Page 46 of Tyler's Rule
I wanted to reach for her. I kept still.
“It was a good thing they did that. They learned from their mistakes,” Dixie said.
I had to be so careful. There was such a gap in my mind. Between the girl who’d been in my shoes and the woman sitting in front of me. She’d been hurt, I couldn’t guess to what extent or how many times. Our grandparents might have been part of that.
Dixie took a breath, breaking the spell of the terrible moment. “I know you have a lot of questions for me, and it didn’t sit right to be hiding away when I could be helping you. I know it’s too little, too late, but I can try, even if I’m not the big sister you deserve.”
“Of course you are. I’m scared of asking too much. I have a million questions.”
“Gimme your top three.”
My top three. Probably the hardest. My cheeks heated.
“You’ve seen the articles? Do you know what happened on theEden?” At her nod, I continued. “I just need… Did he know?”
My beloved grandfather. The gentle, kind, and warm-hearted man who’d hugged me and taught me all I knew. I’d admired him so much, but every twist and reveal since his death had painted him in worse and worse light.
Dixie’s eyes lined with tears, and my heart twisted.
“I can’t say for sure,” she said, “but my guess is that he did. He had friends who used women, and Tyler mentioned that you were hunting a man named Rhys Jacobs. That piece of shit was a teenager selling schoolgirls for sex. I wasn’t allowed in the meetings, but I once asked him what he did. He boasted about it and said something gross about my body. It wasn’t until years later I understood the implication of him being regularly in our grandfather’s office.”
My mouth popped open, dry as dust. “Jacobs was selling girls, even then? Wait, to Grandpa?”
It made sense to what Esther had said, with Jacobs soliciting her for a virginity auction only a few years on. It felt like so long ago that I’d heard that.
Dixie spread her hands. “Or to his friends. I can’t be sure. Bear in mind I left there when I was fourteen. I had barely eighteen months of exposure, and many of my memories are clouded. Let’s just say I left a far less happy girl than I’d arrived.”
The picture in my head adapted. Not into clarity, but to something I couldn’t look away from. Dixie had pieces of the puzzle that when mapped onto mine, formed a picture I couldn’t deny. But also, that she’d suffered something in the space of that year which had changed the trajectory of her life.
She’d known the same warmth of our grandfather’s love, and she’d run from it. Something had gone badly wrong for her, and under his care.
Heartsick, I tore my gaze away, searching the boxes around us. Anything to occupy my mind. One contained a lamp, fluffy fringing to the top. Surely it couldn’t be Tyler’s.
I gestured with my head. “Are these yours?”
Dixie followed my gaze and gave a startled laugh. “That, I haven’t even processed.” She stood and rounded the sofa to the nearest box, pulling out a vase then a book. She stared at them like she’d never seen them before then hefted the book. A Marilyn Monroe biography. “I don’t know whether to hug him or throw this at him.” Her voice wobbled.
A startled giggle fell from my lips. “I find with the skeleton crew men, both are effective.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of, sis.”
My heart clung to that half-word.Sis.
Dixie wrinkled her nose. “Are Lovelyn and Cassie mad at me? I want to talk to them, too, but I treated them so badly. Just like I did you.”
“You didn’t. And no one’s angry. Only concerned. We were actually just talking about you when you came back. All of us wishing we’d done more or been different.”
I stood, my breathing uneven to the point where I was almost dizzy, my questions scrambled.
“Do you want to say hi to them? I can bring them up, one at a time. We can get that out of the way then talk more. I can order food. Stop me if I’m racing ahead.”
Dixie’s smile, when it formed, was so pretty. “I’d like that. It’ll give me a second to gather my thoughts.”
I knew exactly how she felt. I excused myself and went to the door, slipping out to the hall. In a corner of brick and iron, Convict spoke quietly and in earnest with Tyler, the intercept lead breaking off to check with me that Dixie was okay before they fell back into conversation.
A quick text brought Lovelyn and Cassie up in the lift. They had to have been waiting. Just as I had, so desperately. There had been a ticking clock in my head for the vote on the future of Marchant Haulage. It had infected my every thought, worsening when I discovered I had a sister. Now I was only sad for how the mess had affected her.
I’d protect her from it. In any way I could.
