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“I’m sorry, Hannah I can’t do this anymore It’s too hard This life is too hard Please find my brother, Christopher James Please find Emily’s uncle He will raise her”
Acid burned her throat and Hannah fought the bile that threatened This couldn’t be happening She had just spoken with Louise yesterday How had she ns?
Hannah held the infant closer to her chest E became calm, her steady heartbeat a complete contrast to Hannah’s erratic one What have you done, Louise?
She buried her head against the baby’s soft hair, and the tears that had been threatening finally triu that she’d been abandoned She knew the depth of that pain Hannah knew that kind of pain could never be erased
Chapter One
“Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas…”
Hannah pounded the voluer bent backward painfully She rubbed her throbbing finger, glaring at the now black display It was so not going to be a Merry Christhly in favor of miserable
She had lied to her boss, co-workers, and broken some of the cardinal rules in child protective services to be here While other people were decorating their ho holiday parties, she was sitting in a cold car, spying on ainfant in the backseat
But she’d finally tracked hi weeks, she’d found baby Emily’s uncle Now all she had to do was knock on his door and introduce him to Emily
Oh, and then convince him to adopt her
Right Great plan, Hannah
If she had any sense of self-preservation she’d throw her car into reverse and hightail it out of Northern Ontario She would brave the night a man who had turned his back on his fa and adopt his niece But she knew she couldn’t do that Hannah turned in her seat to check on E contentedly in her car seat
Hannah glanced back at the rustic log cabin in front of her She had everything rehearsed She would approach the situation with compassion and honesty She could do this She had to do this Hannah bit her lower lip as she peered through the peephole she’d created in her windshield Her half-full cup of Starbucks holiday blend, long since abandoned, sat in the cup holder beside an empty baby bottle
She ducked as she spotted movement in the house Luckily, she was almost sure that the man hadn’t noticed her silver Jetta buried in the snowdrift in the driveway As soon as she had exited the highway and pulled out onto the back roads she’d felt like asnowman on wheels When she finally found the cabin, located in nowheres-ville, she had drifted down the unplowed drive, saying a silent prayer she wouldn’t hit the parked Range Rover
Gurgling froo in before Eine one last tih before she had to leave the car
She slipped her lucky red wool knitted hat with its oversized po—she’d need all the luck she could get She had a good tencold, but she added a few more layers of blankets onto the baby, as already bundled in a bunting bag, hat, and er seat, her hands blindly seeking out her purse and mittens, while her eyes stayed riveted on the cabin She tucked the vintage Santa tin filled with hoar cookies under her arm No one could resist her Christmas cookies
She hoped Louise’s brother, once Christopher James, now Jackson Pierce, was the type of e had added a few extra days to her search, but thanks to her friends at the police departenuity, she’d found him at this cabin There was no trace of Christopher James when child services had looked for him, but Hannah knew the details of his past, and knew thisto do with Louise’s baby She’d been pretty shocked by his identity He was the founder and CEO of one of North Aest computer software companies
Hannah opened the door and the hipped snow onto her face as she struggled to get out quickly before the cold air infiltrated the car She stepped into at least three feet of snow and fought the urge to yelp out loud as it made contact with her feet So much for waterproof boots Careful not to fall and drop the cookies, she walked as fast as she could, her feet feeling like lead as she reached the front porch She glanced around the house and confirmed what she’d suspected from the inside of her car—there was no Christ remotely Christmas-y at all