ents.”
“Where?”
“Gone.”
“What?”
“My apartment was broken into.”
“Police report?”
“Yes.”
“Laptop gone.”
“Documents gone.”
I closed my eyes.
Same pattern.
Evidence disappearing.
Then I looked around the tiny room.
“How did you end up here?”
Hannah laughed softly.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“After the divorce, I had legal bills.”
“No job.”
“Most employers in your industry believed I stole from you.”
“I worked retail.”
“Then warehouse shifts.”
“Then cleaning.”
“Last year, I was hit by a delivery truck while crossing a parking lot.”
My eyes dropped to her leg.
“The limp.”
“Yes.”
“Insurance?”
“Barely covered surgery.”
“I couldn’t keep the apartment.”
“So I moved here.”
My throat tightened.
“And the bottles?”
“Rent.”
“Medicine.”
“Food.”
I looked at the pharmacy bag.
“For Dad?”
“Yes.”
Something inside me broke.
Three years earlier, Hannah had been my wife.
Now she was collecting bottles in the rain to buy medicine for my father.
While I drove a luxury SUV.
While I sent money to the woman who had abandoned him.
I sat down.
Finally.
I could not breathe properly.
Hannah watched me.
Not with satisfaction.
That somehow made it worse.
I whispered.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
She stared.
Then asked quietly,
“Would you have believed me?”
I had no answer.
She continued.
“When County General called, I almost hung up.”
“Then the nurse said Walter kept writing my name.”
“So I came.”
“He was alone.”
“No shoes.”
“No phone.”
“No identification except an old insurance card.”
“He recognized me immediately.”
I looked at Dad.
He was watching me.
Shame burned through my chest.
Hannah continued.
“I called Melissa once.”
“What happened?”
“She told me to stay away from the family.”
“She said Walter was confused.”
“She said if I contacted you, she would tell police I was trying to manipulate an impaired elderly man.”
My jaw tightened.
“What did you do?”
“I recorded the call.”
I looked up.
Hannah pointed at an old phone charging near the bed.
“Everything is on there.”
I reached.
She stopped me.
“Not yet.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Because you are angry.”
“So?”
“So angry Ethan destroys first and asks questions later.”
The sentence landed.
