He paused, then continued: “We only knocked on her door when we were sure we could. Judith had been raising the teenager for ten years. A different name. The same age as Hannah. The same description.”
“She was his older sister.”
I turned to Rick. Silent tears were streaming down his face.
—Rick— I said. What have you done?
He shook his head like a child who’s been caught in a lie about a broken cup.
“Marlene, please…”
“What have you done?!”
My husband slid down the wall until he ended up sitting on the floor.
Palmer let the silence settle before finally speaking.
“What did you do?”
“I was in debt,” Rick said. “Because of gambling. I owed money to people I couldn’t pay. And I’d already taken the money, Marlene. Your mother’s inheritance, the account she left for Hannah’s education—I emptied it all.”
I couldn’t breathe anymore.
“Hannah heard me,” he said. “On the phone. She came home from her piano lesson through the back door. She heard me tell the guy where the money came from. She heard the account name, the amounts, and she heard me say your name.”
“I was in debt.”
“I was 11 years old,” I said.
“Hannah started asking questions. She wondered if the money belonged to her and wanted to tell you.” She wiped her face with the sleeve of her robe. “I panicked, Marlene! I took her to Judith’s. We hadn’t spoken in years, but she would never have refused to help a child.”
Rick took a deep breath.
“I told her you’d abandoned Hannah and me. I had some papers with me, a custody order I’d forged with a court seal. Judith had never met you, so she had no reason not to believe me. I even gave her another last name for you.”
“Hannah started asking questions.”
“You left our daughter there and never came back?!”
She couldn’t! If Hannah had come home, she would have told you everything. Besides, it wasn’t just the debt, there was the theft too. Her shoulders trembled. Each year was harder than the last. If she confessed, she would lose everything.
I was crying. Palmer gently placed his hand on my arm, but I pulled away and stood up.
“Did you leave our daughter there?”
“For ten years I begged you to help me find her! You told me to let her rest while I fell apart every night! And you knew it!”
“I’m sorry,” murmured my supposed husband.
“I’m sorry?”
“I loved Marlene very much too.”
I couldn’t hold back the tears.
Don’t even think about saying that word in this house!
“I’m sorry.”
Palmer came between us.
“Mr. Rhodes, we’re going to need you to come with us.”
Rick didn’t resist. He simply nodded.
I turned towards Palmer, my legs barely supporting me.
—Judith—I said—. What happened to her? Where is my daughter?
Rick couldn’t resist.
“Judith passed away two months ago,” Palmer said quietly. “From cancer. She’d been ill for a while. She left a letter, ma’am. We made a copy for our records, and the original is with a foster family named Beverly, since it was addressed to Hannah.”
Gomez spoke from the doorway: “It’s clear that Judith was beginning to doubt Rick’s story. Hannah’s memories didn’t match what he had told her. In the letter, he mentions that he took your daughter’s earrings the night she arrived and put them in a drawer for safekeeping.”
