Page 47 of Wishing Stone

“You’re pregnant?” she asked with surprise.

“Yes, but don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret,” I said conspiratorially, hoping to gain her trust just enough for her to point the gun somewhere else.

“Well, you’ll learn soon enough. Kids need things that you can’t always give them. But you’re lucky. At least you have the baby’s daddy around to help—and he’s loaded. Eva’s father has been in and out of prison so many times that it’s been mostly just her and me for a long time. It’s been hard. Real hard.”

“I’m sure it has been,” I sympathized, hoping my tone would encourage her to keep talking. I chanced a quick glance at the windows but still only saw the flashing lights of police cars from somewhere nearby.

What’s taking them so long to come in here? Claire had to have let them in by now. Or maybe the police lights I see aren’t here for us at all. Perhaps they were responding to someplace else nearby.

My hands tightened around my belly, refusing to believe that I was utterly alone right now. Focusing my attention back on Hannah, I listened as she continued.

“The problem is, every time her daddy gets out of prison, he gets all nasty and violent. But you know all about that because you were here when I came into the shelter.”

“I remember. You came here pretty banged up with Eva in tow. She was carrying a stuffed elephant if I recall—a purple one.”

“That’s right. It’s her favorite color. Good memory,” she said, lifting the right side of her mouth in a lopsided smile. But almost as fast as the half-grin appeared, it was gone. Frowning, she continued. “She lost that elephant a couple of months later. She was devastated—kept me up all night crying about it.”

“Aww, the poor thing.”

“I would have bought her a new one, but I didn’t have the money,” Hannah said defensively. “After you helped me out with the job here, I’d just barely managed to save enough to move out and get my own place. For a short time, everything was looking good—even if money was tight. Then the damn pandemic hit, and I don’t know. Everything just got more and more expensive. I felt like I was drowning—like I couldn’t do it anymore. Then, one morning, Eva was crying about wanting cereal for breakfast. I would have tried talking her into eating something different, but we didn’t even have bread in the house for toast. She didn’t understand that I couldn’t afford it, but I still snapped at her. I came to work later that day, and all I could think about was not being able to feed my child. I just felt so helpless. Then, when I saw how Claire forgot to log out of the online banking system, I took it as a sign. I hurried up, transferred the money to my bank, then logged off. I didn’t even think past that or about getting caught. All I could think about was my baby crying.”

“And you just didn’t want her to cry anymore.”

“That’s right. It was like I wasn’t good enough for her. What kind of mother can’t feed her kids? Eva deserves a better momma,” she said. Her head dropped in defeat as she lowered the gun to her side.

I exhaled with relief when I no longer felt the hard press of the gun, but I didn’t dare move. I had to stay the course.

Just keep her talking until help arrives.

“I don’t think you’re a bad mom. If you were, you wouldn’t care so much. You just made a mistake. I get it, Hannah. I get why you did it. You were desperate, that’s all.”

“The worst part is, I didn’t even spend any of the money,” she said bitterly. “I felt too damn guilty. I tried to figure out a way to return it, but when the neighbor told me the police had been knocking on my door with a warrant for my arrest, I knew I’d lost my chance. So, I took Eva and went to crash at a friend’s house, even though it was probably only going to be a matter of time before the police found me.”

“You might be right about that. They most likely would have caught up with you eventually,” I said cautiously.

“When my friend found out I was in trouble for larceny, she said I couldn’t stay there anymore. That made me panic because I had nowhere else to go, so I left Eva at her house and came straight here. I was hoping Claire would somehow let me give the money back and drop the charges.”

My heart hurt, unable to fathom how something as simple as not having breakfast cereal had resulted in so many acts of desperation.

“I might be able to help you, Hannah. You said you didn’t spend any of the money?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not a dime.”

“That could work in your favor.”

“How so?”

“Well, the money and larceny charge aside, you’re probably going to be in some serious trouble for holding up a building full of people tonight. However, I happen to be married to a pretty powerful guy.” I paused, thinking of how Alexander would most likely react to all of this. He’d want Hannah thrown away for life just for threatening me. Resolving to having to deal with convincing him otherwise, I continued speaking. “My husband knows people—a lot of people. By default, I have many of the same connections that he does.”

“Rich people tend to know everyone important,” she said dryly.

“Hear me out. If you return the money, we can possibly get the charges reduced or even dropped. As for what happened here tonight, I might be able to convince the right people that it was all a misunderstanding. All I need to do is talk to the DA, Thomas Green. He and I have….” I trailed off, looking for the right words to describe my relationship with the local prosecutor who helped me in the past. “He and I have a bit of a history, and I think he’ll do me this favor.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I’m serious. Have I ever lied to you before? The last thing I want is for you to face jail time and have your daughter go into foster care—especially right before Christmas. I’m not saying there won’t be consequences, but I can help minimize them. So, what do you say? Can the two of us walk out of here and focus on the next step?”

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