Saving Hannah

by J P Barnaby

  ιϛ͵

  ALEKS WALKED into the living room after work Tuesday afternoon. No one had said anything about him being in the office or the server room on Sunday. He’d called his personal attorney, Carol Shaw, and asked her to look over his employment contract. She asked what he was looking for, but all he wanted to know was if he could be fired over any misconduct of his father’s. They’d already discussed the board’s concerns, but now he had direct evidence that his father had been involved in something illegal.

  He worried about his position with the company, not because of the money or because of the job. He could always get another tech job. No way would the board reveal the reason for his dismissal. He feared losing his father’s legacy.

  One day it would be Hannah’s, if she wanted it.

  That thought had made him smile for the first time all day. He’d spent hours in his office wondering if they were watching. It felt like a knife lodged in his gut. How long had these people been watching his family? Thomas’s words from the day before weighed on him. His father had bought everyone around him, and though Aleks swore to himself he’d never be like his father, his father had taught Aleks to do the same, nonetheless. Faced with something he wanted, he used his money to get it, no matter the cost. Now he was learning the cost of pulling Thomas and Hannah into his life. He prayed Thomas didn’t actually hate him for it.

  A drawer snapped shut in the kitchen, and he turned toward the sound automatically. It took him a minute to take that first step, but eventually he took a deep breath and then walked into the kitchen. Thomas turned around just as he sat at the island, knife in hand.

  “Did you know that you can order groceries online and have them delivered?” Thomas said before he could even say hello. Aleks admired the cut on his jeans and the way the forest green T-shirt deepened the brown of his eyes.

  Aleks laughed, relieved. “I did, actually. I use it from time to time.”

  “So, we have food. They even have meals. So we’re having rotisserie chicken and potatoes.” He pointed in turn to the chicken he’d hacked to death, and the microwave where Aleks assumed the potatoes were.

  “See, and you said you’d make a terrible wife,” Aleks said and kissed Thomas lightly. “Did you find a doctor for Hannah?”

  “Yes, Wes used his Google fu and called a couple of people he knew to see if they had recommendations. We have an appointment at Emory tomorrow.” Thomas set plates and silverware in the middle of the island.

  “Wow, that’s faster than I expected.” Aleks took the pile and distributed them into three place settings.

  “Apparently your name opens doors.”

  Aleks smiled. “For the first time in my life, I’m glad for that.” He glanced around the kitchen and into the living room. “Where is Hannah?”

  “She’s upstairs playing in that gargantuan castle you bought her to sleep in. She wanted to go in the pool today, but… I didn’t want to let her outside. Not if they’re watching.”

  “I think it might be a good idea for her to stay with Charlotte. At least for a while, until we can assess the threat.”

  “I’d been thinking the same,” Thomas admitted. “And we’re going to have to tell Mom. There’s no way I can lie to her. Not about something this big. She’s going to be in danger too.” He opened the door of the microwave and grabbed the container with the potatoes. Then he swore and used a towel to take out the hot bowl.

  “I don’t think we should tell Wes,” Aleks said, rubbing a hand over the back of his head. “It feels like too many people know already. If anything gets out about you being in those servers, I couldn’t live with myself if you went to jail because of me.”

  “At least now I could afford a decent lawyer.” Thomas set a loaf of bread on the table next to the chicken.

  “Please don’t joke about that.”

  He placed a couple of glasses near the plates and then came around the island to where Aleks sat. Thomas put his arms around Aleks, and to his surprise, Aleks could feel him shaking.

  “I don’t know how else to handle it. It’s not just jail; these guys are dangerous. Do you know who launders money?” he murmured against Aleks’s shoulder.

  “The mafia.”

  “The mafia,” Thomas agreed.

  “They’ll be coming tomorrow to put in a security system. I should have had it installed before we moved in, but I just didn’t have time. I’m also thinking about hiring someone,” Aleks said, not letting go of Thomas.

  “Like security guards roaming around the house?”

