Chapter Seventy-Two Hanna
Chapter Seventy-Two
Hanna
The next three days passed in a blur of police questions, FBI agents, and press stepping into my personal space, demanding
answers. Three bodies now found. One in the garden. Two in the pond. All located at Xavier’s house and not in the Tanner family
home where the young family once resided.
Xavier moved his family with Lukas’s help, voluntary or not, and hid evidence. He ended up covering for the real killer.
The Tanner saga had been all over the news and online. True crime junkies lined up with their theories and conspiracies. Misinformation
and lies ran rampant. The truth was enough of a horror story without adding pieces that didn’t fit.
Jeremy took a good decade off my life with that stunt from the bookcase. He was supposed to be hiding. Huddling. Waiting.
Instead, he created the diversion that saved us all. He’d been listening, relaying information to the police, and biding his
time until he could catch Lukas off-guard. Like a hero.
Lukas. That asshole sat in a prison cell proclaiming his innocence and insisting he’d been set up by a psychopath—Aubrey.
The shifting timelines and everyone coming in and out that day made it easy for him to cause confusion.
Victoria brought me to the house by pretending to be Patrick.
She brought Marni to the house for revenge.
Patrick was dead by then. Stella and Lukas had been to the house multiple times, together and apart.
Xavier showed up at some point to clean up the mess and implicated Isabel in the process.
The fact Xavier left Lukas that car with the note suggested Xavier knew something, maybe about Aubrey, and convinced Lukas
he had no choice but to help make the bodies disappear. That was the police theory anyway.
Initially, we were all threatened with prosecution for not being truthful during questioning years before about where we were
and when that day. The statute of limitations had run on most of our lies to the police. Turned out the prosecutor needed
our collective information to build a case against Lukas and connect all the dots, so we all got immunity deals. All except
Marni, the only one who’d seen Patrick’s dead body and stayed quiet. She might still face charges, but her attorney doubted
it since she was cooperating.
All of the admissions and discussions and no one understood how Noah fit in.
Today was the first time I was able to lure Stella out of her house and over to ours. She and Everly had many rocky days ahead.
We all did. Lukas wasn’t going to let this matter die without more fuss and explosions. He wasn’t the type to give up that
easily.
I looked around the family room and saw the human carnage born out of fifteen years of lying and shame. We should exchange apologies. So many shoulds and not one ounce of energy to offer even an obligatory regret. Marni stared at the fire. Stella poured tea while Jeremy
played on his phone. We’d been together at the estate, like this, for almost an hour. No words could fix or explain everything
that happened, so we didn’t try.
My phone buzzed. The police protection remained outside the gate as a courtesy. That would stop tomorrow, but I enjoyed the
sheen of assistance while I had it. This text referenced a visitor. One I didn’t want to see, but Marni might need him.
I got up and went to the door before the bell rang. Cam and I walked in silence back to the family room. He had everyone’s
attention the minute he walked in the door.
He didn’t wait for anyone to ask. “The body they found in the pond late yesterday afternoon was a younger boy. Probably Noah.
The DNA tests will confirm but it looks like the entire Tanner family is now accounted for.”
“One alive. Three dead,” Marni said.
“Does Aubrey know?” I didn’t want to be the one to call her. That had to be someone else’s job.
“The police are delivering the news now.” Cam fidgeted with a bunch of papers in his hands. “There will be a few more days
of forensics, then you’ll have your yard back.”
Jeremy glanced out the window. “It’s really weird to think of this as our house.”
Over the last few days the walls felt less confining.
I planned to brick up those damn passageways and I doubted there was enough sage in the world to cleanse the place fully, but the air no longer choked me.
“I asked if there was a murder house loophole in the trust to sell the house early and no.”
“That’s not funny but . . .” Stella laughed. “Sorry.”
Jeremy shrugged. “Mom and I will live here. Well, I’ll go back and forth to school, so I’ll live here most of the time but
not all.”
Using this as our base didn’t sound great. Not terrible, but was it the right answer? I’d been through too much in a short
amount of time to be able to think anything through rationally.
“We can’t sell it. We can’t rent it. We can’t turn it into a haunted hotel, though people would pay to visit that.” Jeremy
smiled. “I read the trust documents and we’re locked in for six more years.”
Until then, all we could do was hope to blunt the pain seeping through the walls by flooding the rooms with dessert baking,
decency, and happiness. With Halloween over and the winter about to settle in we had plenty of time to set up here as we rebuilt
the café and tried to put our lives back in order.
“This is for you.” Cam handed me an envelope.
A white envelope. Same black lettering on the front. Just my name.
Yeah, that made sense. “You’ve been my mystery mailman.”
“A reluctant one.” Cam leaned against the fireplace. “It was a final request from Xavier.”
“He could have asked the police to investigate or just been forthcoming with me. Why play the game with the notes?” I asked
but I knew. Xavier insisted on the subterfuge because that’s the only way Xavier knew how to operate. The brilliant businessman
sucked at dealing with actual people. Asking me for help was the last thing, literally, he would ever do.
