say to me, she’d get a better response by talking into the wind, because Tiffany Lewis was officially dead to me. I no longer had a sister. In fact, I never had one—I had a dictator who wore my face.
And that’s exactly what it was now…my face.
I finished going through the upstairs, grabbing whatever I wanted to keep and tossing it into boxes. I hadn’t come with much, but I sure as hell would be leaving with plenty. Especially after she told me that I wouldn’t get paid for the time I’d been here. Plus, some of the clothes were my size, so I figured I might as well take what I could—the more valuable, the better. That way, I could at least recoup something.
By the time Ty snuck into the bedroom, I was on the floor with my back against the bed. There were boxes everywhere, making it appear that I wasn’t ready for Dave to pick me up soon. He would be here any minute now, but I was too busy staring at the blinking cursor in the message box of my text conversation with Jacoby to bother with organizing anything.
Not to mention, Dave knew me well enough to expect to walk into chaos.
“How are you holding up?” Ty slid down the wall to sit across from me on the floor. Honestly, I didn’t think I had ever seen him so laid-back and casual. Instead of his signature GQ suit, he was in regular slacks and a plain white polo.
I locked the phone screen and glanced up at him, giving him as much of my attention as I could muster. After being caught leaving the hospital with Jacoby, I had to tell Ty everything. It was the only way to get ahead of the situation—plus, it wasn’t like I could keep it from him any longer. He wasn’t happy that I had lied to him about it, but at least he didn’t seem to hold it against me. If anything, it seemed to make us closer. I wasn’t sure if he felt sorry for me or had officially picked sides and chosen me, but whatever it was, he acted very understanding of my situation.
“I’ve been better.”
He pointed to the phone in my hands and asked, “Have you heard from him?”
“Nope.” It had been two days since I’d left his place, and I hadn’t heard a word from him since. “The last thing he said to me was that we needed to cool it until we know if it’ll all blow over or not. As long as his past isn’t brought back up, we’ll be okay.”
Ty pulled in a deep breath and held it for a moment before slowly letting it go. The entire time, he held my stare with sympathetic eyes. It made my stomach knot and my chest restrict painfully.
“What aren’t you telling me, Ty?”
“N-nothing. I was just wondering what it is that he doesn’t want to get out.”
I shrugged and fought against the tears that burned the backs of my eyes. “I have no idea. I’ve asked him, but he refuses to tell me. Back when I first realized that I had a thing for him, I had Dave do a criminal search on him, but that came back clean. I honestly don’t know what’s so bad that he’s this scared of it getting out.”
He briefly sucked his teeth while doing something on his phone. “Have you, by chance, been online today to see what’s being said about you—well, your sister?”
“No. To be honest, she pissed me off so badly today that I haven’t been able to think straight. I’ve pretty much boxed everything up to keep myself busy so that I didn’t go next door and grovel for his forgiveness. Why?”
“Well, a few things about Jacoby that have come out.”
I stared intently at him, as if trying to read his mind—or force him to spit it out.
“There are a few articles, so I’ve had to piece some of it together, but from what I gather, his dad was a televangelist.”
I shook my head quickly to stop him before he continued. “I don’t know what that is.”
“You know those church sermons on TV? Not like from your local church, but the big ones. Usually very loud and enthusiastic, sometimes they heal people.” He paused for my response, and once I nodded, he continued. “Okay, so that’s what his dad did. Apparently, he was a big deal, worth a ton of money—I think one report had his