Chapter 9 - The Price of the TruthHannah dropped beside Vincent.
"Vincent!"
His eyes opened.
"I'm fine."
"You're bleeding."
"Mostly."
"Don't you dare joke."
Michael and the security team secured the room.
An ambulance arrived within minutes.
The bullet had grazed Vincent's side, but the wound required treatment.
At the hospital, Hannah sat outside his room while Walter paced the corridor.
She had no idea why she was still there.
She had no obligation to stay.
She could have returned to the orchard.
She could have called a lawyer.
She could have walked away from the entire Calder family.
But when she had seen Vincent fall, she had forgotten every angry sentence she had prepared.
And that frightened her.
Michael approached.
"We found Richard's vehicle."
"Where?"
"An old private clinic near the river."
Hannah stood.
"Is the girl there?"
"We believe so."
"Then let's go."
Michael hesitated.
"Mr. Calder asked us to keep you here."
Hannah gave him a cold look.
"Then he can ask me himself."
Inside the room, Vincent was awake.
He looked pale but alert.
"You're leaving?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"To find Daniel's daughter."
He attempted to sit up.
Hannah stopped him.
"Don't."
"I should come with you."
"You can barely stand."
"I've stood through worse."
"That doesn't make you invincible."
He looked at her.
For a moment, something familiar passed between them.
Then Hannah remembered the lobby.
Sabrina's hand.
The apples.
The ring.
She stepped back.
"Don't mistake concern for forgiveness."
Vincent nodded.
"I won't."
At the clinic, they found the little girl in a private room.
She was six years old.
Her name was Lily.
She had dark brown hair and Daniel's unmistakable eyes.
Hannah stood in the doorway.
"Hi, sweetheart."
The girl looked frightened.
"Are you here to take me somewhere?"
Hannah crouched.
"No. I'm here because I think I knew your father."
Lily frowned.
"My father?"
Hannah smiled through tears.
"His name was Daniel."
The little girl looked down at the silver bracelet on her wrist.
"He told me stories about a girl named Hannah."
Hannah stopped breathing.
"What did he say?"
"That she liked apples and hated thunderstorms."
Hannah covered her mouth.
Daniel remembered.
Even near the end, he had remembered the smallest things about her.
Lily reached into a drawer and removed a folded piece of paper.
"He said to give this to her when she came."
Hannah took it.
The handwriting was Daniel's.
Hannah, if you're reading this, then I couldn't come back.
Don't trust the people who tell you the past is finished. The truth is still alive, and it belongs to you as much as it belongs to me.
Take care of my little girl.
And remember, the person who helped me hide her was someone you loved before you ever met Vincent.
Hannah read the final sentence twice.
Someone she loved before Vincent.
She looked toward the doorway.
Walter was standing there.
His face had gone white.
"Dad?"
He couldn't meet her eyes.
Then Michael's phone rang.
He listened for several seconds.
His expression changed.
"Mrs. Calder, we have another problem."
"What?"
"Sabrina is here."
Hannah turned.
Sabrina stood at the end of the corridor.
Her eyes were fixed on Lily.
But she wasn't alone.
A man stood beside her.
Older.
Silver-haired.
The same man Hannah had seen in the photograph.
Thomas Whitaker.
Her great-uncle.
The man who had supposedly disappeared before she was born.
May you like
He looked at Hannah and smiled.
"Well," he said softly. "You've grown up."
