Silence Was Not Forgiveness novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: Hartwig Hardware
"A vasectomy," Hannah said.
Nobody in the cabin answered her.
She put the bill down on the table very gently, and that was worse than if she had thrown it.
"Two years ago March. That was your dental surgery. I brought you a smoothie."
"Yes."
"And you let her take the shots."
"Hannah," Lena said.
"No, let me." She still hadn't raised her voice. "I'm an ER nurse. I have held that woman's arm in a waiting room. She had a bruise on her stomach the size of my palm last winter, and she told me it was a door."
I opened my mouth, and nothing useful came out of it.
"You watched that bruise?" Hannah said.
"I didn't know it was there."
"Because you didn't look."
That was true, and it was cheaper to agree.
"Yes," I said.
Hannah stared at me for a long breath, and I waited for the rest.
It didn't come. She picked up her keys.
"Dad said you're due at the store at nine," she said. "I'm driving you. Lena's getting her car and going straight to the courthouse."
"I'm going with him," Lena said.
"You're not. You have your own morning." Hannah pointed at the door. "Get in the car, Nolan, before I start thinking."
I got in the car.
Hartwig Hardware opens at nine-thirty, and at ten to nine the lot was empty except for a delivery van and Dale's truck.
Hannah stayed outside with the engine running.
Lena's mother let me in through the back, past a pallet of birdseed, and walked me to the office without a word.
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