Chapter Three Hanna
Chapter Three
Hanna
If I didn’t keep moving I’d throw up.
I plunged the drinking glass into the soapy water a second time. I insisted on handwashing all of the café’s dishes, silverware,
and glasses to avoid stains and spots. Today I used the monotonous exercise to settle my brain. To give my fingers something
to do.
Sitting in that courtroom with Marni and Stella had taken a toll even before Aubrey’s dramatic entrance. Dealing with Marni
and Stella at all, which I rarely did, brought back stark memories of two against one and being the person on the outside
peeking in.
The two of them had a history. A friendship, or maybe a frenemy-ship.
Was that a word? Who knew. The point was I played the role of interloper in their ongoing saga.
One that started long before I arrived in town.
As the younger, less educated, unwanted member of the trio, I was the person they tolerated because I knew their secrets.
The kind of secrets that destroyed lives.
“Mom?”
Between running Sleepy Hollow Coffee and my inability to sleep more than four hours a night, my energy reserves were depleted.
Even on the best day, I fueled up and ran on a dangerous mix of caffeine and blueberry muffins. A terrible diet, but the lack
of wholesome nutrition wasn’t my main problem at the moment.
I put the glass in the drying rack and picked up a cloth. Time to wipe down the tables. Again. The abrupt end to the hearing
landed me here between the breakfast rush and the steady stream of lunch patrons. I got back just in time to check on Daniela,
my fabulous cook. The woman had been a pastry chef at a fancy restaurant in New York City for more than a decade. Its closing
during the pandemic allowed her to follow the flood of city dwellers who traded easy access to everything for fresh air and
miles of grass.
Daniela’s desire to slow down turned out to be my financial salvation. She made pastries and desserts that the whole town
and all the tourists loved and ordered in abundance.
“Mom?”
Aubrey Tanner. Aubrey fucking Tanner.
It was wrong to hate a girl, but she was an adult now, so I felt comfortable disliking her from a distance. Back then she’d
been sneaky. Too smart to miss the things other people missed. Too nosy to stay out of the way. She’d been Daddy’s little
girl. I’d been Patrick’s part-time research assistant with a front-row seat to Aubrey’s parental manipulation.
I didn’t do it. I’d never destroy Mom’s expensive crystal. Not on purpose.
Just the memory of Aubrey’s scheming girl voice sent my anxiety spiking. She created trouble and thrived on the angry reactions
that followed. I researched the term sociopath more than once after listening to her calculated conversations with Patrick.
“Mom!”
I jumped at the sound of Jeremy’s voice. He was the same age now as I was when I got pregnant—nineteen. The idea of him carrying
the type of secrets I did back then . . . Yeah, I’d kick his ass if he made decisions half as terrible as the ones I’d made.
I wanted better for him.
What I really wanted was for Aubrey to disappear into the town’s haunting fog as quickly as she’d arrived. If only I were
the lucky type, which I wasn’t.
“Sorry, hon. Did you need something?” My voice sounded a touch high, but Jeremy would miss that because he stumbled a bit
when it came to reading social cues.
He smiled. “I called for you, like, ten times.”
I loved this kid. My handsome, charming, loving, loyal son. For the first time in my life, I wished he’d gone out of state
to school instead of following in my footsteps and enrolling twenty minutes away in Purchase College, or as Jeremy and everyone
else always referred to it, SUNY Purchase, a reference to the State University of New York system. He’d be safer in a tiny
dorm room nowhere near here. I had to drop out. I was determined to make sure he stayed in.
“It’s been one of those days.” I should win an understatement award for that one.
“You have a lot of those days recently.”
Little did he know. He actually didn’t know. I hadn’t filled him in about Aubrey’s return. I needed a few minutes to digest the news first. My hand swept over another
table as I continued to clean. The work didn’t do anything to calm the panic firing in my head, but my shoulder now ached.
Getting older sucked.
“You never told me what the courtroom stuff was about this morning,” he said.
I hadn’t. On purpose. He only knew about the emergency hearing because he was standing next to me when I got the notice. Being
inquisitive and overprotective, he then asked a million questions about why I had to attend. I put him off, claiming I was
running late.
