My neighbor and I had been fighting over a narrow strip of land between our houses for nearly seven years.
I’m talking court dates, heated arguments, lawyers, surveyors—the whole exhausting drama.
It got to the point where the feud became part of daily life.
We’d glare when taking out the trash, exchange sarcastic smiles in the driveway, and secretly hope the other would move away first.
Then one day… it stopped.
I came home from work and noticed something strange.
The fence—the one that started this whole war—had been moved a few feet back, toward his house.
He’d given up the land. Just like that.
When I asked him why, he shrugged and said, “I’ve had a change of heart. Not worth fighting over anymore.”
And you know what? I actually believed him.
For the first time in years, I felt peace.
No more lawyer letters, no more awkward silences, no more resentment.
It was almost too quiet.
Then, one morning, I saw a construction crew digging near that same fence line.
Curious, I walked over—only to see them marking out the exact strip of land we’d fought over.
They weren’t fixing anything. They were testing the soil.
A few days later, I learned why.
The city had approved a new zoning change—his property, now slightly smaller after moving the fence, fell outside the area the government was buying for a development project.
Mine, however, was still within it.
The city offered me a buyout—five times what my home was worth.
Turns out, my neighbor hadn’t had a change of heart.
He’d had insider information.
He moved that fence not to make peace—but to make sure the government bought my land instead of his.
In the end, I didn’t even get mad.
I took the deal, sold the property, and moved away.
And as I drove past that street for the last time, I smiled.
Because while he thought he’d outsmarted me, he didn’t know one thing—
The new highway project? It was being rerouted.
Right through his backyard.
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