Page 77 of Reckless

She strolled over to me and said with a deliberately teasing tone.

“Men and their egos.”

“Women and their hair,” I teased back and she laughed. I followed her down the hallway admiring her behind.

Twenty minutes later we were sitting on a bench munching our breakfast.

“What’s the deal with you and your dad?” I broke the silence.

“What do you mean?”

“There is an issue between you two. At the engagement party you freaked out because of him,” she looked at me like she was thinking of lying. I spared her the efforts. “You were looking straight at him. I figured he was the reason, so I asked Clem about it. She said it was because of a case your father took when you were little.”

Hannah left her bagel on the bench and cleaned the crumbs from her fingers.

“A nineteen-year-old broke into a widow’s house in the middle of the night. He was looking for something to steal. Unfortunately for her she woke up from the noise he was making. She found him in the living room. He pretended he had a gun and threatened to shoot her if she screamed.” Hannah licked her lips. “She said she had money hidden in the bedroom, but he wouldn’t let her go alone. He was scared she would call the police. So he followed her. Her body shook. That’s what he told my father. He told him she was so scared she couldn’t control the shaking of her legs and arms.” Hannah looked at me for a moment, then down to the ground. “Anyway. He followed her to the bedroom. Seconds later she had a heart attack. He could have called for help and leave. Instead, he watched her die. When he turned around, he found a little girl staring at him from the door. He ran and left her there with her dead grandmother. She was five. Her parents came back around noon the next day and found her playing with her doll in the hallway outside of her grandmother’s bedroom.”

“I remember that.” My blood ran cold in my veins. I sensed where this was going and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her face. I cleared my throat. “He was some rich guy’s offspring, right?” Hannah nodded.

“It was some stupid fraternity challenge. He ran back to his daddy and confessed. His father called my father and next thing you know, Harry Spencer was defending him in court. Not only that but they managed to get him off the hook. I was eleven. Everyone was livid. My classmates harassed me. They called me and my father all kinds of names. The worst part of it all was that I agreed with them. I thought my father was helping the bad guy walk away, while a woman died for nothing. A little girl spent hours upon hours with a corpse. His father just paid people left and right, and he never went to jail like he deserved.”

Like I deserved to go to jail for the thing I did. For everything I was still doing.

“I had no idea kids were harassing you about that.” I finally managed to say something.

“You barely knew I existed back then.”

It was true. If she was eleven back then, that meant I was fifteen. At fifteen, I was interested in jerking off and not much else.

“Besides I hadn’t entered the Tyler phase yet.”

“What phase?”

“The phase when I was desperately trying to get you to notice me.”

I examined her face with what I hoped was a blank expression. I wasn’t aware that phase ever existed.

“And when was that exactly?”

Herdesperately trying to get me to notice herwas something I never experienced. Desperation was the last thing she demonstrated around me. Ever.

“It started a year later maybe. I was twelve. Lasted up until that New Years’ Eve we…spent together. Well, and sometime after that.” She took a deep breath. “So, yes. My father was the reason I had a meltdown at the engagement party. He was talking to that same guy. He was one of the waiters. Either his daddy cut him off or they are just not as wealthy as they were back then.”

“Maybe he got his shit together and decided to try do things on his own.” Hannah shot me a disgusted look and I continued. “But I get it now. Why you need to do the right thing. To help others.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

“But you don’t think I am right.”

“I think you are trying to atone for what you assume is your father’s mistakes. He was just doing his job, Hannah. I get that people hurt you because if it. They had no right to torment you. You were just a kid. But your father did his job. That’s all.”

“No,” she shook her head. “He could have said no.”

“Someone else would have defended the guy. And he was a kid himself. He was nineteen. People do stupid shit sometimes. That doesn’t mean they are all bad.”

“No, but he should have been punished for what he did.”

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