The Colonel's Daughter Is Gone novel · Chapter 10 of 24
Chapter 10: Hattie Answers
The reporter was a brisk woman in a red coat, with a camera operator at her shoulder and a microphone in her fist.
"Mrs. Rainey," she said, as soon as Cedric and I came out of the lift. "Is it true you took a teenage girl out of the country against her father's wishes?"
"My daughter is eighteen," I said.
"The Colonel says she's confused and under your influence."
"The Colonel says a great deal."
"Do you deny that you ran off with the family's money?"
I opened my mouth to answer.
The front doors slid open behind her, and Hattie walked in.
She was out of breath, with her portfolio under one arm and a folded piece of paper in her fist.
She had run all the way from Bedford Square.
"Hattie," Cedric said quietly. "You don't have to."
"Yes, I do."
She walked across the lobby to the red coat and held out her hand.
"Can I borrow that?" she said.
The reporter hesitated, then passed her the microphone.
Hattie turned to the camera.
"My name is Hattie Rainey," she said. "I'm the Colonel's daughter. The video you've all been watching says I'm gone. I'm not gone. I'm right here."
The lobby fell quiet.
Clients stopped talking at their sofas.
"My father withdrew all six of my college applications on a Tuesday morning," she said, in a clear, steady voice. "I didn't know until I got a message from my school counselor. Then he gave my Columbia seat to my cousin, and at his own party he told fifty people I was going to a nursing program in Alaska."
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