  “That’s why I haven’t called yet. I think the security system may be enough. I have a gun in the night table, were someone to break in,” Aleks said as he rubbed Thomas’s back.

  Thomas took a step back. “What? We have a kid here. How could you not tell me you had a gun in our bedroom? What if Hannah found it?”

  “The drawer is locked, Thomas. I wouldn’t put Hannah….” He trailed off. That’s exactly what he’d done: put Hannah in danger.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just a lot right now.” Thomas went into the hall. “And now I have to call my mother.” He glanced at the stairs, checking for Hannah. When she didn’t appear, he picked up his cell phone off the counter.

  Aleks didn’t say anything. He couldn’t find any words with the fear clutching at him. What if Charlotte told him to grab Hannah and just come home? If the men who had sent the pictures got to them, she could lose both her granddaughter and her son.

  Thomas poked at the screen a few times and then held the phone up to his ear. She didn’t take long to answer.

  “Hey, Mom,” he said, and Aleks felt the weight of his voice on his own shoulders.

  “No, Hannah is fine. The appointment is still set for tomorrow. Thank you for coming with me. That’s not why I’m calling.” Thomas leaned against the island.

  “Yeah, something is wrong. I know it’s a lot to ask, and I wouldn’t if it weren’t important. Can you take Hannah for a little while? A week, maybe? Maybe longer?”

  “What’s happened?” Aleks heard the voice loud and worried through the phone.

  “You know that I’ve been helping Aleks figure out what happened to his father?” He paused for her acknowledgment and then continued relentlessly as Aleks suddenly didn’t want to listen.

  “Well, we found out.” He blew out a breath. “He was doing something illegal. It looks like he was doing it for the mafia.”

  She said something Aleks couldn’t make out.

  “It has to do with us because yesterday we got a package on the porch from these people. Pictures of us. They said they’ll be in touch. Aleks has a security system being installed tomorrow, but….” He paused while she spoke. “Yeah, I want to get Hannah out of here.”

  His head dropped.

  “I know, Mom. No, I know.”

  He waited again and put a hand over his eyes.

  “If you lose your job, we’ll take care of you. Mom, she can’t be here.”

  His head shot up then.

  “No, Mom. He didn’t make things worse. We have an appointment with an oncologist tomorrow. We could get that drug for her. At the very least, we can finally get her on the transplant list. This isn’t his fault. It’s his father’s fault.”

  Thomas didn’t meet Aleks’s gaze.

  “I don’t know. I don’t… I don’t know, Mom.” He paused again and then mercifully said, “Yeah, you can take her when we get home from the doctor tomorrow. Thanks, Mom.” She said something else and they hung up.

  “That was fun,” he said and turned to the stairs. “Hannah, honey, dinner is ready!” he called.

  “Okay, Daddy,” a small voice called back.

  “Wash your hands before you come down!”

  Aleks went over to the fridge and filled Hannah’s glass with milk. He grabbed an open bottle of white wine from the bottom shelf. He didn’t know if that’s what Thomas would want, but he certainly needed it.

  “Wine or soda? Milk?” Aleks asked when
Thomas came back over to the island.

  “I’ll take wine too. My nerves are shot,” he said, faced turned toward the door. He must have been listening for Hannah.

  “What are you going to tell Hannah?” Aleks asked, looking up toward the second floor.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Tell her that Charlotte misses her and wants her to come and stay.”

  “I’m just praying that my mother can get the time off with such short notice. She’s seriously not happy.”

  “I’m sorry. You were wrong when you told her it’s not my fault. It is my fault, and now Hannah can’t stay here. We were going to be a family, and now we can’t, at least not until we know what we’re dealing with.”

  “I know.”

  “I fucking hate this,” Aleks said, slamming his chair against the island as he stood.

  “Hey.”

  “Sorry. It’s just, damn it. I was finally happy. Finally, and now it’s got to be ripped away from me too. I must have been a serial killer in a previous life, I swear to God.” Aleks dropped his head down on top of his folded hands on the back of the stool.

