Rebekah leans into him.She loves him so much that she swallows down the ugly pill of her father’s culpability.Hopefully, she’ll slowly stop feeling culpable.I certainly don’t want Hannah to carry any of that guilt, either.
“I’m glad he’s dead,” Hannah agrees firmly.I doubt she’s aware she’s holding my hand as tightly as I’m gripping hers.
“Have you been with Presley Vanguard all this time, sunshine?”I ask, hoping to get some details out of her.
“Yes.”
“Are you…” I inhale deeply.“…married to him?”
She shakes her head.“No.And gross.He’s nasty.I never let him touch me.”
I frown and glance at her giant belly.
She looks down and then sets a hand over her stomach.“It’s not his,” she whispers.
“So you’re not married to anyone?”I ask, confirming.For some reason, this detail is important to me.When she shakes her head, relief floods me.It’s irrational.Why am I enamored with her?I found her an hour ago.There’s no reasonable explanation for my infatuation.
Do I have some sort of savior complex?Or maybe it’s because I can tell that underneath the layers of dirt is a beautiful woman.A gentle one who deserves kindness and love.I’m oddly compelled to provide those things.
Hell, Adam fell hard for Rebekah and married her the same damn day Asher found her snooping around our property.I refuse to feel like I’ve got a screw loose for finding myself with similar feelings toward Hannah.
“I’ve sinned,” she says, looking at her lap again.As if she just now realizes she’s holding my hand, she tugs hers free and fists her two small hands together.
I have to grit my teeth so I can compose myself.
Rebekah’s breath hitches.“Hannah…”
Hannah shakes her head vehemently.“I have.I deserve God’s wrath.I had sex with a man out of wedlock.My baby is a bastard.God will punish me for my sins.I just hope he doesn’t punish my baby.They don’t deserve that.They’re just an innocent soul who deserves a chance at life.”
My chest is so tight.I want to pick her up and haul her onto my lap the way Adam is holding Rebekah, but I don’t dare.I don’t have the right to do that.
Yet.
I swallow and set my hand over both of hers.To hell with the fact that she pulled away.“That’s nonsense, Hannah.I’ve always known you to be a kind person.I’m certain you’ve never done a single thing to upset any deity.If there is a god, he is not judging you for having sex.He has much bigger problems to deal with than people having sex.”Am I even making sense?
She sniffles and doesn’t look at me.
“I agree with Aaric,” Rebekah says.“That’s nonsense our stupid, backward father filled our heads with.I bet Vanguard was just as ignorant.I’ve been here two months, and I spend every day at the computer, learning everything I can to fill all the holes in my knowledge.There’s a world of information out there.Adam is teaching me.I’m going to get my high school diploma one day.”She beams as she tells her sister about her plans.
Hannah cocks her head to one side.“I’d never be able to do that.”
“Of course you can, if it’s something you want to do, sunshine,” I encourage.
“How did you get here, Hannah?”I ask, stroking her knuckles.
“I walked.”
“How far?”
She shrugs.“Four days.”
I stiffen.We all do.“How did you know where you were going, sunshine?”
She tugs one of her hands free and reaches into a deep pocket in her skirt to pull out a very used, folded piece of paper.“I stole a map from Presley’s truck.It’s really old and beat up, but I didn’t figure that would matter.I studied it for weeks until I thought I knew how to get home.”
I grin.“Brilliant.”
She gives me the first true smile I’ve seen yet.“I made it home.”