Audrey held out her hand for the phone, but I hesitated.
\nThe man on the other end had just learned that Hannah was dead. Audrey had only just learned he existed. I wanted to protect them both from saying something they couldn\u2019t take back.
\n\u201cDaniel,\u201d I said, \u201cAudrey is sitting beside me. She\u2019d like to speak to you.\u201d
\nHis breath caught. \u201cI\u2019d like that.\u201d
\nI passed her the phone.
\nAudrey stared at it for a second before lifting it to her ear. \u201cHello?\u201d
\nI heard his voice, low and unsteady, but couldn\u2019t make out the words.
\n\u201cYes,\u201d Audrey said. \u201cThat\u2019s my name.\u201d
\nShe listened. Her fingers tightened around the little yellow sweater.
\nThen she asked the question I\u2019d been afraid she would ask.
\n\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you come for me?\u201d
\nI could hear Daniel\u2019s answer this time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know where you were.\u201d
\nAudrey looked at me. \u201cMom wrote that you knew about me.\u201d
\n\u201cI knew Hannah was pregnant,\u201d he said. \u201cI was there when she picked your name. Then she told me she\u2019d changed her mind about us. She asked me to leave her alone.\u201d
\nAudrey\u2019s eyes filled. \u201cYou could have called after I was born.\u201d
\n\u201cI did. The number stopped working. I went to her apartment, but she\u2019d moved. I thought she didn\u2019t want me to find you.\u201d
\nI remembered Hannah leaving her apartment in the final month of her pregnancy. She\u2019d come to stay with me because she didn\u2019t want to be alone while Mark worked late. At least, that was what she\u2019d told me.
\nAudrey wiped her cheek. \u201cDid you ever stop looking?\u201d
\nDaniel took a moment to answer. \u201cI stopped going to places she\u2019d asked me to stay away from. I never stopped wondering how you were.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s different,\u201d Audrey said.
\n\u201cYes,\u201d he replied. \u201cIt is.\u201d
\nHer honesty seemed to steady him. He didn\u2019t try to argue.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Audrey looked down at the photograph in her lap. \u201cWhat picture did you keep?\u201d
\n\u201cHannah sent it to me before we stopped speaking. She was wearing that green coat she loved, standing outside a bakery with a paper bag in her hand. You can just see her belly. She wrote, \u2018Audrey wanted cinnamon rolls.\u2019\u201d
\nDespite everything, Audrey smiled.
\n\u201cShe used to say things like that?\u201d she asked.
\n\u201cAll the time. She blamed you for every pastry she bought.\u201d
\nAudrey\u2019s smile faded as quickly as it came. \u201cI never got to hear her say my name.\u201d
\nDaniel was quiet. Then he said, \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d
\nAudrey handed me the phone without warning and stood up.
\n\u201cI need a minute.\u201d
\nShe went to her bedroom, still carrying the sweater. I heard the door close softly.
\nDaniel had heard her walk away. \u201cI upset her.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s had fifteen years to imagine her father,\u201d I said. \u201cGive her time to meet the real one.\u201d
\n\u201cI will.\u201d He paused. \u201cMrs. Bennett, I need to ask you something. Is Mark still in her life?\u201d
\n\u201cNo. He left when she was a week old.\u201d
\nDaniel exhaled sharply. \u201cMark was there?\u201d
\nI told him what I knew: that Mark had come to the hospital, that he\u2019d called Audrey his daughter, that he\u2019d left the two of us behind. Daniel listened until I finished.
\n\u201cHannah told me Mark was an old friend,\u201d he said at last. \u201cI met him once.\u201d
\nSomething in his voice made me sit up. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d
\n\u201cNothing I could prove. But after Hannah and I argued, he showed up at my work. He told me to stay away from her. He said she was scared of me.\u201d
\nI looked toward Audrey\u2019s closed door.
\n\u201cHannah\u2019s letter says something happened between you,\u201d I said. \u201cWhat was it?\u201d
\nDaniel hesitated. \u201cShe found a message on my phone. It looked as if I\u2019d asked another woman to meet me that night.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHad you?\u201d Audrey held out her hand for the phone, but I hesitated. The man on the other end had just learned that Hannah was dead. Audrey had only just learned he … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aita","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7486,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7481\/revisions\/7486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cNo. I\u2019d never seen the message before she showed it to me. I told her that, but she thought I was lying.\u201d
\nA message on his phone. Mark appearing at his work. Hannah telling me Mark was the father.