  Thomas put a hand on his back.

  “Daddy?”

  Aleks stood and saw Hannah half hiding behind the doorframe.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, baby. Aleks is just tired. He had a long day at work,” Thomas said. Aleks saw that he forced a smile for her.

  “What’s for dinner?” She crept into the kitchen and claimed one of the empty stools. It took her a minute to climb up into it. The stool didn’t move when she tried to use her slight weight to get it closer to the island. Thomas pushed her in.

  “Chicken and… crap.”

  “Ew!” Hannah cried, and Aleks laughed.

  “No, chicken and potatoes, but I forgot a vegetable.”

  “Potatoes are vegetables, Daddy.”

  He opened his mouth and closed it again, like he knew they weren’t but didn’t have a valid argument.

  “Fine,” Thomas said, taking his place at the table. He used a fork to spear a good amount of chicken and put it on Hannah’s plate. He followed it up with potatoes and bread. It was probably more than the kid could eat in two sittings.

  “What?” Thomas asked him when he noticed Aleks watching.

  “She’s never going to eat all of that,” Aleks laughed and grabbed a bit of chicken for himself.

  “You’ve never faced hunger, Aleks. For a long time we didn’t have enough food in our house for the three of us. Let her eat as much as she’s able,” Thomas said, filling his own plate. “Maybe one day I’ll get used to having everything I’ve ever wanted, but for right now, it’s not real yet.”

  “You’re right, I can’t understand,” Aleks said, his voice almost reverent. “I’m sorry I teased you.” He reached over and held Thomas’s hand.

  “Do boys hold hands?” Hannah asked and started in on her mashed potatoes.

  “Sure,” Aleks told her. “Boys hold hands, girls hold hands, boys and girls hold hands. People who like each other like to touch.”

  “Like how Daddy holds my hand?”

  Aleks looked helplessly at Thomas, who laughed.

  “Kind of. Daddies and daughters love because they’re family, like the Sultan and Jasmine. They have the same genes. Aleks and I hold hands because we like each other. Like Jasmine and Aladdin.”

  “Except you’re both boys.”

  “Yep.” Thomas popped the p at the end, stole some skin off the chicken, and scarfed it with an unrepentant grin.

  They saved their news for dessert.

  Thomas pulled a small cake from the fridge as Aleks cleared the table. The bakery had covered the white frosting on top with a garden of brightly colored flowers. Hannah’s eyes lit up like she’d never seen anything so beautiful.

  “Daddy, I thought cakes were special for birthdays.” Her eyes never left the vivid pinks, purples, and blues spread across the surface.

  “I know, but I thought you might like it, and we can afford them now,” Thomas said.

  “What does afford mean?” she asked as she watched him pile a small piece onto a paper plate for her. He handed her a fork and appeared to think about it for a minute.

  “Afford means that you have the money to buy something,” Aleks filled in.

  “Like medicine?” she asked, and Aleks’s heart clenched.

  “Yes, honey, like medicine.”

  Thomas handed cake to Aleks before putting a piece at his own place. Then he sat down again and took a breath. “Hannah, you miss Meemaw, don’t you?” Thomas asked quietly, leading her into the answer he needed.

  She nodded, frosting sticking to the side of her mouth, and she took another huge bite.

  “Honey, you can have another piece if you want one,” Aleks said with a chuckle, and her eyes got even bigger.

  “Would you like to stay with her for a few nights?”

  “Yeah, that would be awesome! Can I take Sarah?” she asked, referring to the American Girl doll Aleks had made for her.

  “Sure, honey. We’ll pack up a few things tonight and you can go home with her after our appointment tomorrow.”

  “Okay, Daddy.”

  Aleks glanced at Thomas, who squeezed his hand.

  One obstacle down.

