“Hannah started asking questions. She wondered whether the money wasn’t supposed to be hers and wanted to tell you.” He wiped his face with his robe sleeve. “I panicked, Marlene! I drove her to Judith’s. We hadn’t spoken in years, but she wouldn’t turn away a child.”
He took a trembling breath.
“I told her you’d abandoned Hannah and me. I brought papers with me, a custody letter I’d forged with a court seal. Judith had never met you, so she had no reason not to believe me. I gave her a different last name for you, too.”
“You left our daughter there and never went back?!”
“I couldn’t! If Hannah had come home, she’d tell you everything. And then it wasn’t just the debt, it was the theft.” His shoulders shook. “Every year became harder. If I came clean, I’d lose everything.”
I was crying now.
Palmer gently touched my arm, but I pulled away and stood.
“Ten years of me begging you to help me look! You told me to let her rest while watching me fall apart every single night! And you knew!”
“I’m sorry,” my so-called husband whispered.
“Sorry?”
“Marlene, I loved her too.”
The words made my stomach turn.
“Don’t you dare use that word in this house!”
Palmer stepped between us.
“Mr. Rhodes, we’re going to need you to come with us.”
Rick didn’t resist.
He simply nodded.
I turned to Palmer, barely able to stand.
“Judith,” I said. “What happened to her? Where’s my daughter?”
“Judith passed away two months ago,” Palmer said softly. “Cancer. She’d been sick for a while. She left a letter behind, ma’am. We’ve made a copy for our file, and the original is with a foster caregiver named Beverly because it was addressed to Hannah.”
Gomez spoke from the doorway.
“It’s clear Judith had started to doubt Rick’s story. Hannah’s memories didn’t match what he’d told her. In the letter, she mentions taking the earrings off your daughter the night she arrived before locking them in a drawer for safekeeping.”
“Over the years, your sister-in-law (SIL) forgot they were there. When the house was cleared out, they were mistaken for Judith’s own jewelry and placed in the estate box with everything else.”
Only one question mattered.
“And Hannah?”
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