II.
THE STORY
Years later, in Texas, John meets Kika Garcia-Cid, the daughter of Brazilian rancher. Their love grows quickly, but when Kika’s father challenges John to see the world she came from, he realizes that if he’s going to truly understand her — and himself — he has to follow that call. That path leads him deep into the Amazon.
In Brazil, John discovers a frontier as wild and mythic as anything in the American West. At FAZENDA ESPERANÇA, the remote ranch they begin to build together, he finds a purpose — not just in land and labor, but in love. But paradise is short-lived. Corruption, greed and land theft swirl around them like smoke. John pleads for help from the government, the international environmental community and NGOs, but his calls go unanswered. He realizes the so-called protectors of the forest depend on the problem so that they can sell the solution. They don’t just need the chaos. They thrive on it.
As their home and community come under threat, John is pulled toward violence. Trained for war, he prepares to return to it — to kill those destroying the land. But Kika’s love, quiet and unwavering, becomes the line he cannot cross. In the jungle, at the edge of his soul, he comes face to face with evil and turns back — not because he is weak, but because he remembers who he is.
John and Kika choose a different fight, one rooted in stewardship, integrity and truth. They begin training Indigenous firefighters, rallying neighboring ranchers, and challenging the corrupt system with real solutions. But doing the right thing only makes them more dangerous to the powers that be. An embargo is placed. Neighbors begin to take their own lives. John’s family is targeted. His marriage cracks under the pressure. When his plane is sabotaged, he is stranded in the jungle for three days — alone, reflecting, unraveling.
He returns to Texas broken, only to find his brother, Will, dying of cancer. John confesses his guilt — for the war, for the land, for all he’s lost. But in his brother’s final words, he finds the absolution he’s long sought: you didn’t fail — you stayed human.
Will is buried under the same oak trees where John and Kika were married. And it is there, at that grave, that John finally sees clearly: the land was never the real fight. Love is. Family is. Kika is.
He returns to Brazil not to conquer it, but to belong to it — and to them.