Chương 8
“Stay where you are for the moment.”
“My grandmother’s address could be known too.”
“Was it ever in paperwork Tessa had access to?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Don’t think.”
I closed my eyes.
Marisol softened half a degree.
“Claire, I need facts.”
“Grandma is listed as a family reference, but I don’t believe her address was shared with Tessa.”
“Good.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m contacting the on-call supervisor and checking whether any current restrictions mention Trent.”
“Current restrictions?”
Hannah was standing close enough now to hear every word.
Marisol paused.
“Is Hannah beside you?”
“Yes.”
“Put me on speaker.”
I did.
Hannah immediately said, “Am I being moved?”
The question hit Marisol hard enough that even through the phone I heard her take a breath.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am not arranging a move.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Marisol was quiet.
Then she said, “You’re right.”
Hannah’s mouth tightened.
“As of this conversation, there is no plan to move you from Claire.”
“Because of my mom?”
“No.”
“Because of Trent?”
“No.”
Hannah looked at me.
I could tell she was measuring whether Marisol had chosen her words too carefully.
Marisol continued.
“What I am concerned about right now is whether someone who should not have unsupervised access to you knows where you live.”
Hannah stared at the gravel beside Grandma’s driveway.
“He does.”
My entire body went still.
Marisol spoke first.
“Why do you say that?”
Hannah looked toward Diane.
Diane had gone pale.
“Because my mom told me.”
“When?”
“At the open house.”
“What exactly did she say?”
Hannah pressed her lips together.
I saw resistance gather in her shoulders.
“She said Trent asked her where I was.”
“Did she tell him?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“She said she didn’t.”
Marisol did not rush.
“Did she say anything else?”
Hannah’s eyes lifted toward the maple branches.
“She said he knew the town.”
My stomach tightened.
“What town?”
“Our town.”
“Did she say how?”
“No.”
Marisol’s silence stretched.
Then she said, “Claire, I need you to stay with Hannah and let your grandmother know she may need to keep the house locked.”
Grandma, who had moved close enough to hear, snorted.
“My house is locked unless I’m standing in the doorway.”
Marisol actually sounded amused for half a second.
“Good.”
Grandma folded her arms.
“I also have a cast-iron skillet.”
“Please don’t use that unless you are cooking.”
“I make no promises.”
“Grandma,” I said.
“What?”
Noah covered his mouth.
Hannah almost smiled.
The smallness of the moment made the fear worse afterward.
Marisol asked me to take the call off speaker.
Hannah immediately objected.
“Why?”
“There are things I need to discuss with Claire that involve adults other than you.”
“That’s what everybody says.”
Marisol did not defend herself.
“I know.”
Hannah looked at the phone.
“Are you talking about my mom?”
“Yes.”
“Then I want to hear.”
Marisol exhaled.
“You may be able to hear some of it, but I need to verify information first so I don’t tell you something wrong.”
Hannah looked frustrated.
That frustration was reasonable.
So was Marisol’s caution.
Nobody got to have a clean answer.
“I’ll tell you what she tells me,” I said.
Hannah glanced at me.
“All of it?”
“As much as I legally can.”
She hated that.
I hated saying it.
But she nodded.
I walked a few feet away.
Marisol’s voice dropped.
“Trent completed a custodial sentence in June.”
“For what?”
“I cannot give you the full criminal history over the phone, but his release is real.”
“Was anyone supposed to notify us?”
“I’m checking that.”
“Meaning no one did.”
“Meaning I’m checking.”
I paced once along the driveway and back.
“Hannah’s case file names him as a prior safety concern.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did I find out from Diane’s phone?”
“I don’t know yet.”
The answer sounded different from Marisol.
Not weak.
Angry.
“What about Tessa?”
“She requested expanded visitation through counsel.”
“Did her attorney disclose that she had already approached Hannah at school?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“Did Tessa disclose it?”
“No.”
“So she violated the contact plan.”
“Yes.”
The word came quickly.
I looked at Hannah.
She was sitting on the porch now, elbows on her knees, staring at nothing.
“Does that destroy her request?”
“Claire.”
“What?”
“You know better than to ask me for predictions.”
“I’m asking whether secretly approaching Hannah matters.”
“Yes.”
“Then say that.”
“It matters.”
I rubbed my forehead.
My skin felt hot despite the shade.
“Could Tessa have taken the photographs?”
“Possibly.”
“She sent them.”
“That does not prove she took them.”
“Who else would?”
“I don’t know.”
There it was again.
The phrase had become the theme of the afternoon.
Marisol told me she would call back once she reached her supervisor.
She also instructed me not to contact Tessa directly, not to respond from Diane’s phone, and not to confront anyone who appeared near the house.
When I returned to the porch, Hannah looked up.
“Well?”
I sat beside her.
“Trent really was released in June.”
She nodded once.
“Tessa wasn’t supposed to approach you at school.”
“I knew that.”
“You knew it was against the rules?”
“She told me.”
That caught me.
“She told you she wasn’t supposed to be there?”
Hannah’s face tightened.
“Kind of.”
“What does kind of mean?”
“She said people were making it impossible for her to see me, so she had to do it another way.”
Diane sat down hard in one of the patio chairs.
“She told me almost the same thing.”
I looked at her.
“When?”
“In the first week.”
Noah shook his head.
“You really just kept talking to her.”
His voice had changed from anger to disbelief.
Diane rubbed her palms over her thighs.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell Dad?”
Diane looked at him.
It was the first mention of his father all afternoon.
May you like
Noah’s parents had been divorced for six years.
His father, Mark, lived forty minutes away and had Noah every other week during the summer.
