Chapter 6 - What Hannah Had Been Hiding
Hannah arrived twenty minutes later.
Sloane was sitting on the curb outside the repair shop.
No designer sunglasses.
No polished group of coworkers.
Just Sloane.
Hannah stopped several feet away.
“What are you doing here?”
Sloane stood.
“I wanted to apologize.”
“You could have called.”
“You wouldn't have answered.”
Probably true.
Sloane looked toward Hannah's repaired sedan.
“I got fired.”
Hannah said nothing.
“I deserved it.”
Still nothing.
Sloane wiped her palms against her skirt.
“My father lost his business when I was sixteen.”
Hannah hadn't expected that.
“We went from having everything to having nothing in about six months. House. Cars. School. Friends.”
Sloane laughed bitterly.
“I promised myself nobody would ever look at me like I was poor again.”
Hannah understood more than she wanted to.
“But then you started looking at everyone else that way.”
Sloane nodded.
“Yes.”
That didn't erase what she'd done.
Understanding wasn't forgiveness.
But sometimes it was the first door leading toward it.
“I stole your work because I thought Cole Meridian would never notice me otherwise.”
“They noticed.”
“Yeah.”
Sloane smiled sadly.
“Just not the way I hoped.”
Hannah folded her arms.
“Why come here?”
Sloane looked at the sedan.
“Because I finally understand why you kept it.”
“No, you don't.”
“No,” Sloane admitted. “But I'd like to.”
Hannah looked at the faded paint.
Then she told her.
About the bookstore.
About the internship.
About counting every dollar.
About crying in the dealership parking lot.
When she finished, Sloane was quiet.
“I spent six months laughing at something you were proud of.”
“Yes.”
“I'm sorry.”
Hannah believed her.
That didn't mean they were suddenly friends.
Real life wasn't that simple.
But Hannah accepted the apology.
Two weeks later, Cole Meridian approved a revised investment.
Brightwell remained independent under a new leadership structure.
Hannah accepted the vice president position.
Sloane found another job eventually.
Tiffany stopped laughing at people's cars.
Kara stopped pretending she hadn't laughed.
And Evan?
Evan became obsessed with replacing Hannah's sedan.
He showed her electric cars.
Luxury SUVs.
Sports cars.
A beautifully restored vintage coupe.
She rejected every one.
Then one Saturday morning, he covered her eyes and led her outside.
“Evan, if there's a Lamborghini in front of me, the wedding is canceled.”
“There isn't.”
“A Ferrari?”
“No.”
“Something ridiculous?”
“That depends.”
He removed his hands.
Hannah opened her eyes.
Her silver sedan sat at the curb.
But it looked different.
The dents were gone.
The rust had been repaired.
The paint had been carefully restored to its original silver.
The wheels were refurbished.
Inside, the torn driver's seat had been professionally repaired.
The radio was still there.
Even the stubborn knob.
Hannah stared.
“You restored it?”
Evan shoved his hands into his pockets.
“I thought maybe the problem wasn't that you needed a new car.”
Her eyes filled.
He continued.
“Maybe the car just deserved someone to take care of it after it spent fifteen years taking care of you.”
Hannah covered her mouth.
“That's disgustingly sentimental.”
“I practiced.”
She kissed him.
Then noticed something hanging from the rearview mirror.
A tiny envelope.
“What is that?”
“Open it.”
Inside was a photograph.
Hannah stared.
It showed her sedan years earlier.
The day she bought it.
Twenty-two-year-old Hannah sat behind the wheel, crying and laughing at the same time.
Her mother stood outside the car.
Hannah looked at Evan.
“Where did you get this?”
“Your mother.”
On the back, her mother had written something.
Hannah read it.
Then read it again.
Never be ashamed of the things that remind you how far you've come.
Hannah cried.
But Evan still hadn't told her the final surprise.
May you like
Because beneath the photograph was another envelope.
And inside it was something that would change both their lives.
