughing, delighted, shoving screenshots on their phones up in my face.
Every one of them a profile or a back I'd caught in the frame while filming.
"Ten thousand a head. Not a cent less."
I gave Candice a quiet signal to switch on the body camera she carried.
Then, calm-faced, I wired the money over.
The crowd saw the payment alerts come through and lit up with glee.
When they saw us gather our things to leave, Luther blocked the door again.
"Hold on!"
"Who said the only ones on camera were people?"
That greedy grin spread across his face.
"Every blade of grass, every pig, dog, cow, and sheep in this town belongs to all of us."
"Those get a filming payout too. Am I right, folks?"
The crowd whipped itself back into an excited uproar.
"That's right, my old yellow dog was on camera three times!"
"And my two spotted pigs. If they didn't have those handsome faces, you think your junk video would've pulled those numbers?"
"The jujube tree by my door, the tiles on my roof... those all count as appearance fees too."
"Five thousand a head of livestock, a thousand a tree or bush. Pay up!"
Candice laughed, thin and cold.
"By that logic, you'll charge us for breathing here next?"
"Does the air belong to your families too?"
A few of the villagers looked sheepish and ducked their heads.
"A pack of ungrateful animals!"
Candice was so furious her voice broke.
"Ruby collapsed on that mountain more than once, promoting your town for you."
"Where were all of you then?"
Something twisted in my chest.
It was true. I'd had a serious fear of heights since I was a child.
But to sell the mountain bungee-jump attraction, I gritted my teeth and tested it myself.
Passing out from terror every single time.
I never expected them to be grateful. But I couldn't stomach kindness repaid with this kind of turn.
Something in me went cold all the way through, until I didn't even have the strength left to argue.
"There are countless tourism towns out there lined up begging Ruby to promote them."
"What she lost in three months here would've been enough to buy your whole town outright!"
Watching Candice and the crowd tear into each other harder and harder,
and to spare us the worse damage right in front of me, I stepped between her and the villagers closing in.
"Add it all up. I'll pay it in one lump sum."
"But starting today—"
"Every tourism project in Brook Hollow, I'm done. All of it, terminated."