  ιζ͵

  THOMAS GLANCED over to the corner of the office where Hannah sat playing with Sarah. The adults sat at the big desk, deciding her future, but she had no interest at all. She talked with Sarah like nothing else in the world mattered.

  “I don’t believe it. I just don’t believe it. That’s great news,” his mother said, and the relief in her voice was unmistakable.

  “She doesn’t need the transplant?” Thomas sat up higher in his chair.

  “She qualifies for the drug, Thomas. It’s expensive but effective. It could cure her.” His mother put a hand on his arm.

  Thomas sat, stunned, the news shattering even the memory of the picture calling her a “pretty child.” Hannah could be cured. Aleks was right—his money would save her life. She could live a full, normal life. Get married. Be happy.

  But.

  “How expensive?”

  “We’ll need to work with your insurance carrier and our financial team to determine that. But your mom said it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “This is what you did it for,” Charlotte reminded him. “It’s time for him to put up or shut up.”

  “Don’t say that. Aleks has been very good to us, very good to Hannah. I don’t think he’ll even blink, no matter how much it is.”

  Charlotte remained silent and let an awkwardness seep into the room while the doctor watched the tennis match between them.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, more to the doctor than to him.

  “Can we talk about this later?” Thomas asked with a glance at the medical professionals on the other side of the table.

  “When can we get started?” his mother asked with a glance over to the corner where Hannah was making Sarah dance.

  “We sent it for preauthorization before we set up this meeting,” the man next to Dr. Patrick said, stoic. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up if they weren’t going to cover it. It’s about seven thousand dollars a month retail.”

  “Jesus, that’s, what, like eighty-four thousand a year? That’s twice what I make.” Charlotte sat back in her chair, stunned. Thomas could see the full realization of the impact Aleks was about to make in the life of the person she loved.

  “With insurance, it’ll probably be about half that,” the man continued. His quiet reserve showed that he understood exactly what kind of financial burden that placed on a family. Thomas wondered how many families they had to turn away. How many death sentences had this man personally delivered all because of money, or the lack of it?

  Thomas pulled out his phone and sent the text to Aleks.

  They have a medicine that will save her. It’s about 3500 a month even with the insurance. Maybe for life. But sh
e won’t need a transplant. It can save her life.

  His heart raced, hammering against his ribs. Buying a few dolls and a castle bed was one thing, but a commitment to that much money, every year, maybe forever? Aleks was about to see the full impact of what he’d gotten himself—

  Why is this even a question?

  Thomas couldn’t help it. Tears streamed down his face. It was the first time in his life he could remember ever having happy tears. Happy, stunned tears.

  He struggled to see the screen well enough to type a response. You didn’t sign on for this.

  The three dots appeared and seemed to stay on the screen for a long time, like Aleks didn’t really know what to say. In the end, these words appeared:

  I signed on for a family.

  Thomas met the doctor’s level gaze, and for the first time in years, the horrible weight on his chest lightened.

  “We’ll take the prescription.”

  The doctor slid a small slip of paper across the table, and Thomas put his fingers on it. Such a small thing, imperceptibly light, and it would save Hannah’s life. He didn’t know why he put so much faith in the medication, but if people were willing to pay almost a hundred thousand a year for it, it had to do something.

  He thanked her, and then again, and she smiled.

  “Being able to treat a child instead of just making her comfortable is a joy to me. I’m optimistic about her chances on the Gleevec. Let’s see how she responds for the first six months and then chart out a long-term plan.”

  “I just like using ‘long-term’ to describe plans for Hannah,” Charlotte said and squeezed his forearm.

  “Thank you again,” Thomas said, and they left the small conference room carrying far more hope in their hearts than when they’d entered it.

  Thomas used his Aleksander Express credit card to pay for the pills, wincing as the woman behind the pharmacy counter gave him the total due. God, he hoped Aleks at least got airline miles or points or something.

  He glanced at his phone and smiled. Aleks would be home soon. Thomas didn’t know how to cook very many things, but to say thank you to the man who had given them everything, he’d give it his best shot.