“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 just nodded.
I turned to Palmer, my legs barely holding me up.
“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 chimed in from the door. “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.”
“And Hannah?”
Palmer answered.
“Your daughter is alive. She’s 21 and living with Beverly just outside Columbus. She’s safe and healthy. Hannah has been searching for you, ma’am, but with the wrong last name, every lead went cold. She was saving up to hire someone.”
My knees finally gave out. Palmer caught me before I hit the floor.
“I knew,” I sobbed into her shoulder. “I always knew!”
Detective Palmer drove me across two state lines the following morning. Rick was already in jail.
My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I held the small velvet pouch containing the earrings.
As we turned onto a quiet street, Palmer said, “Beverly is your SIL’s neighbor who took Hannah in after the funeral. Nothing official, just a kind woman who didn’t want the teenager to be alone in that house.”
Beverly met us at the door of a soft yellow house with a porch swing. She had kind eyes and flour on her apron.
“She’s in the living room,” Beverly said gently. “I told her that someone who loves her very much was coming.”
Hannah was standing by the window when I walked in. She was taller than I’d ever imagined.
“Sweetheart,” I whispered.
