Chapter 15: Auntie Ingrid

Joel's POV

My sister came to the dock office at ten that night, alone, and she knocked.

She had never knocked on any door in her life.

I had the lamp on and the blinds half open, so the night shift could see me through the window if they looked up from the forklifts.

Several of them did.

"Come in," I said.

Ingrid stepped inside in her long coat and stood on the worn carpet our father had laid in 1998.

"You've kept it the same."

"It's an office, Ingrid."

"It smells like him."

"That's diesel."

She almost smiled.

"Where's the girl?"

"In the back, asleep, with her daughter on the couch. Keep your voice down."

Her eyes went to the closed door, then came back.

"I'm not here to fight," she said.

"You're always here to fight."

"I'm here to make you an offer, because you're my brother and I'm tired."

She took off her gloves one finger at a time.

"Sign your forty percent into a voting trust under my name. Just the vote, not the shares. You keep your pay and your dock."

"And?"

"And the guarantee goes away. Page forty-one, the lawsuit, all of it. Leah can keep her baby and her sister's cat."

"And what does she do?"

"Goes home. Tobin takes her back. I'll even pay for the counselor."

"Tobin voted no in front of your whole staff."

"He'll vote how I tell him by Monday. Everyone does, once the farm is on the courthouse steps."

I kept my face still.

It took everything I had.

"You want me to sell her for a vote."

"I want you to stop being stupid about a woman you've known for ten days."

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