Page 52 of Hacker Identified

“Angela called and begged me to come to Paris. She’d just had her second child. I boarded a plane and planned to surprise her. Ten hours later, I landed in Paris. On my way through the airport, a picture of my sister, Harold, and my parents was on a television screen. There was a terrible accident. They’d all died in a house fire. The only survivors were my sister’s two daughters.”

My stomach dropped, worried this story wasn’t about to head in the direction I thought. “Wait…was Angela my mom?”

“Yes.”

I jumped up from the seat. The woman, who I had always thought was my mother, reached out and grabbed my arm, but I flinched away. Zack came over and rested his hand on my back. “You have every right to be angry, but you should hear Donna out.”

“Did you know she wasn’t my mom?”

Zack tilted his head to the side. “I didn’t know much until Sophie only gave a very short cliff note version. She just wanted to make sure you heard Donna out before you made any rash decisions.”

“You have five minutes.”

Donna nodded. “After I saw the report, I rushed to my family’s home. I needed to find you and Hazel. When my father’s second-in-command was at the property, he didn’t understand why or how all the family’s holdings were changed. When Dad had handed the company over to my sister and Harold, he signed over all the shares, including mine. Then he went on to explain Angela, and Harold planned to leave everything to Watson. That included you girls. Harold had told me over the years how much he hated his brother and was convinced he’d killed their parents when they were kids.”

“So, a man everyone hates. You decided to marry.”

“I’d lost everything. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Watson was behind everything. I stormed into his hotel room and demanded he let you and Hazel live with me. He’d already expected my demand. Watson had faked evidence that I caused the fire. Said it was because I was angry about my father turning the business over to Harold. He said I could either become his wife and raise you girls or spend the rest of my life in jail. I had nobody to turn to, and I thought maybe if I was close to him, I could uncover what he did and send him to prison.”

My head was spinning from the story. “So, you came back to Virginia and moved into the compound?”

“Watson was poor. Once he had my family’s fortune, he bought the land in Virginia and created his cult. All I wanted was to prove he’d killed my family and keep you girls safe. For years, I handed information to the authorities, but he had too many people paid off. I was so close, but then everything went horribly wrong.”

I grabbed a piece of cheese and popped it into my mouth. “Was this when you got arrested?”

Donna nodded. “I had video evidence Watson murdered a member of the cult. Except the evidence was planted by the cult to find the person turning over information to the authorities. Watson created false information against me and had his friends put me behind bars. He used all his power and my family’s money over the years to make it impossible for me to fight.”

The fact Watson did so many cruel things broke my heart, but I still had another question. “What I’m still not clear about is why, for the last few months, you have not told me the truth?”

“I was being selfish,” Donna sighed. “You’re the only family I have left. I worried if I told you what happened, you would never come back to the prison to see me. My heart will break if you don’t ever want to talk to me again, but I hope you can let me make things up to you.”

“This is a lot to take in…but I think I understand the choice you made, even if I don’t agree with it. What are your next steps?”

“Sophie is working to untangle the financial web,” Zack cut in. “Donna is flying back to Ft. Lauderdale with us tomorrow as long as you’re okay with that. She can either stay at the penthouse with us, or I can put her up in a hotel near my brother’s office.”

“I want you to stay with us. Maybe you could tell me stories about my mother and grandparents.”

“I would love nothing more,” Donna said before she threw her arms around me.

For the next few hours, Donna asked me questions about the Wildlife Education center I was setting up. It was close to ten when she started to yawn, and I told her to get some rest. We had our entire future to get to know each other.

Earlier in the evening, Zack had excused himself from the conversation and went into his office to make some calls. Part of me wanted to hear the conversations, because I knew they were about my father and what Sophie had found. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed for Zack’s study. His face lit up when I walked into the room.

“Come here,” Zack opened his arms.

I padded across the room, and when I was a foot away, he pulled me onto his lap. “Thank you for helping my family.”

Zack grunted and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. “I can’t take credit for any of it. When we arrive back in Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow Sophie wants us to come straight to their house. She thinks you hate her for holding back all this information.”

“Honestly, I think I’m still in shock,” I admitted. “I want to hear her out. But right now, I just want to be in your arms.”

“It’s nice outside. Let’s go sit on the patio,” Zack nudged me, and I stood. His fingers twined with mine, and we headed out the door. He flicked the light switch, and hundreds of little lights lit up the patio. I loved the swing chair he had installed between a couple of cherry blossom trees. The twinkling lights illuminated the path. Zack stopped in the middle of the stone walkway and pulled me into his arms.

“Hannah…The moment I gazed into your eyes at the CasinoXL, I knew I wanted you to be my wife. While other people around us might have hit the jackpot on slots, I hit the lotto on love. The last six months haven’t always been the easiest, but I can’t imagine living my life with anyone other than you. I’m not sure if you know this, but at five o’clock today, our contract was null and void.” Zack stepped back and went down on one knee. “I would like us to start on a clean slate. Will you be my wife?”

“Yes!” I dropped to my knees next to him and pressed my lips to his.

Zack pulled back and grabbed my hand. My fingers shook as he slid a ring onto my finger. I blinked through the tears and noticed it was different from before. “What happened to the other ring?”

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