Not wanting to invite more poking around in topics I needed him to ignore, I kept the explanation short. “An estate thing.”
“But we barely knew Xavier.”
I wasn’t touching that comment. Not today of all days.
Jeremy rambled on. “And we don’t have any family but us.”
My lifelong regret. My choices stranded him with only me. Not giving him a safety net. “Maybe a really nice customer will
leave us some cash.”
He snorted. “Seriously, though, are you okay?” The question hung there wrapped in a thin layer of what sounded like alarm.
“The lunch crowd will swoop in soon, dragging a trail of fallen leaves behind them, so no.” Crowd was an exaggeration, but the place covered the bills and kept four people employed, including me and Daniela, with Jeremy and another kid stepping in part-time.
Jeremy moved to stand right across from me. “You’ve already cleaned that table.”
“Uh, yeah.” Keep my voice light. That was the goal. Be carefree. At least sound like I was. “The Department of Health requires
that sort of thing.”
“Six times?” He stared at the table and the cleaning rag in my hand. “This is weird behavior even for you.”
The bell over the door chimed as a customer walked in.
Not just any customer. Aubrey Tanner.
Oh, come on.
“Hello.” Jeremy wore his usual wide smile in greeting a new customer.
He needed to knock that shit off. He didn’t need to impress this woman.
Being near her again emotionally pummeled me. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get my feet under me. There were questions
a reasonable person would ask her. It would be great if a reasonable person showed up and asked them.
Starting a conversation with so, you’re not dead . . . how did that happen? seemed like a risky call. Not that Aubrey noticed me. Her attention stayed on Jeremy. She didn’t glance around or pretend
to be hungry.
Jeremy continued his charm offensive. “We have sandwiches and salads and these bowls—”
“You must be Jeremy.” Aubrey’s voice sounded light. Intrigued. “You’ve certainly changed.”
Well, damn. Except for the ones where I ran around in a grocery store naked with wet hair, most of my stress nightmares started like this.
Jeremy frowned. “Do we know each other?”
“No.” My strangled tone got their attention.
I needed to rein in my galloping heartbeat and tame some of the tension racing through me. Aubrey would sense fear. She was
that type . . . Actually, I had no idea what type she was because I hadn’t seen her in fifteen years, but it was an educated
guess.
“She just got back into town,” I said, trying to make the horrifying news sound positive.
Aubrey shot me a smile. A chilling, I know what you did smile.
My heartbeat took off on another wild race. My knees buckled. A quick grab of the table’s edge kept me on my feet. I wasn’t
forty yet but inching closer. I guessed this was how a stroke felt. That, or a mental breakdown.
My brain refused to operate with any speed or efficiency. Aubrey likely wanted me that way. Unprepared. Vulnerable. Exposed.
Kudos to her because she’d achieved exactly that.
But one thing, one person, shook me out of my stupor. Jeremy. I needed him out of here. Away from her. “Hon, why don’t you
go back—”
“We knew each other when you were a little kid. Not even in kindergarten,” she said.
“Okay.” He sounded more confused than okay.
“My name is Aubrey.” She extended her hand to him. Showed off her perfectly manicured nails, painted the color of chocolate
milk. “Aubrey Tanner.”
Jeremy froze mid-handshake.
The reaction only made Aubrey’s smile bigger. More terrifying.
She nodded. “Yes, that Aubrey Tanner.”
I tried to form words. Any words.
Jeremy’s gaze shot from Aubrey to me. He looked as puzzled as I felt. I wanted the awkward meeting over with but that wouldn’t
happen until Aubrey decided it could end. She was the one in charge and she knew it.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Jeremy stumbled a bit over the words but got them out.
For once, I wished his manners sucked.
“Are you moving back to Sleepy Hollow?” Jeremy asked.
Holy crap. Please say no.
Aubrey looked in control and so above all of this. “That would be interesting.”
I wasn’t in the mood for cryptic bullshit or this visit . . . or her.
“I wanted to stop in and say hello, but I have some other people to see,” she said.
Jeremy nodded as if he didn’t know what else to do.
That made two of us.
Aubrey stared at me for a few fraught seconds. The sharp intensity of her expression scared the hell out of me.
She winked. “I’ll see you soon, Hanna.”