Page 102 of Unfinished

The story changes slightly after that. After Hannah and Derek left the restaurant, Bas went with me to check on Hannah. She shared her fears about Derek and his connection to Salvatore. We decided that Ashley and Aston would stay in a safe location and Hannah would stay with me until she felt it was safe to return to her apartment. While she didn’t have any proof that harm might come to her, she felt safer with me. None of us have heard anything more from Derek but our alibis for the night have all been made.

We told Bill the truth about Derek. Once we were finished he looked at me and nodded in approval that Derek had been taken care of. He knew I’d do anything within my power to protect Hannah.

“Hannah, I want to be honest with you about something, and I need you to listen.” Hannah nodded then Bill continued, “Liam loves you. Always has. While the decisions he made may not have been the best, at the time, they were his only options to keep you safe. You have never been as happy as you were when you were with him. Everything that was a concern before no longer is. You two may have matured over the years but at the core you are still the same people. You still have a connection. So, get your head out of your ass and take the man back because, my sweet Firefly, he will love you as much as you will love him.”

Hannah stayed quiet for a moment looking at her hands before raising her eyes to Bill. “Daddy, I have a lot that I have to mentally work through before I can even think about taking Liam back. There were a lot of omissions that left me to draw my own conclusions that I now have to reconcile. I have to come to terms with the truth. Then, I have to decide if I even want Liam.”

Hannah stood up and looked down at her father, “I love you, but omissions still break trust, and now I have to figure out if I’m even capable of trusting the people in my life who didn’t tell me the truth from the start. People who either didn’t trust me to tell me or thought I was so weak that I wouldn’t be able to handle the truth.”

She walked away and into the house and both Bill and I looked at each other wide-eyed. Hannah wasn’t wrong. Regardless of the strength we’d both always seen in her, our omissions were an insult to her and hurt her deeply. We completely underestimated her ability to handle the whole story and the truth.

“Well shit,” Bill said.

“Thanks for trying, but she’s right. I’ll find a way to make what we did right. She knows we did it to protect her, we underestimated her capability to protect herself.”

“Take her home and give her some time to process,” Bill said and I nodded.

That was advice I wouldn't be taking. I wasn’t going to give her time to process it based on her interpretation. Did we underestimate her? Yes, but she tried to do the same thing years ago with my mother. I never held it against her or felt like she thought I was weak. So I wasn’t letting her get away with this thought process now.

Standing up, I walked into the house and spotted her leaving the bathroom. I saw the wall she’d built around her and I wanted to crash right through it. Grabbing our coats and her clutch from the closet, I grabbed her arm and pulled her out the front door without even saying goodbye to my family. We were going to deal with this and deal with it now.

I flung open the passenger door to my car and guided her to it, "What the hell?”

“Get in the car, beautiful.” I looked down into her wide green eyes. She got in and I closed the door behind her as she snapped her seat belt on. Rounding the car, I opened the driver’s side door and tossed our coats into the back and put her clutch into her lap.

Slamming my door shut and turning on the car I said, “I have never thought you were weak. Did I underestimate you? Maybe. But I never thought you were weak.”

Throwing the car into drive I drove us home in silence as she looked out the passenger window. I wished she would scream and fight with me because then I at least knew she still cared. With her silence I worried that it was too late, that the walls were too high, that she had given up on us.

Chapter 46

Hannah

It hurt to think that two of the most important people in my life thought I was weak and unable to handle any of this. I knew how to keep my eyes open and my mouth shut. Both of them should have known that about me. I never gave them a reason to believe I wasn't capable of doing that. I might have needed some time to wrap my head around it all but I would eventually have gotten there. Why didn't my dad just tell me he was involved? The truth always comes out. Keeping me from it did nothing to keep me safe.

As soon as Liam parked the car in the garage, I opened the door and got out. I was fuming but the last thing I wanted to do was fight with Liam.

“You are a real piece of work, Hannah Meyer!” Liam shouted as I was walking away from his car and I spun on my heel to glare at him.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means that it was okay for you to protect me by causing me harm, but not okay for me to do the same!”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked, bringing my hands to my hips.

“You broke up with me when my mother threatened you. You broke my fucking heart to protect me from her horrors and to protect your family,” He said, walking right up to me.

“This is not the same?” I said, shaking my head.

“It isn’t?”

“No, I didn’t have any other choice!”

“Yes you did, you could have told me and I could have handled the problem. I found out everything anyway. I never held your decision to protect your family against you. Furthermore, I never held the hurt I felt against you. You made the best decision at the time.” Liam stepped right up to me.

My eyes looked at his chest, “If you had been honest with me from the start, I never would have even gone on a date with Chad.”

“And I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make up for the fact that Chad and Derek ever existed in your life. I made a stupid decision in underestimating you, but it wasn’t because I thought you were weak. It was because I would do anything to keep you safe and alive.”

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