Chapter 5
Seeds of Doubt
Antanas confronts Jonas, his pride wounded. He recounts past failures, trying to dissuade his son from what he sees as a path to ruin, creating a rift between father and son.
The air in the farmhouse kitchen, usually thick with the scent of rye bread and drying herbs, hung heavy and still, charged with unspoken words. Antanas stood by the window, his back a solid wall of defiance, the late afternoon sun glinting off the silver in his hair. Jonas watched him, his own heart a tight knot of frustration and a gnawing dread. This was it, the confrontation he’d both dreaded and anticipated.
"You think I don't know what's best for this land?" Antanas’s voice, usually a rumbling bass, was tight, strained. He didn't turn, his gaze fixed on the parched fields stretching out before them, a landscape increasingly mirroring his own internal drought. "I've worked this soil since I was a boy, Jonas. I’ve breathed it, sweated it, bled for it."
Jonas took a step forward, his hands clenching at his sides. "Father, it's not about not knowing. It's about the world changing. The old ways… they aren't enough anymore."
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