Chapter 11 - The Second Phone Call
By 4:00 PM, the sun had dipped below the horizon, casting a long, slate-gray shadow across the frozen lawns of Oakley.
Hannah was standing at the kitchen sink washing out the pancake batter bowl when her phone buzzed on the counter.
This time, the caller ID wasn't a Mason exchange. It was Ryan’s cell phone number.
She let it ring three times, wiping her hands on a dish towel before she finally picked it up.
“Hello, Ryan.”
“Hannah?” His voice sounded small, thin, and hollow, like it was coming from the bottom of an empty cistern. “Where are you?”
“I’m right here, Ryan. In our kitchen.”
“Dad... Dad blew everything up,” Ryan said, a ragged edge of panic creeping into his tone. “He went to Arthur Vance’s office this afternoon. He filed papers to dissolve the trust. Mom is threatening to call the police for theft because he took some of the silver, and she’s locked herself in the master bedroom with a bottle of sherry.”
Hannah didn't say anything. She waited.
“She said... she said if I don't get you back here by tonight to sign a statement saying you provoked her, she’s taking my name off the commercial property deed too,” Ryan whispered, his voice cracking slightly. “Hannah, please. Just come back for one hour. Apologize to her for the way things went down. Let’s just fix this before it’s completely destroyed.”
Hannah closed her eyes. For a second, she felt a profound, aching pity for the man on the other end of the line—a man who had been so thoroughly shaped and molded by his mother’s demands that he couldn't even recognize freedom when it was handed to him on a silver platter.
“Ryan,” she said, her voice steady and clear. “Did you hear what you just said?”
“I’m just trying to save our marriage!”
“No, you’re trying to save your inheritance,” Hannah said quietly. “You’re trying to find a way to make me crawl back into that house so your mother doesn't punish you for marrying someone she thinks is trash.”
Silence stretched across the line for so long she could hear the faint hum of the electrical wires between Cincinnati and Mason.
“Is that really what you think of me?” Ryan whispered.
May you like
“That’s what your actions are telling me, Ryan,” Hannah replied. “You had a choice last night. You had a choice this morning. You chose your mother’s approval every single time. And until you figure out how to be a husband before you are a son, don’t bother coming back to Maple Street.”
She didn't wait for him to answer. She hit the red button, ending the call, and tossed the phone onto the kitchen counter face down.
