Chapter 18 - The Door Beneath the Church
For four terrible minutes, nobody told Damon anything. He heard his own breathing and the tiny beeps of a monitor in Noah's room.
Outside the room, Damon thought of all the times he had imagined this meeting. In some versions he shouted. In others he demanded to know why she had not returned. But with his hand on the door, every speech vanished. The only sentence left was the one he had been carrying for months: Please be alive.
Then Tessa called. "Hannah and June are alive. They're with emergency responders."
Damon sat down on the floor.
Maya crouched beside him. "Breathe, Damon. She needs you standing when you see her."
He laughed through tears. "I don't think my legs got the message."
Later, Tessa explained what investigators had found. The basement had been used to hold witnesses before transferring them. Hannah had stayed close to June, refusing multiple opportunities to escape alone. When she heard voices upstairs, she barricaded a storage doorway and protected the child until officers reached them.
Hannah was dehydrated and exhausted, but she was conscious. June had minor injuries and needed care, counseling, and a safe placement while investigators searched for her family.
Damon went to the medical center after Tessa cleared the visit. He stopped outside Hannah's room, terrified that touching the door would make her disappear again.
"Go in," Maya said gently.
Hannah sat on a bed wearing a hospital sweatshirt. Her hair was shorter. A faint scar crossed one eyebrow. But when she looked up and said his name, the voice belonged to every good memory he had.
"Damon."
He crossed the room and held her carefully. Neither spoke for a long time.
"I looked for you," he whispered.
"I know. They showed me news stories. I saw you holding Noah outside the hospital after he was born."
"He's okay. He misses you. He doesn't know it yet, but he does."
Hannah started crying. "I heard they were taking him tonight. I tried to warn you."
"You did."
She pulled back. "Cross isn't the one making the final decisions."
Damon stared at her.
May you like
"Who's above him?"
"The person who funded Aster from the beginning," Hannah said. "Your mother."
