Chapter 14 - HANNAH LEARNS ABOUT THE FIRST LETTER
Daniel showed Hannah the letter.
She sat at her kitchen table and stared at it for almost a minute.
Then touched the envelope.
“My handwriting.”
“Yes.”
“I thought you ignored it.”
“I never got it.”
Hannah started crying.
Quietly.
Not dramatic.
The kind of crying built from discovering a wound had been aimed at the wrong person for years.
“I hated you.”
Daniel looked down.
“I figured.”
“When Maya was born, I kept thinking you knew.”
“I didn’t.”
“I told her you didn’t want us.”
“I know.”
Hannah covered her face.
Daniel waited.
Then she said:
“I need to tell her.”
“Yes.”
“Not you.”
“Agreed.”
That evening Hannah sat beside Maya and corrected the story.
She admitted she believed Daniel rejected them.
She admitted she later accepted money to stay away.
She admitted she should have verified things directly.
Maya cried.
Then became angry.
At Vanessa.
At Hannah.
At Daniel, irrationally, because seven-year-olds are allowed to be angry at geography, time, and adults all at once.
May you like
Nobody punished her for choosing the wrong target.
That mattered.
