The Same Place (The Lamb and the Lion #2) - Gregory Ashe Page 0,123

think you were both going to be able to keep pretending?”

“A long time, I hoped. Long enough for me to figure things out.”

“And what happened?”

He told her, and she nodded and offered an occasional, “Sorry,” or, “Oh, Tean,” that was half frustration and half commiseration. When he’d finished, he said, “I understand some of why he did it. I have guesses about the rest of it.”

“I don’t think you should be looking for reasons to excuse that kind of behavior. It’s a really unhealthy sign of jealousy.”

“From the outside, I guess it looks like that. But I don’t think that’s what it is. Ok, ok, don’t get revved up. I know he’s jealous. But I honestly don’t think that’s why he did what he did. And it’ll take too long to explain all of it. Once you’re out of here, you can hunt him down. You terrify him, just so you know.”

“Well,” Hannah said, crossing her arms and looking vaguely pleased with herself, “good.”

“Hannah, who are you protecting?”

She shook her head. “I’m not going to talk about the case with you, Tean. I wanted to see you because—because you’re you, and I love you, and I miss you. But I won’t talk about it.”

“Ok. How about I talk? The Hannah I know wouldn’t hurt anyone. And you can make a face, and you can pretend I don’t know you well enough, and you can hide behind a few reckless things you did when you were young. You’re letting Zalie string out the rope they’re going to hang you with; she’s telling a story about you calling to plead with Joy, and the Kneaders video seems to back that up. It looks like she was blackmailing you, and you decided to get rid of her. But that’s not what was happening. And I think I know why you’re doing this, who you’re trying to protect, but I want you to be the one to say it. I don’t want to take it away from you.”

Hannah shook her head again. She was crying now.

“This isn’t protecting Caleb from anything,” Tean said. “You don’t know how badly this is hurting him.”

She drew in a shaky breath and said, “I messed up. I really, really messed up. And now I’m in too deep, and I’m going to lose him, or I’m going to go to prison, and then I’ll lose him anyway.”

“I love you. And Caleb loves you. And you’ve got to trust that both of you are going to make it through this. But you can’t do that if you’re lying to him. Even if you think it’s to protect him.”

She put her fingers to her temples and added, “I can’t do this.”

“When did you get the abortion?”

Hannah went very still.

“I’m not asking why you did it,” Tean said, “and I’m not asking you to justify it or defend yourself. It’s your body. It’s your choice. You know I support you. But I need to know when.”

“Monday,” she said in a faint whisper. “The sixteenth. After I met Joy at the Kneaders.”

Tean let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“How did you know?” Hannah asked.

“It was a guess,” Tean said. “A lot of little things that added up.”

“I’d called her when—when I realized I couldn’t do it. Have the baby. She’d had an abortion a long time ago. She was the only person I knew who might understand. And I—I did love her at one point, and I knew I could trust her. But I couldn’t make up my mind. I called her several times. And we fought because she was telling me I could do whatever was right for me, and I hated her for saying that. I hated her for letting it be an option for me. I finally decided to go through with it. We met at the Kneaders because I needed someone to go with me and I had this idea that if I drove out to Heber, Caleb wouldn’t be able to figure out what I was doing. Like I was laying a false trail. Jeez, it all sounds so stupid when I talk about it. Caleb didn’t even know I was pregnant; I hadn’t told him, and I wasn’t showing. Not much.”

“And what happened at the Kneaders.”

“She handed me that money in the parking lot and told me she wanted me to use it. I was frozen. I was furious, actually. I don’t know why; I guess because she was so supportive, which doesn’t really