“I was after him for years to push for answers. He told me that had to wait until he was dead. Then he left this list of notes for me to give you, depending on if you were investigating and what you found. I think it was his way of providing an incentive and encouraging you to do the right thing when he didn’t. ”
Stella shook her head. “So manipulative and so on brand.”
“He wanted the truth about the family’s deaths to come out, but he wasn’t a hundred percent sure what it was. He blamed Aubrey
for so long . . .” Cam shook his head. “Looks like he punished her for something she didn’t do.”
Aubrey might be scary—no, she was scary—but she didn’t kill her family, and we should be ashamed for how we acted when we
thought she did. Me included.
“Not his best behavior.” Cam’s serious tone didn’t waver. “He also recognized he treated you pretty shitty for all these years.
He wasn’t the only one.”
The idea of Xavier having any remorse . . . No. Not him. Not ever. “Meaning?”
“He watched Jeremy from afar. He was proud.” Cam’s stern features relaxed a bit as he looked at me. “He was also proud of
you.”
Uh, no. “I think we’ve all had enough lying. With respect—”
“Here’s the paid mortgage to the café.” Cam handed me another envelope. A bigger one this time. “He was the lender behind
the company that bought the mortgage. He planned to pull it so many times over the years, put pressure on you, but didn’t.”
Not a surprise. Even with the file I had on him, that had been one of my greatest fears.
Xavier seeking custody first. Destroying the business a far second.
The combination of the two, that he’d maneuver the situation so that he could throw me out and use my lack of an address and a job as a reason to take Jeremy, had been the worst of all potential outcomes.
I saw the look on Cam’s face. Something unexpected and a little embarrassed hid there. “Hold on. Are you saying you convinced
him not to take my business?”
“Or Jeremy. He’d ruined one woman. That was enough.”
Stella fumbled her teacup. “Go back for a second.”
“No, we’re going to let Dea rest in peace.” Xavier didn’t deserve my protection, but the one thing I’d managed to do over
the last few days was contact Dea’s family. They requested her name be left out of any discussion of Xavier’s life. They knew
who killed her and were done begging people to listen. I planned to honor that request.
Cam stared at the newest note in my hand. “I thought about just telling you what Xavier wanted you to do, almost confessed
when I ran into you at the hospital, but I doubted you’d listen to me. It was easier for me to comply with his wishes. I apologize
if the notes scared you.”
“They added an unnecessary level of drama.” But he wasn’t wrong. Without the notes I probably wouldn’t have poked around,
and Jeremy might have been safer. I don’t know what the right answer was, but that part of my life was over. Almost . . .
Before I started reading, I ignored Stella’s offer to leave and Marni’s mumbling about this not being her business. They’d
been my partners in this investigative nightmare. I was done hiding things and keeping secrets from them and from Jeremy.
Hanna
I tricked you into being a mother, then waited with rapt excitement for you to fail. You made it work. You built a life. You
protected him. You refused to play the intricate game I planned for you.
It’s taken me two decades to accept that you didn’t need me, not even my money, and that you wouldn’t come running to me.
Honestly, I despised your surge of personal strength. You were supposed to be an unserious teenager, not a resilient woman.
I counted on a lack of maturity you didn’t possess.
I also, to the very end, silently and reluctantly admired your determination. How you handled yourself is how I knew you would
be the one to uncover the truth about what happened that day fifteen years ago. If you’re receiving this letter, you’ve done
it. I didn’t search for answers because the reality of Patrick’s loss already damned me. You do not carry that burden.
There’s conflicting evidence that points in several directions and Patrick’s affairs muddle things. He’d always been weak
and died a weak man. His weakness was the main reason I left Jeremy alone. You told me once you wanted him to thrive and that
could only happen without me in his life. You weren’t wrong.
Aubrey survived. She lived in silence with my help for reasons that made sense at the time. I fear she followed in my footsteps.
That she can kill without remorse as I once did. Unlike Jeremy, she shares my ruthless, driven personality. He has your blood.
Never forget she has mine.
The trustee fee and family trust belong to you and Jeremy because you’re the only people who might not be corrupted by the windfall. I hope that’s my legacy: that I made the right choice when it counted.
You will never believe me, but I love you, Hanna. Always have. I loved you when I hated you. I loved you enough to leave you
alone. Now I’ll love you without being able to hurt you again. I hope that’s enough.
Marni’s eyes were huge. “Wow.”
Stella shook her head. “Xavier talking about love?”
“Do you think he meant it?” Jeremy asked.
No. Xavier wasn’t capable of love. Not love in the way Jeremy understood it. Xavier believed in control and ownership. Nothing
in the note changed that or how he treated his family or me or, most importantly, what he did to Dea.
I handed Jeremy the note because it represented the best of Xavier. His attempt at a meaningful and endearing gesture. It
didn’t wipe away the unforgivable, but the writing wasn’t ranting and threatening, gaslighting and belittling. Let Jeremy
remember his father without that baggage.
I nodded. “It’s enough.”