\nEach piece seemed to fit somewhere, but I couldn\u2019t yet see the whole picture.
\n\u201cWhy did you call today?\u201d I asked. \u201cHow did you finally get my number?\u201d
\n\u201cI found something,\u201d Daniel said. \u201cI\u2019ve been going through boxes from my old apartment. There was a sealed envelope from Hannah behind a drawer. I don\u2019t know how long it had been there.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat did it say?\u201d
\n\u201cShe wrote that she was sorry. She asked me to come to your house after Audrey was born, so we could all talk.\u201d
\nI gripped the phone. \u201cDaniel, she never told me that.\u201d
\n\u201cI know. I came here as soon as I read it. I\u2019m staying at a motel about twenty minutes away. I was calling to ask whether she was still with you.\u201d
\nI looked at Hannah\u2019s handwriting on the letter in my lap. She had tried to reach him. Somehow, her letter had gone missing before he could read it.
\n\u201cDid she post it?\u201d I asked.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no stamp. She must have slipped it under my door.\u201d
\n\u201cAnd it ended up behind a drawer?\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\nNeither of us spoke for a moment.
\nThen Daniel said, \u201cThere was one more thing in the envelope. A photo of the two of us, cut straight down the middle. On the back she\u2019d written, \u2018Ask Mark why.\u2019\u201d
\nMy eyes moved to the photograph I\u2019d found in Hannah\u2019s box. Its edges were whole.
\nI told Daniel I would call him back, then hung up and crossed to Audrey\u2019s room.
\nShe was sitting on her bed, reading another birthday letter. The sweater lay across her knees.
\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d I said. \u201cI should have asked before handing you the phone.\u201d
\n\u201cI asked for it.\u201d She folded the letter carefully. \u201cI wanted to hear him.\u201d
\nI sat beside her. \u201cHow do you feel?\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d She looked at me. \u201cHe remembered what Mom liked to eat. For a second, it felt like she was here.\u201d
\nI put my arm around her. We sat together until she leaned her head against my shoulder.
\nThen Audrey lifted the letter she\u2019d been reading.
\n\u201cThis is the one for my first birthday,\u201d she said. \u201cMom wrote something strange.\u201d
\nShe showed me the last paragraph.
\nIf Grandma gives you the little silver key when you\u2019re older, ask her to show you what it opens. I\u2019m putting it somewhere safe until I can explain everything.<\/em>
\n\u201cA key?\u201d I said. \u201cI didn\u2019t see one.\u201d
\nAudrey reached into the box beside her bed. \u201cIt was under the ribbon.\u201d
\nA small silver key lay in her palm. Attached to it was a paper tag with three faded words in Hannah\u2019s handwriting:
\nMom\u2019s sewing room.<\/em>
\nI stood so quickly Audrey looked startled.
\nHannah had never had a sewing room.
\nBut I had one. And for fifteen years, the old locked cabinet in its corner had held boxes I\u2019d packed away after her death.
\nAudrey followed me down the hall. I knelt in front of the cabinet and pushed the key into the lock.
\nIt turned.
\nInside, on top of a stack of fabric, sat a large envelope with my name across the front.
\nI opened it and pulled out a single page.
\nIt was a note from Hannah, dated two days before Audrey was born.
\nMom, I need you to hear this from me before anyone else tells you. Mark has been in our house while you were out. I caught him searching through my things. He knows about the letters for Audrey.<\/em>
\nMy hand went cold.
\nAudrey leaned over my shoulder as I read the final line.
\nIf he tells you I don\u2019t trust Daniel, please don\u2019t believe him. I\u2019m going to tell Daniel the truth at the hospital. Mark said he\u2019d make sure I never got the chance………………….<\/em><\/p>\nClick Here to continuous Read\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b Full Ending Story\ud83d\udc49:PART 4 \u2014 THE MAN WHO WAS THERE WHEN HANNAH DIED<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"