of a dad. By the end, it felt like Green Spaces was the only thing we had in common anymore—and even that thread was fraying. We’d stopped discussing decisions. He’d just tell me what he’d decided and leave it to me to spin it. He didn’t like it when I asked questions … not about how he handled the protests he organized, or what he was doing with the donations—or why he kept having closed door, one-on-one meetings with all of the young, pretty interns.”
Chad didn’t say a word. He wanted to let Hannah talk, but he also wanted her to stop telling him things he didn’t want to hear.
“I’ll skip all of the lead-up and get to the part you want to hear about. My involvement in … what happened.” She took a deep breath as if she were summoning up courage to reveal what she’d been hiding for so long. “The river stunt was supposed to be a huge, splashy wake-up call to everyone about what the factory was going to do to the landscape and habitat around it. It was bigger than anything we’d ever done before, because John wanted as much media attention as he could get. In a way he was right … forcing eyes on the situation was a good way to press pause on the factory. Hannah shook her head and smirked. “John had even planned to wade into the river shirtless so that his skin would turn green, and then I was going to post photos.”
“He was going to wade into toxic water?” Chad asked, skepticism coloring his tone.
“It wasn’t supposed to be toxic,” Hannah insisted. “I bought the dye. I’m the one who researched it. It’s a food-grade colorant, and it’s perfectly safe in the right concentrations. John insisted on mixing it himself. When we got to the river that day and I saw the color of the mixture in the buckets, I realized the concentration was way too high. I begged him to stop, told him that it could be disastrous. He was furious that I’d question him in front of everyone there, and he reamed me out for it—very publicly. It was the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to me up to that point … but it’s probably what kept me out of jail.”
“You faced charges, too?”
“Initially, yes. John tried to claim that I was the mastermind behind the whole thing since my name was on all of the purchasing paperwork. But there were plenty of witnesses willing to testify that I’d tried to tell John about the concentration, and that he’d refused to listen. I still faced some minor charges, but the authorities were willing to drop them and let me walk away if I testified against John and handed over all of John’s files. John had a laptop that I wasn’t ever allowed to use—but I knew where he kept it hidden. I turned it over and took the stand.”
“The media said—” Chad started, and Hannah flinched.
“Yes,” she spit out, “I remember what the media said. I remember all of it—all the interviews John’s lawyer gave, trying to paint me as some kind of vengeful ex, out to ruin him because I’d found out he was sleeping around with the interns. I was the star witness, so they wanted to discredit me. It didn’t work—or at least, it didn’t convince the jury, but it did mean that my professional reputation was completely trashed. Environmental activism was the only job I’d ever had—I didn’t know how to do anything else, but there wasn’t a single nonprofit out there that would hire me to sweep their floors, much less handle their communications. I needed a new career and a new start, for me and for my daughter.”
She let out a shuddering sigh and crossed her arms tightly around her body.
“I’m sorry you went through that.” Chad wasn’t going to deny her a little sympathy for what she’d endured.
“Thanks.” Hannah finally lifted her eyes to meet his. “Do you hate me now?”
He shook his head. “I don’t. But the fact is, I don’t trust you either. You kept a lot hidden from me. I feel like I don’t know you anymore. Were you ever going to tell me?” From the way she avoided eye contact, he was pretty sure that the answer was no. “So instead, I had to find out from Tripp—who used the information to blackmail me.”
“Blackmail you?” Hannah repeated. “What did he say?”
When Chad explained