Chương 12
“Yes.”
“It also doesn’t make what you did okay.”
“No.”
“I’m still mad.”
“You should be.”
“I might be mad tomorrow.”
“I expect you will.”
“Maybe longer.”
Diane nodded.
“I can live with that.”
Hannah considered her.
“Don’t make me forgive you because you said sorry.”
“I won’t.”
That answer seemed to surprise her.
It surprised me too.
The doorbell rang.
Every adult in the kitchen froze.
Hannah’s chair scraped backward.
I was already moving before I knew I had stood.
Noah went pale.
Diane whispered, “Mark.”
Grandma pointed at all of us.
“Nobody open anything until we look.”
I went to the living room window but stayed to the side of the curtain.
A dark SUV sat at the curb.
Mark stood on the porch in jeans and a gray polo shirt, one hand raised toward the bell.
I had met him twice before.
He had the compact, careful posture of someone who worked at a desk but wished people would assume he did something outdoors.
“It’s Mark.”
The entire room exhaled.
Grandma unlocked the door.
Mark stepped inside and immediately looked at Noah.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
He crossed the room and hugged his son.
Noah tolerated the hug for a moment, then hugged him back.
Mark’s eyes moved over the rest of us.
He stopped on Diane.
“What happened?”
“Not here.”
“I drove forty minutes because you said there was a safety issue.”
“There is.”
“So tell me.”
Noah stepped between them before the old machinery could start.
“Dad.”
Mark stopped.
Noah took a breath.
“Hannah might not be safe at her house.”
Mark’s expression changed.
Not toward Hannah.
Toward the windows.
“Why?”
“We don’t know everything yet.”
“Is someone threatening her?”
“Maybe.”
Diane stood.
“I was contacted by her biological mother.”
Mark stared at her.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
His face emptied.
“Three weeks.”
“Mark.”
“You had contact with someone in an active foster case for three weeks and told nobody?”
“I made a mistake.”
He laughed without humor.
“That is not a mistake, Diane.”
Noah closed his eyes.
I saw the moment he disappeared emotionally from the room.
His parents did not.
“Enough,” I said.
Mark looked at me.
“This is not helping either child.”
His jaw tightened.
Then his eyes moved to Noah.
He stopped.
“Okay.”
The word cost him something.
He put one hand on his son’s shoulder.
“Okay.”
Noah looked at him.
“I want to stay until they know where Hannah’s going.”
Mark glanced at me.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
He nearly reacted to the uncertainty.
Then he looked at Noah again.
“Fine.”
Diane’s head lifted.
“You’re letting him stay?”
“For now.”
“With me?”
“No.”
The old conflict flashed alive again.
Mark caught himself.
“With everyone.”
Diane looked away.
I pretended not to understand the distinction.
My phone rang before anyone could make the room worse.
Marisol.
I answered.
“We have an emergency approval path,” she said.
I looked at Grandma.
“For here?”
“For your grandmother’s house, yes.”
Grandma sat straighter.
“What do we need?”
Marisol heard her.
“A worker is coming to do an expedited safety assessment.”
“When?”
“She’s already on the way.”
Grandma looked horrified.
“Now?”
“Yes.”
Grandma stood immediately.
“My guest bathroom is full of reunion decorations.”
I covered the phone.
“Grandma.”
“What?”
“She said safety assessment, not House Beautiful.”
“There are six inflatable flamingos in the bathtub.”
Hannah stared at her.
“Why?”
“They were fifty percent off.”
For the first time since Marisol’s earlier call, Hannah laughed hard enough to make noise.
It came out unexpectedly and startled her.
Everybody looked at her.
She stopped.
Then Noah started laughing too.
Mark looked confused.
Diane sat down and covered her mouth.
Even I laughed.
It lasted maybe fifteen seconds.
Then my phone chimed with a second message.
Marisol’s voice became serious again.
“There is one more thing.”
The laughter disappeared.
“What?”
“We confirmed that Trent checked in with his supervising officer four days ago.”
I gripped the phone.
“Where?”
“In this county.”
Hannah heard me repeat it.
Her face lost all color.
Marisol continued.
“He provided an address approximately twelve miles from your home.”
I looked toward the front window.
“Does he have any legal reason to be near Hannah?”
“No.”
“Has he tried contacting Tessa?”
“We don’t know.”
“Can his officer locate him?”
“They are trying.”
Grandma locked the deadbolt again even though it was already locked.
Hannah stared toward the hallway.
I crossed to her.
She did not back away this time.
“Hey.”
“He’s here.”
“He’s in the county.”
“That means here.”
“It means close enough that we’re taking it seriously.”
Her breathing changed.
I lowered my voice.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“We have information now.”
Her eyes filled.
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“It’s supposed to mean we can make decisions with something real instead of guessing.”
“What decision?”
I glanced at Grandma, at the locked door, at Marisol’s email, at the people gathered inside a house that had been a birthday party an hour earlier.
“Tonight, we make this place safe enough for you to stay.”
“And tomorrow?”
My phone buzzed with an incoming text from an unfamiliar number.
I looked at the screen.
The message contained no greeting.
You need to stop asking where Trent is.
A second message arrived before I could speak.
He already knows where you are.
I stared at the second message until the words stopped behaving like language.
Hannah saw my face.
“What?”
I locked the screen too late.
“What did it say?”
“Nothing you need to read yet.”
Her expression closed immediately.
I hated myself for the sentence before it had even finished leaving my mouth.
“No.”
She folded her arms.
“We’re not doing that again.”
I looked at her.
She was right.
I unlocked the phone.
“There were two messages.”
I held the screen where she could see without taking the phone.
Her eyes moved across the lines.
Noah read over her shoulder.
May you like
Mark swore under his breath.
Diane stood so quickly her chair scraped backward.
