Chapter 6
“Then don’t come back until you can stand in this kitchen as a person instead of the man who can fix everything with a phone call.”
He left.
The next morning Ethan extended Cole Building Services’ contract sixty days.
His assistant stared at the document.
“You’re extending it?”
“Eleven employees didn’t file that report.”
He signed.
And then, because Hannah had asked him not to decide for her, he did the hardest thing he knew how to do.
Nothing.
He didn’t call.
He didn’t send money.
He didn’t appear at her door.
For three weeks Hannah struggled.
Then Walter Fletcher offered her a position at his jewelry shop.
He had watched her repair the music box.
“You’ve got good hands.”
Hannah almost cried.
Then Walter asked the standard employment question.
“Anything currently open involving the courts or child welfare?”
Hannah could have lied.
Instead she said, “Yes. An investigation. The report isn’t true, but it’s open.”
Walter removed his glasses.
“Then I can’t put you on payroll until it’s closed.”
Hannah nodded.
“I understand.”
That night she sat on the kitchen floor.
Two envelopes rested on the table.
Rent.
Daycare.
She could pay one.
At 11:51 p.m., headlights crossed the window.
Someone knocked.
Hannah opened the door cautiously.
Marlene Price stood on the porch.
The older cleaner was crying.
“Hannah, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Marlene stepped inside.
Then she told her.
For almost a year, Marlene had occasionally brought her six-year-old grandson to work during emergency overnight shifts.
She hid him in a break room with blankets and cartoons.
“When Raymond saw the Christmas footage, he called me,” she said. “Asked whose baby it was.”
“You told him.”
“I was afraid he’d start reviewing old footage and find Caleb.”
Hannah’s face fell.
Marlene began crying harder.
“But Hannah, I told him you were inside that office. I told him you checked Ellie constantly.”
She handed Hannah her phone.
A message from Raymond appeared on the screen.
Keep quiet about what you told me and I won’t review your past violations.
Hannah read it twice.
“He knew.”
Marlene nodded.
“He knew Ellie wasn’t abandoned.”
“Why did you keep this?”
“Because I was ashamed.”
Hannah reached across the table.
Marlene gripped her hand.
“What do we do?”
For the first time since Christmas Eve, Hannah felt something stronger than fear.
May you like
She looked at the message.
“Tomorrow we tell the truth.”
