Chapter 6 - What Hannah Had Taught Me
Lena needed seven stitches.
She hated hospitals.
Elena refused to leave her bedside.
Neither did I.
At three in the morning, Elena finally fell asleep across my chest.
Lena watched us from the hospital bed.
“You changed,” she whispered.
I looked down at my daughter.
“No.”
“Yes.”
I shook my head.
“You just forced me to notice what I was becoming.”
Lena smiled slightly.
“That's annoyingly self-aware.”
“I can become less self-aware.”
“There he is.”
I almost smiled.
Then my expression became serious.
“You could have run.”
“When?”
“Salerno entered the estate.”
She understood.
“You weren't his target.”
“No.”
“You could've saved yourself.”
Lena looked toward Elena.
“She would've been alone.”
That answer changed something between us permanently.
I reached into my coat.
The blue paper star was still there.
Bent now.
I placed it on the hospital table.
“Elena gave me this.”
“I remember.”
“I carried it into every meeting.”
Lena smiled.
“Very intimidating.”
“I thought so.”
Silence settled between us.
Then I asked the question I had avoided for weeks.
“Why did you care so much?”
Lena looked toward the window.
“My younger brother stopped speaking when we were children.”
I waited.
“Our father died suddenly. Everyone tried to make my brother talk about it.”
Her voice softened.
“So I stopped asking.”
“What happened?”
“One day we built a cardboard spaceship.”
I glanced at the paper star.
“He started talking?”
“Eventually.”
She looked at Elena.
“Children sometimes come back when you stop standing at the door demanding they return.”
For once, I didn't have an answer.
So I simply took her hand.
May you like
And she let me.
---
