Page 13 of Once Upon a Summer Night

Chase frowned. “What letters, Hannah?”

“Whatletters?” She launched from her chair, unwilling to sit there and let him put this back on her. It’d hurt like hell when he hadn’t written her back, not a once. She began pacing, struggling to keep her voice down. “The ones I wrote every week for months! Dad instantly cut off my cell phone and so did Beth’s parents to hers. We had no way of communicating with anyone except by letter.”

He continued to stare, dumbstruck. “I-I never got a letter.”

“How is that even possible? I must have sent a dozen, maybe more! And don’t even try to tell me I got your address wrong, since I’d been going to it for most of my life with you.”

After another moment, his eyes narrowed, gaze sliding to the west. “Lena.”

Hannah came to a sudden stop at hearing his stepmother’s name. “You think—?”

“Oh, I don’t think,” he said, dropping his head into his hands. “I know.”

“But why? Why would she do that to you?”

“Probably for the same reason she kept me from meeting up with you that night.” He looked up, tortured remorse on his face. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go with you guys. It was that I physically couldn’t.”

“What did she do to you?” Hannah asked, her voice more of a growl. Countless times, she’d seen the effects that wretched woman had had on Chase, both physically and emotionally. But without an adult there to witness it, there’d been nothing they could do.

“I’d rather not waste our time together reliving that night.”

“Oh, Chase.” She dropped onto her knees before her oldest friend and pulled him to her, stroking his shaggy hair. “Honey, I’m so sorry.”

He rested his cheek on her head with a sigh. “What’s in the past is in the past, Han. Best to focus on the present. And the future.”

Maybe so. Unfortunately for her, the future had a giant question mark hovering over it. Tonight, she’d rather just focus on the present.

“Please at least tell me they’re not still in town.”

He shook his head, and relief washed over her. She’d left to escape from her overbearing father but never had it as bad as Chase. If anyone had needed to run that night, it was him.

“Why, Han?” he asked softly. “Why did you stay away so long?”

She drew back to meet his gaze, struck by guilt from the hurt in his eyes. “Because I couldn’t come back.”

“But you’re here now?”

It was true, she’d chosen to disobey her father’s orders today, out of desperation to find the support she needed to keep Noah. So far, she believed it had been the right decision—her aunt and sisters had pledged to do all they could to make that happen. But Hannah was still holding her breath to see how it would play out with her old man. Tomorrow, she’d have her answer.

Hannah eased from Chase to resume her seat in the folding chair and rested her elbows on her knees.

“Dad never told anyone about our last conversation, did he?” At his head shake, she snorted softly. “Probably didn’t mention he caught me sneaking out, either.”

“No kidding?”

Hannah nodded. “Stupid thin walls. I tried to be quiet, but he must have heard me packing. God, he was so mad.”

“But Hannah, that was eight years ago,” Chase said, a mixture of hurt and incredulity in his voice. “All this time, you didn’t once try to come home?”

She met his gaze and took in the hurt, praying like hell he’d see it mirrored in her own eyes. “He told me I couldn’t, Chase. He said if I left, there was no coming back. Ever.”

Chase’s eyes widened. “Thechiefsaid that?”

She nodded, her gaze falling to her feet. “Please keep that between us. I didn’t mention that piece at dinner tonight. Partly from the shock that he never told them, and partially because I didn’t want to be the one to do it.Heshould have been the one to own up to that, not me. And yet, everyone thinks I was the bad guy for leaving without a trace.”

Hannah shook her head on a humorless laugh. Of course, he’d make her out to be the bad guy. The town wouldn’t have believed their beloved chief had done anything wrong.

He leaned in, his posture mirroring hers. “I’m sorry things played out the way they did for us both.”

---