“You think a bachelor who has never even held a baby is a good choice for a father—the man that abandoned his family and changed his name to forget them? I turned my back on my sister. I refused to see her, I refused to talk to her.” He finished off the rest of his whiskey with a sharp swallow. Hannah felt the pain of his regret, even if he wouldn’t admit to it. It was embodied in every tightly wound muscle in his body, in the lines in his face. He regretted what had happened with Louise and that gave Hannah hope that there was still a chance. She wanted to tell him everything—about her past, about the other reason she wanted him to adopt Emily. But she couldn’t talk about that and stay detached. She was already in way over her head.
“You are her uncle.”
“Stop saying that.”
Hannah looked into his eyes and then nodded. “Louise made mistakes, Jackson. Her baby shouldn’t have to suffer for them.”
“Why the hell do you care so much anyway?”
She clenched her hands to keep from shaking. “I don’t want her to enter the system,” Hannah whispered, almost choking on the words. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to block the image of handing over that baby to some foster family, not knowing what would happen to her. She had broken a cardinal rule—she had gotten too close to Louise and Emily. She wouldn’t be able to keep Emily safe once she left Mrs. Ford’s. She wouldn’t have unlimited access to her like she did now. She held her breath as she waited for him to say something. It was obvious he didn’t want to hear what she said. “You’ll regret it,” she said softly, forcing herself to walk over to him on legs that felt like jelly. She watched his jaw clench at her words. She felt the heat of the fire on her face, the flames attacking the pile of logs, the strength of the fire burning any hope she had of Jackson agreeing to this.
But she had to tell him. “This decision will haunt you. It won’t erase your past and it definitely won’t take away your pain. Emily will be gone, but that anger, that resentment you feel toward your sister won’t go away. It’ll eat away at you until you’re not the same person anymore. You’ll be going about your life and then you’ll stop every now and then and wonder what happened to that little baby. You’ll wonder if someone is looking out for her the way you did for Louise. You’ll wonder if the system failed her the way it failed you.”
“Enough!” He growled into the fire, sounding more like a wounded animal than a man. Hannah didn’t move, didn’t breathe. He finally turned to look at her, his brown eyes dark and void.
“You don’t know a damn thing about me, Hannah. I don’t know what the hell made you think you had the right to come here and find me, but that was your first mistake. You don’t know a damn thing about my life, so don’t apply your ideals to me. Tomorrow, when the road gets plowed, go home.”
Chapter Four
Hannah tried not to let her smile waiver as Emily drifted off to dreamland. She decided that a smile should be the last thing Emily saw before she went to sleep.
Emily sighed deeply, made a little sucking motion with her rosebud lips, and finally succumbed to a deep slumber. Hannah held on to her smile for a second longer before reaching for her phone. She needed to call Allison. She knew her best friend and fellow social worker would be out of her mind with worry. Seconds later her friend’s voice greeted her on the other end of the line.
“Allie? It’s me,” Hannah whispered into the phone.
“Oh my God! I’ve been calling you for the last four hours!”
“I know, I know, reception has been sucky, I’m sorry—”
“Why would you have bad reception? You live down the street from the office.”
Hannah cleared her throat, preparing for the onslaught she was about to endure from her friend. “Well, I’m not exactly in Hope’s Crossing right now.”
“Oh my God, you didn’t—”
“I did. I’m here.”
“Hannah, I thought I talked you out of that crazy idea. You could be charged with kidnapping.”
“Mrs. Ford signed off on me taking Emily up here.”
“Fine, but what about Jean? She’s going to chop you up and kick your butt out of the department.” Jean, their boss, played everything by the book. She hated that Hannah took chances and resented that Allison wasn’t afraid of using her contacts and friends to help a child. Allison had helped Hannah out more than once, so Jean had it out for both of them.
“Not if I get Emily’s uncle to adopt her. I had no choice, Allie. You know that. I screwed things up with Louise. The least I can do is make sure Em is placed with her uncle,” Hannah said, sitting on the large bed.
“What happened to Louise wasn’t your fault. I know you were close to her and I know your history, but you’ve put everything on the line here. Louise wouldn’t blame you for backing down.”
“Not going to happen,” Hannah said, staring at Emily. Hannah had made a makeshift bed for the baby beside her, careful that it wasn’t too soft and that she couldn’t fall off.
“Have I ever told you you’re the most stubborn person I’ve ever met? I will do everything on my end to hold off the witch-hunt. So, you’ve met Louise’s brother? And I’m assuming he’s met Emily?”
Hannah fidgeted with the hem of the long shirt Jackson gave her to wear. “Technically yes, we’ve all met.”
“What do you mean technically met?”
Hannah glanced over her shoulder, and lowered her voice. “Well…”
“What did he say? Will he do it?”
No. And that crushed her because every now and then during the evening with him she would catch glimpses of the man she thought he might be. But everything that came out of his mouth contradicted that. Maybe she was a dreamer, a hopeless romantic who wanted to believe that the reclusive, handsome billionaire would drop everything to save his innocent niece. But Jackson wasn’t like that at all. Scratch that. He was handsome, more than he deserved to be considering his attitude. And he was a self-made billionaire, which again made things even worse because that meant he had drive, talent, and brains.
“Hello, what did he say? Is he going to adopt her?”
The image of Jackson Pierce telling her to get the hell off his property sprang to mind. “He hasn’t exactly agreed yet,” Hannah said, wishing her phone would lose reception.
“He said no?”
“It was just shock talking, I’m sure. Listen, I’ll call you when I’m on my way back. The weather is brutal out here, so I’m stuck for the night. But he’s a great…” Hannah tried not to choke on her lie. “…a great host and we’ll be fine. Oh dear, I think Em is waking up. I’ll talk to you later, Allie. You’re the best.”
“Hannah,” her friend groaned. She could just picture her blue eyes filled with worry.
“Bye,” Hannah whispered, not giving Allison a chance to ask any more questions. Hannah hoped to hell some sort of a miracle would happen between now and tomorrow morning.
In the crisp, bright morning that would surely follow the blizzard, maybe he’d have some sort of awakening… An odd noise interrupted the droning sound of the wind outside. She glanced over at Emily. It wasn’t her. What was it?
She paused, listening.
Just wind.
Then she heard it again. It came from the hallway. Her heart started pounding and she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her bare feet padded across the room and she stopped at the door and listened again.
Nothing.
She opened the door slowly and peered into the hallway. Everything was dark except for the small bedside lamp she’d left on in her room. Jackson’s lights were off. She flicked on the hallway light and tiptoed close to the great room… and then she heard it, a mumbling, almost a groan. She turned around and walked to stand outside Jackson’s room. It was definitely him.
Her palms started sweating as she contemplated what to do. It wasn’t like they were friends. In fact, his last words had been to get the hell out of his house tomorrow. She couldn’t just walk into his room and intrude. But then again, if he was sick, wasn’t it her duty as a human being to help him? And she was a social worker. Wasn’t it her job to help people? She bit her lower lip, her right hand on the doorknob. Okay, Hannah, if you don’t hear anything for another minute leave and go to your bedroom. If you hear him again you’ve got to walk in.
Sure enough, a few seconds later she heard him again. She took a deep breath and slowly opened the door, the floorboards creaking as she walked across the threshold. She held her breath but didn’t move. The room was dark so she opened the door fully, letting the light from the hallway cast enough of a glow so that she could see where she walked. Jackson was in bed. A dark duvet was thrown off his body and he lay on his back, his head turned away from hers.