Primrose tipped up her chin. “Emilia, you can wait outside. I will talk to Darcy in private.”
Mila didn’t budge. Only reached for my hand.
“Tyler. Where is he?” I asked again.
Primrose’s silvered eyebrows crinkled. “Tyler?”
God, that wasn’t faked. Was it?
“My boyfriend. He’s missing, and you said you wanted to talk to me about something I needed. You have him.”
“I do not.”
Wild emotion tore through me. “Don’t play games with me. I can’t bear it.”
“When have you ever known me to gameplay? I said I don’t have this person and I do not. I do, however, have a granddaughter returned after so many years. Child, let me look at you.”
She rose and crossed the pale bedroom rug. A few steps from us, her foot caught on a crease. She stumbled. Instinctively, I reached for her.
Primrose steadied herself on my arm. Soft hands. Lined skin. “Thank you. My legs are not what they once were. Now, Darcy.”
I withdrew from her too-familiar touch. “It’s Dixie.”
“A stripper name. You will not use that here.”
Discomfort gave way to anger. “I’ll call myself what I want. After everything you put me through, you don’t get a say.”
Mila bit out, “You don’t control her anymore. How can you stand there and talk like that after everything you did?”
Primrose turned a short smile on Mila but ignored her words. “I must admit, I have longed to see the woman you became. I saw so much of myself in you. I did not expect you to be so degraded.”
She meant my job. Fuck her.
“I don’t have to hear this, hun. If you don’t have news on Tyler, I’m leaving.”
Turning, I stalked to the door and threw it wide, Mila with me.
At the end of the hall, Wallace lingered. Had he been listening? A thump sounded deeper in the house, and he jerked then disappeared into the shadows.
I stared after him, but my gaze caught on the large pictures that lined the walls. Ones I’d tried to forget about and hadn’t noticed on entry. A much younger Primrose, naked, and spread over furniture. Not entirely pornographic but not art either.
Behind us, Primrose called out. “You should hear me out. I mean to make you a proposal.”
I whirled around. “What could you possibly have to offer me? This family used me up and spat me out. I was hurt. Right here in this house. All you did was throw me away.”
The words should never have left my mouth, but they were out and ringing through the empty corridor.
Primrose moved to the doorframe, her steps slow but purposeful. There was no shock on her face. She knew. She. Knew.
It was the only thing that could’ve held me to the spot.
“If you’d stayed, worse could have befallen you. Austin did not respect anyone who slept around, and you would’ve been considered a fallen woman. I saw your path and I changed it. Don’t you understand?”
Slept around? “I never did that. You believed Denise and threw me out.”
“I made a choice and gained you freedom. Denise had already been in his ear about how you were wearing revealing clothes and using your body to gain male attention in his offices. He was worried that we’d made a mistake with you. I had to find another way to keep you in the manner we’d raised you to.”
No. I couldn’t believe it.
